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Studying Internal Arts


Tony21

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Hi everyone. Ive saved up over $20,000 so that i can follow my dreams of learning Bagua, Tai Chi and Hsing-I from the masters in China. Now i have enough money to support myself, i don't know what to do next. Where could i learn the Internal arts full time and what should i do about accomodation? I've seen various schemes to train with former Shoalin monks etc, but are they worth it? Should i just go to Beijing and find a school myself or is it best to book ahead via the internet?

Hope you can help me :)

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I suggest you check out emptyflower.com and perhaps MAP (martialartsplanet.com) for advice here... I have heard that the shoalin temples are perhpas not the best places if you are serious about learning Gong Fu... also some Taiji places have the same rep as they cater to "ignorant" (my word here meaning unknowing) westerners who are after some holy grail of learning... often you can find just as good if not better training in your home country (depending on where you are... also you may find that by going to some local parks you might find someone to help you... what style/s do you do in paricular in Taiji...?? also do you have some experience with any of the arts you wish to learn...?? If so this might help you spot the "tourist teacher"...

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Just out of curiosity, how much Chinese do you speak? It's no good finding a master if you are then unable to communicate. Especially for the internal arts, where there's more to it than just putting your arms and legs in the correct position.

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As with the above there are many different things to consider. being able to speak Chinese is a great help. It opens many doors.Check out http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/index.html. It is run buy a very nice guy who is always willing to help. He lives in Shanghai and has contacts with many respected teachers. Most of the older generation do not have public schools and an invitation to them goes a long way. Depending on what you want to learn makes a difference to what part of china you will want to stay in. It can take some time to find a teacher that you like and that likes you. If you can not speak any Chinese My advise is to look at going to China to learn the language and train with one of the old boys in a park. It is very surprising what you can find lurking in a corner of a chinese park. there is some real skill out there it is just difficult to find.

pm me if you want to chat in more detail about it.

phil

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i'm in a slightly similar situation to tony21. except i'm in beijing and i do speak chinese. i was doing qigong in a park the other day, and this old guy came up to chat with me. he said he'd been doing bagua for 40 years. but i don't have any experience, so i had no way of gauging his level. if he was doing bagua, he was doing it very slowly.

one solution would be to study for a while with a 'famous' teacher, to develop some skill, and then do the park thing... this could be a bit expensive though.

there are some threads on this sort of thing at martialartsplanet

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