relative merits

[wangsizhong]

boy_analog:

i appreciate your advice on the xingyi, but i’m gonna stick with the taiji because i have the material at hand. i would be interested in bagua zhang because i’m more into the circular stuff than the straight line stuff. of course i’m speaking from instinct, not real knowledge of either system. because i travel around so much, i prefer to start something that i can continue wherever i go, and taiji SEEMS to be more universal than the other IMA.

so my decision right now (if you’re interested) is to start with the 24 posture, maybe move to 48 if i manage to finish the 24.
i’m also still trying to see what my friend’s student is practicing to get some advice/training from him.
i would love to find a good teacher, but i’m dealing with scarcity and language barriers all the way around. i’ll have to wait till i’m back in the west and see if i can get someone to fix any problems/mistakes/bad habits i develop in my self-training over here.

it might not be the best path but its all i’ve got right now.
feel free to discuss whatever topics this thread has generated, but for now i’m gonna just back off this thread and start practicing.

thanks to all for your opinions, suggestions, criticisms, ideas, and whatever else.

-wang si zhong

[RAF]

I just remembered, many years ago I bought Liang Shou Yu’s tape on the 24 movement. Sam Masich is also on the tape. The applications are on the tape and he also has a book which shows proper stances, simple qi-gong exercise, proper alignment of the stances.

That probably wouldn’t be a bad place to start. There might even be more books or tapes available by Liang Shou Yu. I never met him but he seems very decent and I think he plays well.

[guohuen]

Bamboo Leaf. Agreed. Just reread your post. I had missed your point. Got it now.