Ying Yi an amazing Internal Martial art
Loosely translated as, "mind of Motion", or, "Form and Intent", this is a direct, forceful style which relies on the great Internal Power its practitioners posses only after years of serious training. This power is developed via practice of its standing posture, called "Santi stance", "Steak Standing technique" its Chi Kung Work, different forms of meditation, and it's forms are used a meditation also, called moving meditation. There are many methods of meditation, you can lie down and meditate, sit and meditate, and meditate while doing forms of movement. There is a sister art of Ying yi, called, "Sum Yi" which means, "Heart Method", or "Heart Way", the other is, "Mind of Movement", or "Ying Yee", Hsing i", xingiquan, many different types of spelling and Chinese dialects. You see in Chinese they have hundreds of Dialects that they speak from region to region, even village to village. However they all understand the same written word in Chinese. I find that so amazing. The Santi stance is a stance that helps you, "Stake" with weight on back leg".
The basis of Ying Yee is translated as Five Element Boxing. It contains five techniques or fists (quan), or, (Kwan), each of which is associated with one of the Elements:
Make sure to study this as much as you can, it will open many doors for you in your training and your understanding of Ying Yi.
One more time, make sure to study all three of these Cycles.
Sifu Dee
Much more to come
Each practitioner should strive to understand and express through his or her movements the quality of each of the Elements, later on in his or her training it is the animals, again the idea is to copy things in nature perfectly, to become what ever it is you are copying. It is often the case that the qualities of the ‘Elements’ change as the students develop and deepen their understanding.
What a student knows after five years makes them think they know it all, after ten years, they see just how much they do not know. After twenty years, they start to see that they will be students there whole lives, always learning, always finding new methods taught to them by their masters and grand masters. But not understood until years later.
There are various drills and two man sparring sets which are used to give students the initial ‘feel’ for how to apply each technique, how to transform one technique into another and how to counter one technique with another. With these types of drills, push hands in one of the most important, until two students can push hands blind folded and moving free style. Free style push hands can only come with years of training push hands with a good partner or your teacher. After you learn good push hand qualities, is when you start to learn how to move free style push hands, and only after a few more years can two students start to push hands blind folded free style.
At a more advanced stage, there is the Twelve Animals system which combines the Five Elements into a richer appreciation of the moves and mental attitudes. Different schools of Ying Yee have slight variations in the selection of the animals and advanced training. However this is because Ying Yee is around one thousand years of age, it was taught to officers in the Chinese military by a famous General. He taught his foot soldiers Eagle Claw which is an amazing system by itself. We study the following styles, Sum Yee, "Heart Method", Ying Yee, "Mind Method", Luk Hup Bah Fah, "Six Harmonies and Eight Methods", Our animal styles are the, "Snake, Bear, Eagle, Mantis, Stone Monkey, Wood Monkey, Drunken Monkey, Dragon, Crane, Tiger, Elephant, Horse".
The Five Elements do not represent real elements but rather act as symbols for certain intrinsic worth, each animal style consists of moves which try to capture the essential spirit of the animal, and when I say that, you have to become the animal, not just mimic it, you have to make the facial expressions of the animal, you have to make the sounds of the animal, you have to become the animal. Our System of Ying Yee we use for the foundation of our Luk Hup Bah Fah, plus only the top instructors of the schools are allowed to learn the Luk Hup Bah Fah. GM Chow taught Sifu Fiedler to watch out for people passing off Luk Hup Bah Fah as a type of Tai Chi, this is not even close. What GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler to watch look out for is people saying that Luk Hup Bah Fah is one form, again nonsense, these are people who have never been taught true Luk Hup. It is usually from the same schools that teach Tai Chi for health, or so they say. Why would anyone throw out ninety percent of their tai chi, GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler, it was because their own teachers did not know the applications to the forms, so they made up a story as not to show their ignorance or lack of knowledge. And this brings me to another point, in tai chi you have many forms, not one, many. Both Luk Hup Bah Fah and Tai Chi Chuan, are complete martial arts, they have grappling, throwing, nerve strikes, Chi Kung Work, all Types of Meditation, Iron Vest Training, Weapons training, Herbal medicine training, Forms, Two man Techniques, Self defence techniques that are very rare, cavity strikes, learning how to hit the solar plexus, for instance using the spear hand to screw into the solar plexus, using your spear hand to go deep into the arm pit, using your knife hand to hit the juggler vein, your heel to hit the inner leg ripping an artery, These are all called Cavity Strikes, they are places in the body that have little protection from a special type of strike. Most of the grappling is with Eagle Claw techniques using the Eagle Claw hand to grab nerves in the arm, and collar bone at the same time. Or to grab the forearm nerves with an Eagle Claw, putting pressure on two nerves at same time, and with the other hand grabbing the wrist again putting pressure on two different nerves at the same time with finger tips, this type of grappling can leave your opponents arm useless to fight for some time. There are areas all over the body where one can use special techniques attacking the nerves of your opponent. Each of the Internal Arts has hand formations that can attack nerves.
I remember years ago, Sifu Fiedler had the only web site showing that we taught Luk Hup Bah Fah, today in 2009, you can find it almost everywhere, now every one says that they teach it. When Sifu Fiedler started to learn from GM Chow in 1974, he never found the words Luk Hup Bah Fah in the English language for twenty years. After he seen the first one, which truly sounded like a legitimate Luk Hup, then he seen a second one and again it sounded to be a true martial art of Luk Hup. However the third one was exactly what GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler to watch out for, and many many after that day were exactly the same, "Pretend Luk Hup Bah Fah". There are some that know of it's secrecy, they have heard how hard it is to be able to learn Luk Hup, at the same time they know that one has to be a master of another Internal art to first of all learn Luk Hup Bah Fah, and after all that, if and only if the Grand Master excepts you as a student, can you start to learn. They think that if they advertise that they teach it, it will make them look good. Or at the very least make them look like something they are not.
From the beginning it is totally amazing, to learn for as long as Sifu Fiedler was taught and he never seen it coming, not once did he see GM Chow doing the motions he was going to learn once he was ready. When that day came, Sifu Fiedler could not believe it for one moment. And this only because of how unique the motion was, and the way that these new animal forms flowed. These new forms of motion twisted and untwisted causing great power, how it taught you to use your body to create power, not a limb by itself, how to create power using the earth while stamping your feet while punching or blocking, and best of all, from all the years of using Grand Master Chows meditation techniques, came this amazing feeling from deep within his body and mind. It was like your mind became a magnifying glass, anything you looked at or thought about, became very focused. Of course Sifu Fiedler had been taught all of these things inside the Ying Yee, but it was the level of the technique that completely shocked Sifu Fiedler when he first seen and started to learn Luk Hup Bah Fah.
Sifu Dee
Grand Master Chows
Written in Chinese is:
"Six Harmonies, Eight Methods"
"Luk Hup Bah Fah"
Element fist from Ying Yee
Splitting or Cutting Fist is associated with Metal. It is used as a wedge with which to ‘split’ and deflect opponent’s attack while simultaneously attacking. The mental image the practitioners concentrate on is that of an axe splitting a log.
Drilling Fist is associated with Water. The image is that of water suddenly bursting through the dam and sweeping all in its path.
Crushing Fist is associated with Wood. The image is that of an arrow hitting it’s target.
Cannon Fist is associated with Fire. The image is that of a flame suddenly leaping out or a bullet leaving a barrel of a gun.
Crossing Fist is associated with Earth. The image is that of a large rock rolling down a mountain.
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Sifu Fiedler, Grand Master Chow
1979
Sifu Dee
much more to come