The following forms the second part of my translation of a long interview with Cui Ruibin (taken from here ). “A: Just now, you said that there was quite a difference between the teachings of M Yao Read more…
One of the pleasures if doing IMA is meeting other fellow enthusiasts who often have travelled hundreds or thousands of miles to study the arts at their source. On my previous visits to Tiantan I Read more…
During my trip to Beijing over the Chinese National Holiday, I made several visits to Tiantan park, which is one of the hotspots of CMA activity in Beijing. In addition to the taijiquan groups which Read more…
Readers who have been following the internal martial arts (IMA) for a while and in particular xingyi enthusiasts will have heard of the book Xingyi Neigong by Tim Cartmell and Dan Miller (originally published way Read more…
Just came back from training for a week with Wang Senlin of Shanghai, who I have mentioned in this blog before. Like most Chinese kungfu teachers, Master Wang teaches and practices in a park near Read more…
In traditional CMA, there is a saying “the teacher observes the student for 3 years, the student also observes the teacher for 3 years” (shifu kaocha tudi san nian, tudi kaocha shifu san nian). Obviously, Read more…
Just thought I would write a note on my impressions coming to the end of my first year in China (3rd year overall). Of course, all opinions are based on my experiences in one city Read more…
Through a friend, I was recently introduced to Sam Chin’s I Liq Chuan. First impressions are that it has all the hallmarks of an internal art – namely the emphasis on power through relaxation, the Read more…
A happy coincidence led to this note. A few weeks back, when chatting after class with my xingyi teacher, he mentioned that if one wanted to fight with xingyi, reaction drills were very important. I Read more…
I recently had an encounter with a teacher here in Shanghai which made me change the way I think about the IMA concepts of relaxation (song), sinking (chen) and peng jing (expanding force) – how Read more…