IMA London

Hi

I'm looking for internal martial art tuition in the London area (i'm in south london but am willing to travel). I have practiced some taiji and xingyi in the past but not past any beginner material.

Would ideally like to carry on xingyi but really just want a good teacher and some people to practice with and learn from.

Any and all help is much appreciated

 

Hey Reizhong,

Feel free to come check out our I Liq Chuan study group, we meet every Thursday at 19:30 for 2 hours (usually around Finsbury Park these days, though we may move elsewhere as the group is growing and we’re running out of space), usually spend 1 hour going over basic exercises (depending how many new people around), 1 hour partner training, sometimes it’s just 2 hours of partner stuff.

If you really are interested in this, Master Chin (Head of I Liq Chuan), will have a London seminar in early March, this will serve you well in terms of motivation and inspiration to train. I highly recommend you check it out if you want to pursue I Liq Chuan. Check out this link I posted earlier:

http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98744

Other than this, you can also check out Paul Whitrod up in Stratford, he is very good, though not met him myself, but have trained with some of his students.

www.paulwhitrod.com

Chris Chapell’s Hun Yuan and other stuff is pretty good, I trained there for a year or so and would recommend them:

http://www.realtaoism.com/

Also, Master Lam Kam Chuen, is down in Lambeth, but to be honest I do not fancy his stuff that much:

http://www.lamassociation.org/

There is a Bagua Group near Camden called PalmChange, not trained with them, but I hear they are ok:

http://www.palmchange.com/

There are more groups around London, but I have not had direct or indirect contact with them. Plus, probably some stuff I forgot too.

I’m sure Cloudz can and will recommend some good stuff when he comes across this thread.

 

Thanks for the reply and the info, I might have to come along to that seminar sounds interesting!

 

No worries man, if you need any more info, feel free to get in touch.

 

I was recently informed about this guy who's came recomended from an old aquantance who trains in the Xingyi there. His name is Fei Bing and his classes are in Croydon, South London. Info here: www.ikfra.org

I'd also second Paul Whitrod for Xingyi, and for TCC there is Dan Docherty who has classes in Covent Garden.

Shikon are in Kent, Steve Rowe instructs in Yang Family TCC. There's also Gary Wraggs Wu Academy in Bethnal Green.

If you want to travel a bit further out, Alex Koxma has started teaching Xingyi again in Cambridge
http://cambridgexingyiquan.blogspot.com/2011/01/cambridge-xingyiquan.html

 

Cheers Cloudz

Much appreciated, I am planning on seeing Paul Whitrod this evening for a xingyi class.

I've heard good things about Alex Kozma as well, so it might well be worth a little drive at some point.

 

Sounds good Reizhong, please give us your impressions from Paul Whitrod's class, it will be interesting to see what you thought of it.

 

Had a good training session on Monday with Paul Whitrod, different to the xingyi I had done before, which took a bit of getting used to.

As expected a good martial emphasis but it was expensive for one hours tuition, so not entirely sure I could afford to train to often with him, even if my shift patterns allowed it.

Will probably give it another go and try a few other places out as well to see what fits best.

 

Thanks for the update Reizhong! Let us know if you check some other place out, nice to keep a track of whats going on in the IMA world.

 

I have got the chance to train with Alex Kozma on a regular basis and was unsure untill I read this thread. I think it is well worth the investment.

 

Hey Ogriv! Alex is a great teacher and a chance to train with him can be quite rare, I'd definitely go for it if I were you!

 

Although its a one off my teacher is coming in oct/nov for a week. Although we all say our teachers are wonderful it is always better to have a feel for yourself. This is the only footage i have at present but we are getting a website done have a look stay in touch if you are interested

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zGawp_8-wc"]YouTube - ‪Ba Gua Zhang‬‏[/ame]

 

Oh Incidentally I trained with Alec Kozma about 10 years ago, he is very impressive and I much prefer his style to Paul Whitrods. I have also met a few of Pauls students and they had no base from what i could see and i was surprised to see that. I think the problem is that as he is a great master in his own right, it doesnt always make a good teacher. I would go to Alex any time over paul. Just to make this clear Paul is the real deal

 

I mainly train with Steve Rowe's senior Student in Elephant & castle, I can recommend him for karate and tai chi. Paul Whitrod fixed my arm, I can't comment on his martial arts but is medicine is good, very good.

The place for tai chi in London has to be Jim Uglow though, he should be your first point of call when it comes to that, he also is very very good at Hung gar.

 

There is Yin Style Bagua in London - somewhere near Regent's Park I think, which I would check out along with Chris Chappell's RealTaoism site mentioned by Inthespirit.

 

Yep, It's also free!!

http://www.taichilife.com/regents.htm

 

I'd recommend the people over at palm change in Camden. I've never personally met them, but ive heard good things and their stuff comes from Luo De Xiu and I believe their classes are set up where you train form, technique, partner training and non-cooperative sparring (a combination quite hard to find in the IMA world).