Kickbike & Kettlebell

81 Style Biangun

2021-10-18T08:07:00.008+10:00

WHIP Staff form: start @ 2:23

Step by step demonstration: start @ 6:20

81 movements : 13 sections

Biangun : Introduction to stick martial arts.

2021-10-11T13:26:00.000+10:00

Biangun and Hanbo stick/staff form performed in the TaiChi Chuan style with moves and gestures inspired by Filipino Eschima. Whip staff. Movement awareness.

I wanted to create a form that was an introduction to stick self defence/martial arts but one that also offered the same centering you can get with training in inner styles of kung fu. I also wanted to expunge the form of Taoist attributes so that its performance relied on the science of body mechanics and physiology rather than 'chi energy' notions. What I am after seems to become more evident in the folk martial arts styles of Biangun followed in North West China -- indeed as far west as the Islamic regions.

Since I perform this form every day a few times I've grown to appreciate it as my body adapts to its mentoring.

For the Biangun whip stick I am now studying a pragmatic form -- Hand whip stick : Liu Huipu-- which has all the attributes I have learnt to value without the pretensions I abhor. While I've found another I appreciate, I guess as I commit to learning this one I'll become more confident -- enough to customise as I have done with this Hanbo routine.

And maybe integrate some of the other,..

Liu Huipo's routine takes around 15 minutes to perform and has approximately 120 separate moves -- which I hope to study in blocks of 30.

The journey of 130 strikes begins with the first one...

Shanxi Xingy whip stick :Biangun

2021-09-26T11:34:00.013+10:00

This video is localised to Shanxi Xingyi style. This performer is the chair person of the Shanxi Xingyi Research Association.

92 years old!

I thought I'd found the stick form whose mastery I wanted to aspire to...but it was a tad long and I don't have all day to learn it.

But lo and behold, a shorter version of the same is on offer from this 92 year old.

If he is that old and does this, you know it is surely traditional.

It's Xingyi Whipstick -- Biangun -- with all the moves being martial and not dressage.

So folks, if I learn this, do I get to live as long as -- and move as well as -- this guy?

In action: stop motion mode.

2021-09-24T08:43:00.000+10:00

Since I learn my stick work from YouTube videos I'm trying to find the most direct means to do so.

These images are of my current focus. It's biangun but biangun explored in the martial arts style of Tongbei Quan.

I don't know much about Tongbei Quan except to note that it helps you to put more WHIP into 'whip stick' (biangun) . My hope is to proceed with biangun without also needing to train in Tongbei Quan.

Inasmuch as I can decipher, biangun helps your Tongbei Quan a lot -- and vice versa -- because it helps you invest more force in the strike. Since I wanted to stay clear of Taoism I think I'll settle for Biangun alone without all the hand waving and kicking.

The stick tradition in northern China is so rich and convoluted, I think I can happily sail in many directions at once without being formally sentenced to a particular martial style or narrow neighbourhood locality. When you get into family lineage of styles, you can drown in shibboleths.

Biangun is so impressive because that length of stick is so creatively -- and so effectively -- handled. Compared to say, the Japanaese Jojitsu tradition, the staff strike has more force more often and is less reliant on stabs/pokes.

Indeed, after spending my time learning Aikido stick katas I am disappointed with how shallow & weak the moves are.

Health Wand-Shoulder & Back Flow Combination --- aka Jiangan.

2021-09-20T20:38:00.005+10:00

Health Wands are another short staff eddy that has been resurrected from obscurity.

While not a martial art, the sticks are moved in similar mode when close to the body and serve great as warm-ups and stretches.

Ron Jones has synthesised a lot of information about the uses of these sticks. His online 'wand' channel on YouTube offers a good range of routines you can replicate.

The Chinese Wand traditionally includes some floor routines.

As a Chinese Health Wand: full 17 exercises

Fan Hanwu : HongDong Tongbei Quan

2021-09-20T11:44:00.003+10:00

As an outsider, trying to comprehend Chinese martial is like trying to navigate a rabbit hole.

