Hi Dave
The questions I had in mind were what is Xingyi like to learn and how much is Qigong/internal energy and how much is technique?
What style of Xingyiquan, who is teaching it and who taught them? Those are important questions to find answers too.
It does not look like Karate, Wing Chun, Taijiquan, Baguazhang or just about any other MA you can think of. But there are some similarities with Taijiquan, Baguazhang and Wing Chun.
Xingyiquan is the most aggressive of the internal styles. I tend to look at it like this, Taijiquan is all about patience, baguazhang has patience but it is limited, Xingyiquan has no patients what-so-ever and likely you have annoyed it before you ever got there.
Taijiquan = Defense is attack and defense is defense
Baguazhang = attack is attack and defense is defense
Xingyiquan = Attack is attack and attack is defense
Basically xingyiquan training, particularly in the beginning runs between 2 extremes….extremely boring to extremely painful with not much in between. You should, if taught correctly, start with training Santi Shi which is standing is a static posture for a long time and depending on the lineage it could be a real long time. One of my Shigong’s said that if you can stand in Santi Shi for 20 minutes (Per side) you are a beginner. I have talked to a lot of people who are said to be very good and very well trained in Xingyiquan and the time varies a bit between 20 minutes and 1 hour per side all the way to not much at all once you have the structure because it is more important to learn how to move it and maintain it than simply stand in it. I currently agree with the last one most these days, it has to move and be maintained.
A gentleman I talked to from Beijing, who is a Xingyi shifu, told me he liked his students to stand 20 to 30 minutes per day per side. But his shifu stood 1 to 2 hours per day per side and made him do the same, but he also said that very few people in the world today have that much time so 20 to 30 minutes was the goal. However he felt 5 minutes is better than 0 minutes and 10 is better than 5 and 15 is better than 10…basically what you have time for do. Another gentleman in Beijing who is also a Xingyi guy (has a few books and DVDs out there) insists his students stand at least 30 minutes a day or its not xingyiquan. Another who is very into the military version thinks there is to much emphasis on static posture and moving it and maintaining it is much more important.
There are other standing postures to be trained as well. The first 3 you should be introduced to are Wuji, Zhan Zhuang and Santi Shi. The order depends on the shifu. However if you are talking Shanxi Style, all bets are off because I know little about Shanxi style beyond the fact that they do not put as much emphasis on Santi Shi and the other styles do. And their Santi is closer to 50/50 than the 70/30 or 60/40 of the other styles.
Now after that (these days mostly concurrent with that) you get into the 5 elements fist (wuxingquan); Piquan, zuanquan, bengquan, paoquan, hengquan. Then the linking form of those and then the 12 (10 if Shanxi) animals and there are weapons as well. And somewhere along the way there are qigong forms but not all teach them.
There are copious drills, that are boring and painful, there is breath training that can be tedious, there are applications; punching, kicking, qinna and Shuaijiao all which tend to be painful.
Xingyiquan is not pretty it is not gentle and it hits like a truck if done correctly. It advances hard and fast but it can angle, turn, and backup. However no matter the direction it always attacks. In Xingyiquan attack is attack and attack is defense.
This is if it is a good school with a legitimate background. If it does not have this then, IMO, it is not worth going to and it will not be Xingyiquan at all.
I have a lot of posts on MT about Xingyiquan, look for post titles "Xingyi Addict" if you are interested
Santi Shi
Zhan Zhuang
I'm also curious about a ninjutsu nearby, with links to the Bujinkan. It seems pretty legit and not "Mcdojo-ish". would Xingyi and Ninjutsu link well?
Since I know little about ninjutsu and Bujinkan I really can’t answer this beyond based on what I have seen they have two rather different approaches to a confrontation. Bujinkan impresses the hell out of me but it does not appear to be as aggressive as Xingyiquan in general. But with that said they may or may not work well together…down the road. In the beginning I do not recommend you do both at the same time because I think that would not be conducive to a good base and/or understanding of either of them.
