GreytoWhite

I grew up in Stockton, CA which is violent, stratified, and gun ridden - Chandler ain't that.

I used to live in Chandler and this is really no surprise. http://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/cell-phone-video-chandler-officer-illegally-enters-womans-home-arrests-her-while-she-is-naked

Try contacting this guy. https://www.youtube.com/user/KuwaitKungFu/about

I couldn't have said it much better Spotless and I was one of those students for a long time. Confused, ignorant of how insignificant my practice milestones were, not maintaining the vertical axis, and breathing into my solar plexus more than lower dantian. So easy to get off track without someone with more experience to remind one to quit screwing about and actually work.

I practice Kenny Gong's line of xingyi and bagua but have also done Chen taiji. Without feeling my current sifu's ribs I'd never understand what he meant by "opening and closing the ribs like a pair of scissors." Without feeling sihing's lower back the other day I'd never understand exactly what I was trying to achieve with "belt breathing" or breathing into my kidneys. Without touching my taiji teacher's belly I'd never understand dantian rotation. I think someone could get an idea as to some of these practices but replicate them without feeling, no. Especially when it comes to embodying martial neigong it is really easy to misinterpret texts and video instructions. I record practice through writing and find it helps me understand what I'm trying to achieve. I don't know about video yet but I think it would help with external alignments self-correction. When I teach I try to show people: 1) How to properly sit into the stance. 2) Multiple directions of lower dantian rotation and how to alternate opening the kuas. 3) Ribs expanding and contracting not only up and down out to the sides but also how to properly contract the sternum backward, not try to push down like a crunch.

I'm awaiting others in the chat should anyone be interested.

Here is my practice journal for our xingyi. http://thedaobums.com/topic/38785-kenny-gongs-xingyibagua-practice-notebook/

Look up the thread called "Living Proof Qigong Works" or something like that.

I'm watching this currently and it really makes me sad. These girls are so young and still have pimples. Here they are having sex on camera with little thought to the repercussions for their future. They're getting out of their hometowns for the first time and exposed to larger cities. They are being taken advantage of and thinking they are on top. An 18 year old making $800-900 per shoot, access to drugs, and utter ignorance about how reproduction works. I just heard a girl say that she isn't on birth control but doesn't have to worry because the guys don't cum inside her... I think this is probably the first thing that's really made me think about not watching porn again.

Aye the slapping is good and also gets one used to being hit. Sihing hit me with a burning palm a little while back and it really helped my shoulder out.

Not my thing but I do find myself really attracted to the female to male trans people I know.

Grounding is trying to return energy to the yin centers- simple as that. Being more yang is kinda counterproductive but sex and eating meat are definitely more yang than other things mentioned. If you want a moving exercise or something I recommend a lot of kicks.

Yes balancing the cannabis with other stuff is pretty important. Treat the liver well with lots of veggies, boost your kidneys with maca, make sure to have plenty of good fats in your diet for your nerves, stay hydrated. Dark chocolate for the lungs. Just remember it sends energy UP so you have to bring it down whilst in the midst of its effects.

Earlier in the afternoon I was helping a friend get into the groove of practicing some jibengong so he can get into the xingyi and bagua I've been practicing and promoting here in town. He has a pronounced lordosis of the spine and duck walks. I'm trying to get him to sit into his pelvis and keep his feet straight. We're at the park and at the end of the standing lessons and some lines of metal and wood element we go to a nice tree in a circular patch of grass to work on some circle walking. This sunburnt jackass carrying a yoga mat and a tub of potato salad comes up asking if we were doing"PAW kooah." I just said, "Yes" and went on showing my friend some circle walking. We get a couple of circles around the tree and the new arrival gets up to show me a horrible example of single palm change that he "learned from some guy in DC Chinatown." He then says, "Ty cheeee, xingyi, and PAW Kooah are no good for self defense" and demonstrates a very simplistic five step karate kata I first saw in elementary school. I told him this karate form was, "...somewhat antithetical to what we were doing" and he then sits back a few feet away and "allows" us to continue. Then he interrupts again and says, "Here is a self defense lesson - just get on a line with me." He does one move that's a step back, a combo uppercut and maybe a throw - pretty wide open and useless. Then it's a forward punch with a hip chamber on the other end, a back fist and some other couple of moves. He goes through and explains the application of each move and I'm laughing inside. After two tries seeing him do the first move I could replicate it easily. I then asked, "Why would I ever do that in the first place? Never do that, it's wide open. What would you do were I to..." then I put my right toe softly into his solar plexus without any force behind it. After just leaving it there a good full second (I counted one one thousand in my head) of my toe at the top of his belly he panics, "blocks" downward with the backs of both forearms and fists clenched. I softly said, "Good" and then stepped into his space, off balanced him and chose not to add a punch. He stumbled back a bit and shouted, "Lesson's over!" An orange belt's kata, "some aikidio and ty cheee," and a weekend learning bagua in the park in DC - I keep encountering delusional guys who either got really lucky in the past or have never fought. I've gotten my ass beaten enough to know what a true fighter's movement looks like. One guy is about my age and he claims he got to orange belt and then read a book to "become a master." I almost expect it from the eighteen year old kids but someone my age, and a forty year old man? Christ's cracker, get me some cheese and sacramental wine! Thankfully my friend bought me some brews after practice.

