Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

Loading the Rear Leg - An Important Skill in Xingyiquan

fighting with hsing-i fighting with xingyi xingyi self-defense xingyiquan Oct 03, 2019

An important concept in Xingyiquan is to take your opponent's ground.

Xingyi is not really a defensive art. The goal is not to take an opponent's energy and neutralize it. The purpose of Xingyi is to drive through your opponent like a bowling ball through bowling pins.

Xingyi is aggressive. It takes no prisoners.

But to take ground, you need to build leg strength by practicing taking ground. Step one in that process is to "load" the rear leg.

Take a look at the three images in this post.

In the first image, I am standing tall. If I had to spring forward, it would be difficult.

In the second image, I am loaded into a Xingyi fighting stance. My energy is "sunk" and I am ready. Notice how I am compressed into the rear leg. It is like a spring, ready to release. And my energy is forward, not backward.

In the third image, I am springing forward to strike with Beng Chuan.

As soon as I land, I will load the rear leg again.

Taking ground is not just for Xing...

The Mysterious Power of Xingy, Taiji and Bagua Revealed!

xingyi self-defense xingyiquan May 11, 2013

I saw an ad a few days about about the Mysterious Power of Xingyiquan (also spelled Hsing-I Chuan). It made me laugh a bit at first, and then I realized it was just one more way that someone was attempting to make the internal arts appear to be something they are not.

A photo on the ad showed a guy being lifted up into the air by the "mysterious" power of Xingyi.

I guess that's marketing, right?

A well-known tai chi teacher has a photo on the cover of one of his books where he is apparently launching some poor sap into the air with his internal energy. But a video exists of the photo shoot, and the guy being launched into the air obviously pushes off and straightens his arms to get himself into the air. It's embarrassing.

We see it all the time, don't we? It's pretty common for Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua teachers to pretend this is all mystical and mysterious, that if you just cultivate enough chi you can tap into some universal energy that will allow you to defy the laws of physics...

Xingyi versus Real World Violence -- Taking Down a Violent Suspect

xingyi self-defense xingyiquan Jan 25, 2009

Don't tell the MMA guys this, or the guys who say what you study in martial arts classes don't prepare you for "real life" violence. We don't want to disappoint them.

One of my students is a police officer. I ran into him today and he was excited about his success using Pi Chuan -- one of the five fist postures of Hsing-I Chuan -- to capture a violent man recently. I'm not including all the names, locations and dates to protect identities.

According to the officer (my student), the suspect had his fists up, daring the officer and his partner to cross the room and get him. He was ready to fight. This wasn't the first time he had been in trouble with the law. The officer took out his taser. The man laughed and said, "Go ahead and use it."

The officer loaded his stance, then suddenly exploded forward, taking ground as we had practiced so often in class, and took the suspect down with splitting palm. He told me he kept his energy down and focused on taking his opponent's ground, explodi...

Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Loading the Rear Leg - An Important Skill in Xingyiquan

The Mysterious Power of Xingy, Taiji and Bagua Revealed!

Xingyi versus Real World Violence -- Taking Down a Violent Suspect

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