So I asked an online Biangun practitioner about the above video.

I did that because I LOVED IT! It's what I had been looking for in a longer stick form. Direct and without fancified moves.

He writes:

Thanks for sharing that video it was quite nice and interesting. That does indeed look like a very pragmatic set. It emphasises shorter range usage and is very practical. You can see a certain elasticity in both the whip and the front/back motion of the spine. These are qualities that tend to be popular in shanxi. I've learned shanxi whip staff with similar tendencies, though my form is much shorter. It was passed by the Song family of Xingyi. ...

But the form you linked, I think you hit the jackpot in terms of the criteria you're looking for:

Whipping

Practical

Taichi appropriate

..Because master Fan Hanwu in that video is the current lineage holder of HongDong Tongbei Quan, also called Wuji Tongbei Chanquan. HongDong is a place in Shanxi.

Wuji Tongbei is a progenitor to Chen style Taiji. Chen Taiji village does say that a form of long fist is what evolved into Taiji. Looking at the form, there does appear to be a relationship....

So I think you did find one that is taiji appropriate and practical!

Folk whip staff - Biangun [Tombei Biangun]

2021-09-14T20:12:00.004+10:00

...

Biangun studies : Technique Samples

2021-09-14T19:29:00.005+10:00

Why I like Biangun

Why hold the stick so close to the body? The dynamics of the Biangun strike is explored in this video. Similar to Filipino Kali except that chambering is located at the gut and not the shoulder.

The harnessed power is obvious and you can see where the two videos below get their strength from.

The guy presenting the DIY here informed me that 'Shisanfa' means 13.

Unfortunately, Biangun is a sort of distant eddy in kung fu without the religious and military traditions to rationalise it (and populise it) . So it isn't big in martial artz consciousness aside from a movement based in and around Tokyo, Japan -- which has Tai Chi-ed it somewhat.

Of the longer forms -- those that emanate from the Ma family are maybe the most well known...but they move from position to position rather than focus on the torso's power as a starting point. This, I suspect, is why Biangun is well worth learning initially from a stationary position as the footwork is an extension of attack as it is in Kali.

Of the various long forms, I haven't, as yet, been able to separate their primary differences one from the other. They may display the same themes and replicate similar moves but many seem customised and adapted to suit the performer. After all, Biangun is not ruled by governing bodies nor is the stick length owned just by the people of Shanxi province.

Again the translation doesn't help us much. After watching many stick forms in action, so many participants routinely move the staff from A to B. A lot of those moves seem , to me, to over extend the body unnecessarily. Nor have I accepted that there are advantages in one legged stances in staff work. Great for learning better balance and focusing on your centre of gravity -- but you lose your rootedness with the earth. I think so anyway. This guy on the other hand is brutally awesome. The fulcrum of the staff is kept close to the body and he moves with the power of the whole torso. Nothing is limp. The strikes have the power of follow through. Even the footwork is worth the price of admission.

The translation doesn't help us much but here with have a gent explaining his use of the short staff. Then when he moves into combat mode there is no mucking around in the attack. The body mechanics are just right.

Wuyin Biangan : Yiyangmen

2021-09-07T20:48:00.001+10:00

Bian gun is my weapon art of choice for the jo length.

2021-09-03T02:57:00.000+10:00

The brutal mean looking guy is me with, at the time, a hanbo. My shortest sticks are Kali/Eschima length -- and my longest is the jo. The hanbo at hip height is in between.

Now with my current focus, the jo crosses the sea from Japan to North Western China and becomes a Whip Stick -- Bian Gun -- albeit of the same length.Bian Gun is 'folk martial arts' -- rather than something caught up in all that martial culture of belts and katas. The whip stick is so called because it aids walking, defending yourself and driving donkeys.
Bian Gun attracts me because the mystical Taoist elements are absent. In Tai Chi or many other kung fu styles (like White Crane), there is more chi-speak than you can poke a stick at.
All sticks move differently in the hands depending on their length and whether they suit one or two-handed combat. While all of these sticks are a weapon, they can be substituted with other found 'weapons' like umbrellas, handbags, shopping bags or whatever is to hand.
In Kali you could use a pen or a credit card!

