15 Basic Exercises
 

Hi All

I am new to I Liq Chuan. My background is jujutsu, and i have been studying neigong and wu taiji for the last 18 months. I first read about Sifu Chin in Jess O'Brien's 'Neijia Quan' book, and so looked him up on the net. I have bought the (ji ben gong) 15 basic exercise dvd's to lay a foundation, and was just wondering about the weight shifting and hips rolling (Ex 12?).

Could anyone explain this to me, as i can't find it on the dvds as a separate thing (i might just be being dense : )), or is it just trained as a part of most of the other exercises?

Thanks for your help,

Brett

Hi Brett,

Welcome to the forum! Are you in the U.S.? I don't know if you're aware but there are people teaching throughout the country (and the world for that matter) so you might get lucky and find some classes nearby.

We train the hip roll in a feet parallel stance as well as in a front stance.

Start by making half circles, upper half, lower half. Then do full circles in one direction, followed by the other direction.

Keep the weight balanced on the feet. The 15 are ordered the way they are so that they build on each other. so even though you're not doing "absorb project", you should try to have a quality of absorb and project when doing the hip roll. Same with the other exercises. So to answer another part of your question, you are training the hip roll every time you shift weight or change alignment from dantian to mingmen.

That's a quick and dirty version of it that ignores the finer points, hope it helps.

-Ben

Hi Ben

Thanks for responding.

I'm not in the States i'm afraid, i'm in the Uk.

"Start by making half circles, upper half, lower half. Then do full circles in one direction, followed by the other direction."

To clarify a bit further, which plane are you circling the hip in?

I like the layered structure to the exercises, i have found it to be like a sliding scale that lets me know what i need to be work on.

Brett

if you're in a horse stance (feet parallel) it would be the frontal plane.

if you're in a front/fighting stance it would be saggital.

anyway, welcome to the forum (and hopefully the family if you stick with it and pursue it further)!

as someone who's coming from a jiu jitsu background, what compels you to pick up and art like ILC?

EDIT- i just popped in my 15 basics DVD and you're right. the hip roll must have been edited out by accident. he goes from N,E,S,W into kicking and footwork, etc.

Hi Ashe

Thanks for the welcome, and clarifying the plane to move in.

"as someone who's coming from a jiu jitsu background, what compels you to pick up and art like ILC?"

The jujutsu i did was a classical form, many lines of what we predominantly call jujutsu today were influenced by Chinese methods and understanding in the past. I had been introduced to Buddhist influenced meditation through training which led on to looking into qigong. When i hurt my knees several years ago i kept searching for something to fix them, the best thing i found of Western origin was 'somatic' approaches to body re-education and then i found someone teaching neigong. That changed things further.

I'll have a play with what you have described and see what makes sense : )

Thanks for your help,

Brett

don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have!

Hi Brett,

If you're near London, a student from Oz is living there. I'm sure he'd like to meet up and do some pushing.
PM me if you'd like his details

Good luck with your training

Steve

Welcome Brett - I am also from a Jujitsu background.

If you'd like to get some hands-on training with Master Sam Chin, you could come join us for a workshop here in Vienna at the end of June. I think there was a guy from England at the last seminar, and this year there will be participants from France, Poland and Belarus.

Peter

Seminar with Master Sam F.S. Chin in Vienna 26.-28.06.2009
http://www.ilc-austria.com/en_index.html
or just write Miro: miro@ilc-austria.com

Hey Brett
I’ve got a jujitsu background too! I think you’ll find that your skills will serve you well in ILC, it’s a close style and your jujitsu will give you something to do once you’ve bridged the gap and made contact. Enjoy.
Speaking of 15 basics I’d be interested in hearing how people incorporate standing meditation into their practice. I was trained in a chi kung standing holding the ball style with some internal visualisations. I’ve been able to expand this to all of the N-S-E-W postures as well as absorb/project and condense/expand co-ordinating the breath.
For breathing I just assume the posture and count or do veloma style.

Hi Guys

Sorry for the belated response, work and life : )

Thanks for all your responses,

Steve. Thank you its good to know there are people over here, i will wait a bit before doing any push hands, i feel i need something to test before testing it.

Peter. Thanks for the heads up about the seminar in June, i will look into the costs and see where my finances are. I'm not long back into fulltime work after several years education.

Chris. I think there is more cross over between neijia and jujutsu than many think. And the 'bridge' between body to body grappling and arm grappling is a small one.

I have been working through the jibenggong, i like the layered approach and it has just highlighted where i am on that scale of things : )

I tried to understand the weight shifting and hip rolling as briefly described and in light of the exercises that build towards it, but i'm unsure if i am just inventing my own exercise.

Would you suggest just leaving it out for now, (i am mainly working on the first 'half' of the exercises at the moment anyway) or does anyone know if any footage of anyone doing them is up that i could take a look at?

Take care, Brett