I came across this clip of Peter Consterdine (who I’d never heard of before but I like what I’m seeing) which I found really interesting. He’s basically describing something that is a lot like Xingyi’s Bengquan. I’m going to ramble on about the clip and what I like about it and while it should be obvious lets have a quick disclaimer up front – these thoughts are my interpretations of what he’s saying, and how I think what he’s saying applies to something like Xingyi however I’ve not met this guy (never heard of him until a few minutes ago) and so when I say that I think he is getting at something he might not be, it’s just my take on it. That said, I honestly don’t think I’m far off and while I’m not on his level I think that he and some of my teachers could have some very interesting discussions about punching techniques and why it’s done the way it is in Xingyi and why he’s teaching something similar but different. Phew – ass covered!
It’s not exactly the same but the two things are more alike than they’re different, I think:
First up, lets cover some stuff that is definitely not like Xingyi:
- He encourages a wind up – it’s probably not bad for a little while but it gives away what you’re doing and it would slow you down
- The weight comes forward a bit too much, I think, though even within Xingyi different schools treat this differently. The point here is the same though – even if the body shape is a bit different – the idea is still the there should be alignment of your hips and shoulder. So it looks a bit different but the principal is very very similar.
- I believe that it should whip out together – so rather than starting in the legs/hips and moving up as he describes it it really should be a single movement where everything moves in sync.