Since I do my homework, I know these things.

In pursuit of martial arts, I've been down many a YouTube rabbit hole. While I've said it before, I need to make adjustments yet again as to my focus.

My online journey has been discovery rich with me half knowing what I wanted with stick combat focus. Since I'm so impressed and enamoured with the Kali/Eschima system, I'm committed to that primarily for its approach to attack and self defence. No pretensions. Just the real deal -- street smart.

So that's one stick covered -- the short arm length kali stick.

With the jo I had been struggling. While I committed to a jojutsu approach I found the learning a hard ask. Very linear (in forward and back mode) -- with most approaches ruled, it seemed to me, by pokes and stabs. Too sword-like...with a pretensious (for me and my background) samurai lineage.

The Hanbo was more real, but it was ruled by repetitive katas -- I thought -- and limited by the fact that you seldom exploited both ends of the staff -- as you do in jojutsu.

Consequently, I delved into kung fu/Chinese stick forms and renewed my association with Yang Tai Chi Chuan. I didn't expect that Bian Gun was out there...until I found it.

Bian Gun

After all, offshore, it is not a popular form outside its regional origin. It also is not part of a martial arts style where the stick is deployed as a miscellaneous weapon supplementing unarmed combat.

Given what I had learnt and practised, Bian gun was a revelation for the free form usage of the jo staff -- referred to as 'whip staff 'in China. That it was referred to as 'folk' martial arts and emanated from everyday stick usage was a clincher for me.

So now I have dropped my jojutsu studies and have turned to Bian gun as my weapon art of choice for the jo length. While I will study some of the long forms and imitate them in my practice --as I have done with my Tai Chi/Hanbo hybrid form -- I know that, despite family lineages, Bian gun is not set as it is based on a few key moves that use the stick creatively.

None of the relentless spinning you get in Silambam and Korean staff work. No choreographic dance like so much Wushu. Just hit 'em where it hurts and then hit them again.

And no god dam chi-speak! (I am nonetheless partial to its Ying vs Yang rationales).

Biangan Shisanfa

2021-08-28T23:49:00.002+10:00

Bian Gun

2021-08-26T22:47:00.006+10:00

Shuang Yang

2021-08-24T07:22:00.005+10:00

Whooping Crane "Tiger Crane"

2021-08-15T23:20:00.007+10:00

Pekiti Tirsia Kali & TaiChi

2021-08-08T19:21:00.002+10:00

I'm studying Kali. PMA -- Philippine Martial Arts.

But my teacher -- Tuhon Aditya -- is in Goa India and I learn via YouTube.

The form he teaches is Pekiti Tirsia Kali which is one of the most respected of the Filipino family Kali traditions.

So much of the DIY has shifted online and in India, of course, it's the only way given the scale of the epidemic there.

It's a wonderful world -- this digital universe.

Light haven is here:https://tinyurl.com/yzucvmvz

As martial systems go Kali is without bullshit and very concrete in its layered approach. As a self-defence system -- if that's your thing -- I think it is one of the few that delivers.

As well as jojutsu -- a Japanese martial art that uses a stick (jō) in combat -- I'm renewing my past training in Yang TaiChiChuan and have integrated what I know about the jō and Kali sticks into a form I've choreographed. I'm quite proud of it.

TaiChi is an excellent routine to engineer balance and movement awareness. Compared to systems like Yoga, Feldenkrais and the other fashionable one it is so much more accessible in a lifestyle way if you want to be core and movment aware.

There are stick forms in TaiChi - 'guns' -- but I find many of them too flowery. Ironically, there's a better stick based martial experience, I reckon, to be had from some of the Qigong forms. Since I don't have a spiritual bone in my body, and don't believe in the flow of Chi or Taoism I guess I'm a habituated feral.

