Hsing-i. Convince me!

I want to study an internal martial art.

I am deeply unhappy with TKD(but will stick it out to 1st dan, I DONT QUIT!!) and am looking for something...'better' in the loosest sense, more something that fits me and IMA's seem far more likely to do this than more external styles.

I've done some looking(yeah a quick google search...) and have come up pretty blank on Hsing-i itself, just references to it and something similar Xing-Yi, are they the same?

essentially I want you to convince me in any way you can to study Hsing-i.

tell me about its theory, why it fights the way it does, how is it internal, how does it benefit health, history, development and the modern scene(preferable in England) and if possible any videos and cips showcasing it, either in application or in forms.

thanks a lot!

 

Yes, Xing yi and Hsing i are the same thing. Xing yi is just the more modern Pinyin way of writing it.

http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39303

A lot of this thread should answer most of your questions

Peace

 

Warning: If you start another style like hsing yi, and you really like it, you may not make it to your 1st degree. Its what I thought when I started my kung fu class, but it didn't work out that way.

 

Why? Is quitting after your first dan any less quitting than quitting before? If you're "deeply unhappy" why waste your time?

Regardless, I study xingyi (hsing I) and I love it. I think it's great system.

There's WAY too much to broach here, but let's just say that xingyi emphasizes hitting hard and repeatadly. I think most xingyi cats would agree with that. Why does it fight that way? Um... because punching people is a good way to win fights. IMHO.

Seriously, though xingyi's really cool. I've got ten years of hapkido on top of my little xingyi training, and I love it. I love the attitude, I love the tactics, I love how simple or how deep it can be.

http://www.emptyflower.com/xingyiquan is a good site for xingyi info.

 

There's no way to know whether it'll fit you unless you go check out a class. I certainly enjoyed studying Hsing I. It's quite different than TKD and you'll never have to worry about throwing high kicks when you get too old to do them because Hsing I doesn't have any.

 

Now you'll officially kill me in sparring. You didn't say the 10 years of Hapkido experience. And my Chin Na is something like negative basics.

 

You know, good martial arts schools are few and far between. It's all about going to the best(and by best I mean having the most people in it who could kick your ****, with realistic sparring etc.) regardless of style.

I felt like you did once, I read B.K. Francis book on martial arts (it makes me feel dirty to admit that) and wandered about looking for a good school on bagua to see what it was all about.

I happened over a club that's produced SanShou national champions, thinking it was just a regular tai chi club and I've never looked back.

 

Oh now, a little hapkido doesn't hurt. Well, OK, yes it does. That's alright though because my xingyi is so far from good.


Edit: Oh and Jekyll has good advice. Though I should say there's something to be said for having a style fit your personality.

 

Does B.K. Francis have a bad reputation or something? I borrowed a book of his on internal arts from a friend and it all seemed pretty good.

 

I enjoyed B.K. Frantzis's book comparing hsing-i, tai chi, and bagua. He's got a good section (page 88?) comparing the fighting philosophies and personality temperments of each style.

I think hsing-i has more of a "never say die" attitude. Your statement "I DON'T QUIT!" seemed rather in line with this, so you may like it a lot. I'm a tai chi gal and had a chance to push with a hsing-i guy once. He was very strong, internally, and his pushes were hard and fast in quick succession. There was a sense of forward-forward-forward in every pass of the single arm horizontal circling we were doing (very basic push hands drill). Every retreat seemed like just a necessary and irrelevant break before going forward again for the next opportunity to strike. Just my opinion--I have no idea what it actually was for him.

From a tai chi perspective on the circling, I would try and stick to my practice partner no matter what he does, and use the retreat to transform and borrow my opponent's strength. I would yield (while maintaining structural integrity and internal strength) then turn/transform his own strength by listening to it and gauging the trajectory to borrow it to use against him. Tai chi a martial art about balancing between yin and yang, finding and keeping to your center, yielding and returning, ebb and flow. Give your opponent exactly what they want--only in an unexpected and disadvantageous (for them) kind of way. Tai chi can be just as hard core as the other internal martial arts, but its practitioners (generally) don't go looking for fights and tend to avoid them when possible. One of the main sayings is "Strike second, arrive first."

I don't know jack about bagua.

Of course finding a good teacher is the most important thing.

Good luck,
Kal

 

Sounds like xingyi to me.

 

I'm going to have to agree with zac_duncan on this one. 1st dan is an accomplishment but it's not an ending to anything, nor is 9th dan.

I don't know what rank you are now, but the color of your belt in the grand scheme of things really doesn't matter. It's what you know and how you apply it.

All arts are effective in their own way. Finding one that suits you is important, and just as important is finding the right instructor that knows how to teach that style.

Sorry don't know much about Hsing I, but the original post just kind of jumped out at me.

 

Yeh, he tells a lot of stories but completely fails to say anything constructive about the martial arts. Based on what he writes in his books I have no idea if he has any martial arts ability at all.

Although, I heard from someone, who heard from someone, that he's quite good at pushing hands.

 

I've heard good things about Mr. Frantzis before. Amongst the crowd I chat with he's well respected. But that's the same as hearing from someone who heard from someone that he's good at push hands.

Jekyll, I really dig your signature line.

 

Thank you, so do I.

 

the point is that I'll give it time to drow on me, by the time I reach a 1st Dan I should have experienced pretty much most of the art and given it a fair chance to impress me and teach me.

I am lucky in that I have found one of the few TKD schools that isnt a McDojo and it seems a bit silly to give up on it now that I am half way to a 1st dan, I will vouch for its efficacy, once you get over the big flashy kicks and stay grounded an sensible it works for me as my successes in strett engagements since starting tells me, but I dont like the whole ethos and concentration on flying kicks and head kicks.

Hsing-i and other internal styles feel far more...'right' to me, when I watch those martial arts clips and vids I much prefer the ones where the person shows skill and control in doing a movement slowly and preciscely to those ones where the person just flips and spins. Furthermore external styles like TKD don't seem to be much good in the long term once your health deteriorates.

I got into martial arts because of Internal styles but I found a TKD school first and so stuck with that.

I must say that after researching this a bit more I am coming to get jealous of you people who already study it!

 

Most hsing-i isn't done slow. It's done at regular speed just like "external" styles. I guess my point is that if you haven't met a hsing-i player and you haven't actually seen the style outside of how people describe it, you might be wrong about whether or not it's for you.

That may or may not be true, I've met some fairly old TKD players in great shape. I think any exercise is good, maybe some are better than others. Also, my hsing-i great grandteacher died at barely older than 50. It's not a guarantee that "internal" martials arts are going to give you good health. All arts require hard work and that can have both possitive and negative effects on your long term health.

I've gotta say though, I study xingyi and I love it. However, I would rather learn TKD at a good school than xingyi at a bad one. I'm lucky, I've got a great teacher. There are, by all accounts, a lot of not so good ones. So don't be jealous, if you're sticking with your TKD for now, stick with it. Dig into it and get to know it.


Also, interesting note, first time I sparred non-xingyi people after a bit of xingyi, the guy I had the hardest time with was a KMA player (Kuk Sool Won). He used those Korean style kicks and I had a damned hard time closing the gap. I cover ground better now, but at that point, I had to revert to hapkido kicking just so I could hit him at the range he was dictating.

 

Yes, same thing, same pronunciation, different spelling. (Hsing-I) As far as I know, anyway.

 

I know.

I was responding to this:

The forward, forward, forward is very much a xingyi (hsing-I) mindset. That's all.

 

Ah, got it now. Makes sense, that's certainly what it felt like. The man was like a bulldozer, only backing up to get a better angle of attack.