Attention IMA people

[Gerard]

I am having a very interesting discussion with He Jinghan, basically following his advice due to my past Western style exercise conditioning (cycling and weightlifting) for many years, which has basically crippled my body IMA-wise: super tight hip, no kwa (inguinal crease) force and no dang (inner arch of the thighs, yin) strength which are vital components not only for IMA but also, Qigong and even seated meditation. This is going to take me some time to fix as all these areas need to be very open due to the numerous meridians flowing in the area: spleen, kidney and liver (yin); stomach, bladder and gallbladder (yang).

 

I like He Jinghan's approach to the art of Bagua (and IMA in general since all the jibengong exercises he has put up on YT apply to all regardless of style) because his biomechanical and energetic knowledge is deep, absolutely nothing gets missed. He also follows Gong Baotian's (his teacher) approach which is Bagua by prescription: not throwing the practitioner into the deep end of the pool and there you go, follow the rest of the flock regardless of your individual characteristics, not everyone's internal organs are in the exact shape, we are all different due to our karmic conditioning.

 

Anyway, here's the thread:

 

http://www.emptyflower.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=8854&st=0

 

As always, good luck in your practice.

 

Edited November 27, 2011 by Gerard

[mjjbecker]

I'm not a member of the other forum, and given time constraints I will instead post some information here. Feel free to relay it to the discussion over there if you want.

 

You mentioned you do Liang style. You might find these DVD's interesting. I don't practice bagua but I have some of these DVDs. Lots of exercises and drills to work on, and the teacher clearly has considerable skill. What is clear though is that Liang style certainly does have plenty of jibengong exercises, going from the information on these DVD's. There are basic jibengong and there are pile stance training methods. From the basic to the more advanced.

 

http://www.plumpub.com/sales/dvd/dvdcoll_bagualiang.htm

 

There is in fact a connection between the Liang style and Yin style. Li Ziming 'exchanged skills'* with Li Shao'an, a disciple of Ma Gui-Ma Gui being a student of both Yin Fu and Dong Haichuan. So, there are drills and exercises, as well as palm training, that resembles Yin style, as taught by Ma Gui, that are also practiced in Liang style.

 

Another good source of training, which has been mentioned here before, are the Chu neigong exercises:

 

http://www.ckchutaichi.com/

 

The exercises would help with the issues you discuss on the other thread-correct leg conditioning. There are some videos on Youtube, but the book would be worth getting for the detailed instructions within. I would think the DVD offered by Master Chu would be much better than the Youtube videos.

 

I hope this is of some use.

 

*http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/bagua/machuanxu.html

 

LI ZIMING

 

native of Ji County in Hebei Province; in 1921 started to study Baguazhang from Liang Zhenpu and became his disciple; also learnt from Shang Yunxiang, Zhang Zhankui and Ju Qingyuan; often exchanged skills with Guo Gumin, Li Shao'an and Zeng Xingsan;