# Internal



## Scout (Oct 2, 2012)

Hello, I'm new to the Chinese arts, my background is in the Japanese arts, although I'm very interested/intrigued in the Internal arts. Can Qi Gong, or Hsing I be used as defense or is this more of the meditation and health side of things? Also my main iterests are Wing Chun and/or Praying Mantis. My location will be Orange County CA area as soon as I'm done here in Afghanistan.



-Dragoon 3; Scouts Out!-


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## Xue Sheng (Oct 2, 2012)

Qigong is not for self-defense but it can help with it and there are 3 categories of Qi-gong; medical, scholar and martial. However the marital is more supportive to the self-defense side than actually used for self-defense. However with that said I have been told and read that both Baduanjin (8 pieces of brocade) and w&#468; xíng (5 animal frolics) had martial applications at one time.

Internal CMA styles

Xingyiquan was trained to the Chinese military at one time so yes it is good for self-defense and rather aggressive too. But you will see a difference in the traditional version and the military version as it applies to training

Baguazhang also good for self-defense but takes longer than Xingyiquan to get there

Taijiquan good for self-defense but it takes lo9nger than Baguazhang to get there and it is really hard to find a teacher that knows or trains the SD

Not considered internal but it does have its internal bits

Wing Chun; good for Self-defense and after about a year of good training you can use it

Praying Mantis is considered an external style and I know little about it other than a Southern Praying Mantis guy beat the heck out of me many years ago. However Southern Praying Mantis and Northern Praying Mantis are different.

Now the categories of Internal and External mean little and you really should not focus on them. There is an old saying that says "Internal goes to External and External goes to internal" basically if trained right they all end up in the same place


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## Scout (Oct 2, 2012)

Xue Sheng said:


> Qigong is not for self-defense but it can help with it and there are 3 categories of Qi-gong; medical, scholar and martial. However the marital is more supportive to the self-defense side than actually used for self-defense. However with that said I have been told and read that both Baduanjin (8 pieces of brocade) and w&#468; xíng (5 animal frolics) had martial applications at one time.
> 
> Internal CMA styles
> 
> ...



thanks, now that some light has been shed on my curiosities, i can begin to start my search !!


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## mograph (Oct 2, 2012)

Xue Sheng said:


> Qigong is not for self-defense but it can help with it and there are 3 categories of Qi-gong; medical, scholar and martial. However the marital is more supportive to the self-defense side than actually used for self-defense.


Could Qigong be considered as a kind of (internal) conditioning for martial arts?


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## Xue Sheng (Oct 3, 2012)

mograph said:


> Could Qigong be considered as a kind of (internal) conditioning for martial arts?



I suppose those Qigong forms that are assocaited with MA could be thought of that way


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## Scout (Oct 4, 2012)

mograph said:


> Could Qigong be considered as a kind of (internal) conditioning for martial arts?


That's a good, interesting question. A few years ago in Orange County CA, I visited a Wudang Sifu named Master Bing, who has since very unfortunatly (for my own selfish reasons) left CA and gone back to Wudang. There is still a reminisce of his school with, I'm not sure how many students, as Master Bing periodically returns and tours the US. I recently emailed the school to ask a few questions and i was told that I would start off with learning 5 animals Qi Gong. That was a bit odd to me, hence my thread. For your reserching pleasure http://www.wudangdao.com/


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## oaktree (Oct 4, 2012)

Why is learning five animal qigong as the first thing odd?
  Maybe he wants you to have good health first before you
Learn wushu.


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## Scout (Oct 5, 2012)

oaktree said:


> Why is learning five animal qigong as the first thing odd?





oaktree said:


> Maybe he wants you to have good health first before you
> Learn wushu.



Well because I've never heard of a place that says you have to do Tai Chi before Kung Fu


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## oaktree (Oct 5, 2012)

Five animal qigong is not taijiquan.
 In learning neigong you spend more time
Doing standing meditation then learning application.
This is even more true in xingyiquan santi


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## Flying Crane (Oct 5, 2012)

Scout said:


> Well because I've never heard of a place that says you have to do Tai Chi before Kung Fu​




kung fu is not Chinese martial arts.  It is a mis-translation that actually means, "to gain skill thru dedicated hard work", or words to that effect.  You can have good kung fu in martial arts, you can have good kung fu in cooking, you can have good kung fu in carpentry, or anything else.  So I think what you meant to say was, "tai chi before Chinese martial arts (traditional wushu)."

Taiji chuan IS Chinese martial arts.  It is a method, like Mantis or Crane or any of the other Chinese methods.  And here are more than one school and lineage and method of Taiji chuan.

Just wanted to clear that up.​


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