Silk reeling: Chen-style Tai Chi

2021-08-03T18:22:00.002+10:00

My kind of stick work: customised, evangelical and improvised

2021-07-25T00:22:00.002+10:00

I think I've finally got my stick work sorted.

I've now signed up as a Patreon to Light Haven out of Goa, India as a student of Pekiti Tirsia Kali * -- although I'm only really interested in kali sticks.

KALI

Tuhon Aditya Roy (pictured)is a wonderful teacher who offers a generous and very supportive YouTube presence.

The Kali anchors my study and training because it gives me a clear martial perspective in a real world -- rather than traditional -- context. Without spiritualism, hierarchy or mythic traditions based on ancient warrior wars. Practice and discipline rules. Not magic.

TaiChi CHUAN

Because my past martial background was in the 108 Yang form of TaiChi Chuan I decided that I valued that experience greatly, and could recover my past knowledge and skill. So after researching Tai Chi stick forms, I have adapted a short TaiChi form with a stick -- the Hanbo (hip high) -- to perform TaiChi each day and embrace the centring and essentialist balance TaiChi generates. I'm rather proud of the moves and 'steps' as it holds its own as a short form with a stick.

Maybe later I will learn a Jojutsu adaption of the Taiji Gun 24 Step which I think ticks a lot of the boxes I value in a form/drill. Taiji Gun uses a tall Bo staff but that's not my weapon of choice.

In the meantime, by following the work of two US TaiChi masters -- David-Dorian Ross and Jake Mace I am enabling and deepening my understanding of the 'inner' martial arts.

JOJUTSU

For me there is no question that Takayuki Kanayama is the ultimate exponent of the sort of Jo work I appreciate. Fortunately, he too is teaching online -- and a student in the US -- the Plum Blossom Hapkido Club -- is replicating the lessons...in English.

Boy am I fortunate!

That's my package. Seemingly eclectic, but day to day it holds together as one form enriches my work on the other.

*Pekiti Tirsia Kali(PTK) : Pekiti Tirsia Kali is an Indigenous Filipino Martial Art based around the use of the blade. It is taught to elite law enforcement and military personnel across 6 continents. It is instantly applicable and unapologetically effective. This is why it is one of the best choices for anyone seeking to learn how to defend themselves. Pekiti-Tirsia Kali incorporates the following weapon categories (including the human body) :
Solo Baston- Single stick or sword
Doble Baston- Double stick or sword.
Malayu Sibat - Spear
Espada y Daga - Sword and Dagger.
Daga y Daga - Knife to Knife
Mano y Mano - Hand to Hand.
Dumog - Grappling

Tuhon Aditya Roy is one of only two direct students in India of the legendary Filipino master GrandTuhon Leo T Gaje. He has been tasked with helping people protect themselves by spreading this incredible art. To this end he has founded PTK Shakti Sangha, who shall now base their operations out of LightHaven.

Jojutsu: Plum Blossom Hapkido Club

2021-07-24T09:44:00.005+10:00

Tai Chi Stick Techniques

2021-07-08T21:14:00.004+10:00

Yan Shou Gong 36 forms

2021-07-07T22:19:00.004+10:00

Combat Tai Chi Principles

2021-07-07T20:54:00.004+10:00

Yap Cheng Hai's Beggar Stick

2021-07-07T19:34:00.004+10:00

Why I love the stick.

With all the intense do this and do that in martial artz -- promoted as 'self-defence' -- nothing beats a weapon for practical defence. Like a stick. Any stick.

Grandmaster Yap Cheng Hai learnt this simple stick formation from his father. Designed to work in a fight context and requiring only a few moves.

No feathering or pretence. Just wam! bang! and ouch!

Yap is Malaysian based, and this is a pragmatic transcending of traditional prescripts.

The victim warrants an award for his acting out of pain.

Yap's stock -- a 'beggar's stick' -- is diaphragm or armpit high and is the equivalent of the Japanese Jo staff -- which is my favorite length of wood.

