XingYi article in the new JAMA issue

[Abstract]

Xingyi players - anyone read it? what'd you think? was the explanation precise enough for the laymen to understand the basic concepts of the art? the comparison to American Boxing was interesting...

just curious to know the experienced practicioner's point of view.

tank ya!

[respectred]

is it on the jama site? i didn't see it under the 10/2 issue..

[Muppet]

I'm hardly an expert (only 5 months of hsing i) but imho, the article was so-so.

Unless I'm missing something, there were some gross errors (e.g., calling standing meditation "pi chuan") and the pictures and descriptions of the five elements were too sparse to glean useful information on the mechanics or transitions from one snapshot of the form to the next.

The pictures of the 5-elements linked fist were okay though. If not anything else, the pictures demonstrate clearly that hsing i is pretty much no nonsense, though there still seems to be more than a fair share of hsing i fakers out there.

Also, I didn't catch the description, but given the wide san ti stance, I'm guessing it's hebei style?

[Felipe Bido]

The width of the stance depends mainly on the practicioner. For example, Sun Lutang was a Hebei Xingyi guy, but his stances were far from wide, while Jiang Ronqiao used to have wide stances as well as long extensions of the fists. Zhang Zhaodong used to have wide stances too.

And Song style (Shanxi) has very close stances, while Bu style has wide ones, and high kicking techniques.

It seems that the man in the article parcticed with Hong Yixiang, which was a Hebei practicioner.

[Mojo]

Muppet

It has been my experience that many practitioners of Hebei Hsing-I from Taiwan use the term pi-chen to describe what you would call the san-ti posture.
Hsu Hong-chi also used the term pi-chen for this.
I don't think it is a gross error at all. What is important is how he moves and fights, not what terms he uses.

[cagey_vet]

pi chuan is not only referred to by its recognizable stance, but
by its attitude/direction/intention when used in striking.