Palmer you have good advice here.

I gotta say, what I thought Xingyi was, and was it really is, were VERY different at first. And this is exactly why a good teacher is needed.

If your alignments are off, then nothing really works right. No power will be there. The standing takes a while. It just takes time to build strength in the stances until you can really start to relax, and work on feeling things. If the standing san ti is not 100% comfortable and stable, then how is one to take a step and end it in a good position?

Once the stance is strong, stable, balanced, and aligned, then the movements Buddy described a while back in his great threads begin to show one how to MOVE in an internal fashion, and a powerful fashion I might add. The arms can be added or...as in my case, the stepping was added first, before the arms. And when this is beginning to work, the INTENTION will be added. This will add a dimension that is awesome, but once again, requires retraining the mind and body.

It took months to learn how to step correctly. Sounds pretty corny huh? I was frustrated with this, but in my case, I had trust in the instructors and I am pretty stubborn as well. Until I could actually do what they did, then I would try it, and then pass judgement. When they stepped, it looked so darned simple, I mean simple, but then when I did it, why did my body not move they way theirs did? More work...

What I am saying is after a year, only then did I realize how much power and foundation you can have with ONE single step of your body. One heck of a foundation to put the elements on top of. After a year, we started Pi Chuan. Slow yes, effective, YES.

It is not all this slow, but at FIRST it can be. What good are a pair of track spikes to a 6 month old infant? Not to call anyone an infant per se, but internals have a longer foundation and learning curve to work through. Not that they are even better or anything, but if one wants to do them the way they are designed, then you gotta go through the work.

Rant over.