Jojutsu Takayuki Kanayama

2021-07-01T16:22:00.006+10:00

11 Patterns for the Jo

1 to 10

1-30 Patterns

11-20 Patterns

The Way Forward

2021-06-30T19:38:00.000+10:00

After due consideration I reviewed the drill/kata approaches for my chosen sticks. I have decided that--aside from the Kali -- I'm going to study Takayuki Kanayama.

It's the moves you see.

Whereas a lot of stick work is about moving the weapon from A to B in response to a sword attack, I think Kanayama -- despite his Kendo roots -- transcends that.

His feet movement remind me of Yang Style Tai-Chi Chuan (Taijiquan) 'Long' Form -- which I studied back in the day. Of course, the stick is wielded differently from open hands but when my body registered its connection to Yang Tai Chi, I always loved doing a free form of it with a staff in my hand.

This is one very good reason why I find myself where I am today. I was trying to get back there.

That doesn't make it any easier to learn this stuff, as the moves in succession are quite complex.

In contrast with, say, the Hanbo as taught -- a lot of the drill work is a grunt and come again style --akin to karate kata.

Hanbo is also very much a walloping art.

Since one of my initial aims was the MOVEMENT of the body rather than the waving of the stick, Kanayama ticks my boxes.

Nonetheless, I'm signed up for Kali (the Filipino martial art) because its logic is spot on reality, rather than being ruled by a far off tradition. Wonderfully engaging drills that train you up thoroughly.

Of note is that many Jo staff approaches are held hostage to their particular martial arts school where they are deployed as an adjunct to techniques. Aikido's use of the Jo is a good example... or the presumption that the moves facilitate stick to stick fighting.

In contrast, I think Kanayama belongs to the tradition where you merge with the Jo. Check out Kono Yoshinori.

The Hanbo vs my other sticks (Jo and Kali)

2021-06-26T14:48:00.003+10:00

The epitome of a wacking stick: the hip high Hanbo.

My drill sizes are Kali stick > Hanbo > Jo staff.

My Hanbo could be a thicker gauge to be proper --ouch! -- but this one moves through the air with a lot of power and a threatening whoosh!.

The Kali stick is as long as my arm. The Jo staff comes up to my armpit...and the Hanbo is your standard walking cane/stick height(that is to your hip). Mine is made from layered bamboo that began life, like my Jo, as an Oates mop handle.

Cheap.

For those not in the know, I appreciate the Hanbo because it seems not to be contaminated by Kendo et al -- which means it isn't designed for fighting against swords.

Given that this is the 21st century, I thought the likelihood I'd be accosted by a villain wielding a sword ('Kill Bill' franchise notwithstanding) was very slim.

The Hanbo is designed for arm breaking, knee capping and head bonking.

And, like the other sticks, has a range of drills/katas/ and aficionados you can imitate and practice. To locate its usage within the martial arts spectrum -- the Hanbo has been adopted by Bujinkan Ninjutsu.

It is deployed in similar mode to the Irish Antrim Bata (just think Shillelagh) ...

The Hanbo also suggests that Granny could become a lethal weapon.

WHICH STICK?

I now have to choose which stick to use, when.

Unfortunately, I love all my sticks. Each requires a different skill set. The main difference is that the Jo is generally a two handed stick. -- and that raises a lot of possibilities in way of deflection. The other two -- the Hanbo and Kali -- also require you to work in close which isn't my preferred way to defend my good self. I'm thinking I have more control over my physical health at a distance.

If I seek to kill someone or maim them -- I suspect the Hanbo offers the bitterest blow. That's despite my Hanbo being of narrower gauge than the punitive norm and cut from the same material as my Jo.

For walking about the 'hood I still prefer my Jo as a walking stick as the Hanbo isn't so easily twirled.

Indeed, I can use the Jo in place of the other two sizes with very little adaption to length required -- that is, once I worked out how to use the Hanbo instead of the Kali stick for many Kali stick moves.

But once I master some chosen Jo and Hanbo katas anydifference are sure to be less pronounced.