Zheng Mingxing’s Xingyiquan Concept 02

It has been awhile since I’ve written part one of Zheng Mingxing’s Xingyiquan Concept, here is part two.

• Back to the basic. Xingyiquan is a martial arts, therefore Xingyiquan practice should base upon its effectiveness, combat and martial applications. The current traditional Chinese martial arts trend is running in the opposite direction of the original function of martial arts.
• The traditional five elements theory. In theory, when the forces are equal between two opposite elements, one can subdue another as per the five elements theory. However (when you see this word, you should know the sentence above is a bunch of BS.), Zheng Mingxing did say that a glass of water will not subdue a bush fire, even two persons start to learn Xingyiquan together at the same time with similar age, similar amount of training workload and so on, their results will not be equal. As a result, the “subdue between five elements” theory is virtually useless when it comes to martial applications.
• Duilian training. Zheng Mingxing does not teach the duilian (two-person-form) component of Xingyiquan at all, he does not believe in preset routine will provide a better result than sparring. Another reason being that most of the preset techniques of duilian do not work when you face a superior opponent, e.g. a technique which can defense a strike from your training partner, however the same technique will not work against your teacher who is delivering the same strike.
• Taolu training. Zheng Mingxing does not have much emphasis on taolu (form) training, he prefers shadow boxing over traditional taolu training. Taolu has been kept as part of the training solely for the purpose of public demonstrations.
• A peek at the Jiaxing Xingyiquan Team training ground. A picture worth a thousand words, so I include some photographs of Jiaxing Xingyiquan Team (which is led by Zheng Mingxing’s senior student, Shan Guoxian) training area here. Under the influence of Zheng Mingxing, inside Jiaxing Xingyiquan Team training area is a mixture of modern and tradition, you can see both traditional weaponries and modern training equipment such as, punching pads, thai pads, body protecters, shin guards, boxing gloves, etc.

Jiaxing Xingyiquan

Jiaxing Xingyiquan

Jiaxing Xingyiquan

Note from XingyiMax.com:
Unlike military or martial sport training, endurance training in martial arts is a lesser concern, target practice and sparring are kept short with a goal of getting the best out of you in seconds. You should train like a short distance sprinter instead of a medium or long distance runner.