LMAO!

I'd rather see their neigong. Many of these systems look internal/external from the forms but their neigong is on point.

Remove expectation - each person is different. If you're doing it properly it can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months.

1. Yes, it matters. Sitting will cut off some major meridians in the legs and depends on how you sit. Movement will make things flow in specific pathways. 2. At first just try, don't expect much in the initial stages and eventually you'll be able to feel and communicate with them. Patience is important. I think of it kinda like knocking on the door of someone who is sleeping, they'll eventually get up and answer. 3. I'd recommend you leave Reverse Breathing alone at first. Once you can breathe into your pelvic basin well and have "balanced" your core then Reverse Breathing is effective without causing further imbalances.

Anyone up for chat? I'll keep the window open for a while.

Yeah it's crazy sometimes how this world of martial arts gets. Attracts all kinds and usually not fighters. I didn't choose to be in most of the fights in my childhood around the neighborhood or schoolyard that was just Stockton. Also being beaten by someone much larger (my kempo black belt mother, her various boyfriends, babysitters, and my stepdad) on a regular basis really changes how one responds to being hit and sticks with ya. That's one of the reasons why I train internals - I already know how to fight and I want to do so powerfully without having to be on the weight machines constantly. I told sifu about this today and he laughed and just said, "One of those guys."

Aye, it's not a fast track as I can also attest. Although sometimes tools like psychedelics can open certain things... often prematurely.

Some things just have to be felt and a teacher is required. Some things you can do on your own. Qigong you may be able to learn through diligent study and practice. Martial neigong - not so much, someone has to give you instruction to "get it."

Yeah that patty cake crap a lot of the wing chun guys play gets me heated as does a lot of the taiji tuishou where no one really does anything except hop a little. The worst was the aikido I trained as a kid, I had no one in my class who weighed as much or really fought as regularly so the other kids got upset when I wasn't a "good" uke and refused to throw myself. It's martial arts - I expect to be thrown, made extremely uncomfortable, kicked, and occasionally struck in the face ya know? Otherwise, where is the martial? I don't dance.

Great stuff Nungali. Yeah I get a little peeved when people think because I'm short that I can't fight or that I'll just be scared of someone bigger. My first taiji and kung fu teacher was less than 1.5m, I'm only 1.7m tall - the average joe here in AZ is about 1.8m or taller and thinks he's tough because of size and 'Merica fuck yeah! It's fun to show those guys what it's like to be a real scrapper. About six months ago I was hanging out with my brother from another mother that I've known since high school. I'd had some amphetamines as he ran out of coffee and his girlfriend is ADD huzzah prescription speed! Then I topped it off with some rum to make the night interesting and stumbled over to the neighbor's house who was having a party. Smoked a bowl of reefer with one fellow and started chatting. I looked down on the ground and this girl was giving another girl a massage and I was thinking, I'm in the right kinda place. Massager then got up and punched three of the dudes there right in the gut, knocked the wind out of 'em and they all got to bitching and moaning. As I was the new guy and she decided I deserved extra special attention and punched me right in the lower dantian. I yielded and decided not to cotton body her hand into brokenness. I was still standing there intoxicated to the gills just happy as can be and she tried again. Again I chose to be merciful and not fuck her hand up. At this point I was getting rather turned on. The other three guys all turned and looked at me. She then sunk a fist all the way to my iliac crest through my abdomen at some weird angle and that one stung but wasn't too bad. She decided that I was a different level than she was used to and gave up - she was really unused to someone just laughing off her strikes. One of the gents came over and said, "I was in wrestling and boxing in high school and college - what the fuck do you do?" They didn't believe me when I said, "Mainly taiji." LMAO! I am rather liking the changes happening to my body from the xingyi and bagua training. I've gotten a much better idea of how to use the middle dantian and clavicular cradle "kua" now and hope to be able to use it sometime in the near future. Sifu has me working on a buncha stuff that's quite transformative but very painful at times thanks to how fucked up my spine is. I'm sure I'll have a full on scrap here any moment - it's been brewing up around me lately and I've been rather lucky to avoid most of it so far with measured responses and staying out of my friends' idiocy.

Well the forward momentum in xingyi definitely has some good uses.