First, technically I no longer train Xingyiquan, I do honestly feel it is the art that best fits me but there are no teachers in my area that I want to train with. Basically there are 2 I know of and one is pure performance Wushu and the other, although he has a great understanding of the forms he has none of the actual fighting of it. All of his fighting comes from his background in Kempo and TKD. He was great for the basics but beyond that it was something other than Xingyiquan.
I made a conscious decision to focus on my Taiji and it is not easy since I do love the art of Xingyiquan. It is likely that I will work on it again sometime in the future beyond Santi but at this time I am back at Santi. It is just one of those things that no matter how hard I tray I cannot get it out of my system which leads me to calling it an addiction.
If you don't mind that leaves a few questions.
Personally I only have a limited knowlege, experience of Xingyi Quan. So what helped you in your San Ti Shi practice?
What helps me? I am not exactly sure I understand the question but it helps me to focus and currently I am of the belief that if I want my knee to get better I need Santi Shi. What helps me get though a session of Santi Shi… a total disregard for how damn much it can hurt
Actually I don’t know, I set a timer, stand and breathe that is all. Once I get to about 15 minutes per side (which I am currently no where near) things change and I am told one you break 20 minutes per side it gets rather amazing, I know at 15 minutes it got pretty cool, I start noticing the connections within the body's structure.
Personally it's always been hard for me to practice certain forms of Taiji (Mainly the way we practice Wu style from the Ma Lineage), sometimes Zhan Zhuang & San Ti Shi. Due to the fact that I'm used to practicing things like Northern Mantis, Bei Shaolin (via Songshan, Sifu Zhang) where there is a lot of movement involved in a generally faster pace, except maybe Shi Ba Lohan Gong(Mantis), Yi Jin Jing, Ba Duan Jin mainly the Qigong forms but at times its hard for me to practice those as well.
What would your advice be to control the pace of the mind from practicing Lian Gong as compared to Nei Gong?
Zhan Zhuang is different for me as compared to Santi. Zhan Zhuang I don’t think of much but just start noticing what is going on in the body more and that can start some slow movements that maybe I should control but I don’t. Eventually it settles down and I am standing and time seems to go by rather fast. As to advice, I really don’t have any other than just stand. It is not easy, it is boring and it can be rather painful. I guess the best advice I ever got came from my second Xingyi Sifu. He said “If you feel any pain in the joints, let me know and we will try and adjust your posture. If you feel any muscle pain just shut up and stand there, I don’t want to hear about it”. You might want to look for a couple of books that discuss it: Xingyiquan Vol.1: Five Element Foundation by Di Guoyong and Chi Kung: Way of Power by Lam Kam Chuen
What times of day have you felt like you got more out of the practice, or has it been relatively the same whatever time you practice?
I generally do things like this between 5 and 7 in the morning but my Taiji Sifu will tell you the best times for things like this are at 11:00am and 11:00pm
And lastly do you feel you can cultivate both Wai Gong & Nei Gong at the same time? Not talking about exact same time but the same time frame, in other words lets say I want to practice Tong Long for example but I also have interest in lets say Taiji, do you feel I can cultivate both?
With things like Santi I don’t think you have a choice, you need both to get through. My biggest problem with Santi was not excepting the fact that I’m a mingjen in Xingyiquan and trying to apply my taiji training to it. Once I let the taiji go it made more sense.
Here is a link to a post I made about that a while back
I've heard in the past that Shaolin starts External than Internal whereas Taoist systems like Wudang start Internal than External.
Would it conflict cultivating both?
My taiji Sifu would tell you yes. And he feels that my Xingyi also conflicts with taiji and I tend to agree. But I read something once from one of the Chen family that was talking about weight training. He said that weight training in the beginning would be detrimental to any internal style since it was such and external type of training. But later in ones internal training, once you have learned how to move energy within the body and use the body as a complete unit instead of a bunch of separate muscles than weight training could be quite helpful and again I tend to agree. I also once trained taiji with a person that was for a short time a student of Pan Qingfu and they told me that master Pan was constantly yelling things at them like “this is not Taiji” “you are too slow and too soft” “more power, faster”. But my Sanda Sifu sees no problem at all with combining them “IF” you have enough experience with one of them first. I have a lot of time in training taiji and he sees no conflict with Sanda. However he did see a conflict between Sanda and Xingyi because I was fairly new to both. As for me I think trying to train a Waijia and a Neijia at the same time and being a beginner at both can be a problem. And I may be biased (likely I am) but I see a bigger problem with going from Waijia to Neijia than I do from Neijia to Waijia
More Santi Shi Info
Of course all of this is prertty much just my opinion and after all just the ravings of a Xingyi-aholic
I was standing in Santi Shi again……not long ....:anic: just about 2 minutes per side.... :anic: but I just couldn't help myself.... and now….:uhohh: I’m thinking about Wuxing again... and :xtrmshock I almost did Piquan … DAMN my Xingyiquan addiction. :disgust: :EG:
