Each time you step with any of the 5 elements you turn that step into a kick. This should almost look like a slightly longer slightly higher step.

There is no chambering, no wind up, no preparation of any kind. your step simply becomes a kick in one smooth motion.

Think about running to kick a soccer ball. if you hesitate or pause to adjust your footing before you kick someone will take the ball. Your step and your kick must be one and the same.

No take all 5 fist and work out the timing until you can flow with all of them while kicking.

A Decoy is a person, an object or an event that is ment to distract or draw the attention of your prey or your opponent so that you can gain an advantage.

This principle is centuries old and is used in many different ways by game hunters, the military, criminals, law enforcement and many others. Most of the arts from south-east Asia use decoy and many have refined this tactic to a very advanced level of skill.

Even an art like Xing Yi which has a very aggressive, direct, straight-forward, attacking type of approach still uses the principles of decoy.

Shaking Hands

The ‘Shaking Hands’ exercise is a great way to begin learning about the use of decoy in Xing Yi and it is an important tactic in many situations.

Pick any of the 5 fists. Stand in that posture. Now extend your forward hand as if you want to shake hands with your opponent.

Timing is critical

As you close on your opponent (Xing Yi is a closing art) you extend your hand as if to shake hands.

If you do this too early your opponent will have time to see what you are doing and respond appropriately. If you extend your hand too late your opponent will never see it. They’ll already be responding to you.

The correct timing is usually about 2 full steps away from your opponent. You want to give your opponent just enough time to see your hand but not enough time to fully process it.

Work with a partner who can give you feedback and help work out the timing.

Gain the Advantage

Your opponent will either ignore the hand (simply hit them with it) or they will respond. They might flinch away from the hand. They might attack the hand. They might even shake your hand.

As soon as you feel contact with the front hand you simply continue with whichever fist you are using or whichever is most appropriate and run them over with it.

While your opponent is responding to the decoy (your front hand) you are doing something else.

Work this with all 5 fists and remember to hide your movement. Your opponent should never see your other hand coming.

This one is very important.

Imagine your body is a jumble of loosely stacked Lego’s. Your job is to take all those Lego’s line them up neatly and press them together firmly so there’s no extra space.

To do this stand in San Ti and relax. Feel your body weight sink into the ground. The more you relax the more your body settles filling in any gaps in your structure.

At the same time correct your alignment. Make tiny micro corrections as you sink. Continue to work on coming closer and closer to perfection.

Start with the feet.

Relax. Let the foot spread out as any tension dissolves into the floor.

Now let the ankle relax and sink. The tension in the ankle dissolves into the floor. Your body weight firmly presses the ankle down into the foot connecting the two so that one does not move without the other. Adjust the alignment so that the ankle is perfectly aligned with the foot.

Then move to your calf and shin. Repeat this process and work your way up the body a piece at a time.

Now do this with all 5 fists.

Shackled 2.0

Another visualization that might help is to take all the chains from you shackled practice, the ones that were swinging around loose and clanking.

Now take those chains and start stacking them inside the body. Let the weight of these chains compress and compact themselves down filling in any gaps.

If you do this correctly you will wear out your legs quickly. You may also feel a slight buzzing or tingle throughout your body.

Moving Body Connection.

Now do this while moving.

You may need to pause several times at different places in the movement and fix errors in your alignment or body state.

continue practicing until you can move quickly and fluidly while maintaining this body state.

Start slow

• This entry will add a great deal of power to your movement.
• It will help you fix structural errors.
• Your movement will become more fluid.

Cover your body with great big shackles and chains.

Imagine your body is covered with great big heavy chains.

Feel the weight of these chains as they drape across your back, over your shoulders & around your chest. Feel them on your arms and over your elbows. Across your wrists and hanging from your fingers.

There’s a great big chain around your waist and many more hanging from your thighs, calves and toes.

Now practice your five fists.

You’ll find there are two problems.

The first is the weight. If you try to use muscular strength to support these chains you will wear yourself out quickly.

Instead relax into it and let your body sink. Make sure your posture is very correct so you can use your structure to support the weight.

The second problem is the length of the chains and momentum.

As you move, the chains will swing and sway with your movement. If you change direction or stop and start too suddenly the chains will continue moving and pull you off-balance.

To solve this problem you must move smoothly.

No sudden stops or starts.

Every corner and turn must be rounded so you can change the direction of the momentum without pulling your self off-balance.

Feel the chains hanging off your body.

The chains are imaginary but you must be able to actually feel them.

The key is practice. Start stationary and work through the five fists.

Feel gravity trying to pull your muscles from your bones and work your mind until you can feel the weight of these shackles and chains.

Now start to use very small movements with your arms until you can feel the swinging and momentum of the chains.

Now begin moving.

Use your 5 fists and begin slow. Work until you can maintain this body state while moving.

Then begin to increase your speed until you can move quickly and smoothly with this quality.

More Striking Power

Everything about power generation from the first two videos applies. Now we add continuous walking with whole body integration. This strike should have no beginning or end.

If two people hold up thai pads a foot or two apart you should be able to strike both of them with one movement and have full power at each point of contact.

This type of striking should also have a very penetrating quality to it. One key element is keeping your mind intent ahead of where you are going.

There are of course many other expressions and energies in Bagua. However the qualtiy of power I have tried to describe here is one of the hallmarks of Bagua and you will want put good deal of work into this section.

Simple Arm Breaks and Throws

Next we worked on some simple applications. Basically if the opponent sticks an arm out (like when he throws a punch) you break it using the power and movement we’ve worked on.

Depending on how the opponent responds it can become a shoulder break or a throw the key is to keep walking and make sure the power is continuous.

Circle Walking

The application of circle walking is a topic that could easily take up an entire series and in our complete Bagua program we’ll have at least 1 full video just on how to fight with Circle Walking.

To get started we worked on being able to move quickly and fluidly. Turning quickly and using this movement to get out from in front of an attacker and ideally behind them.

Never Ever Stop.

Constant motion is absolutely critical. Bagua is an art designed for 6 – 8 attackers. If you stop moving they surround you and you die.

Make sure you never pause or stop walking.

Also, don’t just practice on a circle. Use figure eights, spirals and curlicues.

Never Back Up

Drop a couple inches and turn your waist. (not your hips) You should be able to turn your upper body about 90 degrees to either side without turning your hips. If you’re walking around the edge of a circle you should be able to comfortably walk forward while facing into the circle.

With a little practice you will be able to walk forwards in any direction and see where you are going while still keeping all your attackers in your field of vision.

Moving the Center

One key characteristic of Bagua is that it moves the center. (Xing Yi fortifies the center. Tai Chi dissolves the center.)

So we worked with several partner drills to begin developing the skill of dissipating incoming force by moving the center.

Single Palm

For single palm we worked with the beginning part of the movement which is a shielding or covering type of action. You are again using the bone shields principle we’ve talked about earlier in this series.

Then add in all the evasive movement we’ve already covered and you should be able to slip your opponents attack with a very light amount of contact.

Now add the power we worked on in the first section of this workshop and what feels like light contact to you should be devastating blows to the opponent.

This is absolutely critical

Your contact with the attackers should be light and incidental. Something that seems to happen almost by accident as you move past them and on to the next.

If you’ve worked the material up to this point this “light” contact will still be very powerfull fight ending strikes.

However if you try to add power or go after specific targets or get even a little to focused on any one person…

..You will die.

You will either slow down a little to much or move into a bad position or not see something you should have.

Multiple attacker positioning

This one you probably just need to watch when I get the DVDs done.

The basic idea is that you can use your attackers to segment the space around you in a way that allows you to focus on one specific area at a time. With practice this turns into using your attackers as weapons.

Let the attackers come to you

Bagua is an evasive art designed for 6 – 8 attackers that is always moving, slipping and evading.

You can’t go after any one person because the others will get you. Yet we want to end the situation as quickly as possible because the longer it lasts the worse it gets.

The key is that for an attacker to do damage to you they have to bring something. A punch, a kick or something. When they do this they expose themselves in some way.

So as a Bagua player I want to use my positioning skills and my evasion skills to lure the attackers into bad positions that I can take advantage of while still moving and evading.

The Barbed Wire Ball

You hear Bagua described this way because it spins and rolls out of your grasp while tangling you up and doing damage with every contact.

More Kun Tao Bagua Training

We are working on a complete Bagua series. However we have to get the Xing Yi program done first so it will be a little while before the Bagua series is ready.

Look for more info about Sifu Clear’s Bagua and Xing Yi programs in the coming months. There will be opportunities to come train these arts with Sifu Clear as we film these programs.

Until then look for this video coming in early March.

This DVD is an excellent introduction for the student who wants to begin their Xing Yi training by learning how to fight instead of doing a lot of form work or standing practice.

We start by increasing your striking power right away. Building on what was covered in the first DVD with some better body integration.

Then we jump right in to the 5 elements of Xing Yi.

This is a Kun Tao method so Sifu Clear teaches you a simple and powerful fighting method with each element instead of teaching forms.

Pi Chuan – Metal – Chopping Fist

The basic method here is a series of rapid open hand strikes that take out whatever is in front of you and quickly overwhelm the opponent.

Tsuan Chuan – Water – Drilling Fist

The basic method here is a series of spiraling uppercuts that your drive with whole body power into your opponents floating ribs and kidneys (depending on the position.) This is done as a series of rapid strikes as you crowd your opponent and run them over.

Because you are in close and moving forward rapidly you are often driving your forehead into the opponents face as well.

There is also clearing action in Tsuan that can be thrown in any time you start to get jammed up. This allows you to immediately continue drilling the opponents ribs without letting up.

Beng Chuan – Wood – Crushing Fist

This is another rapid series of whole body strikes that overwhelm your opponent. However instead of the upward drilling action of Tsuan these strikes drive straight in and through. Beng also changes height quickly making a good defense even tougher for the opponent.

We continued by working with Pao Chuan and Heng Chuan while staying focused on effecting fighting application that you can learn and use quickly.

There is a whole lot more to the 5 fists…

…than what we covered in the workshop but you’ll have a solid understanding of how to fight with each of them once you get a chance to watch the DVD and work with the material a little.

We have a Xing Yi program that builds on what’s covered in this DVD coming soonish.

Fortify the Center

Next we learned more about whole body power and the principle of “fortifying the center.”

[Xing Yi fortifies the center, Ba Gua moves the center & Tai Chi dissolves the center.]

The Thorny King

This is a principle found in many styles of both Silat and Kun Tao. The idea is that no matter how the opponent makes contact they hurt themselves.

Each of the 5 Fists uses this principle with the concept of Bone Shields to make sure that each time the opponent strikes at you they run into things like elbows and forearms that are a problem for them.

Spring Power

We begin wrapping up the DVD by working on another way to generate power. This internal spring concept is an important component in Xing Yi and should be combined with the power generation methods we’ve covered already.

And last but not least is Kun Tao Sticky Hands. This is a two person freestyle drill that lets you practice your spring power and many of the other skills we’ve worked on so far.

We will begin filming a complete Xing Yi program later this year that will build on what we’ve covered here. Until then keep an eye out for the Internal Combat Arts series coming in early March.

Read part 3: Bagua

• Vol 1: Kun Tao Silat
• Vol 2: Xing Yi
• Vol 3: Ba Gua
• Vol 4: Tai Chi

In the coming week I’ll give you a sneak peek into what we covered.

This series will give folks a solid introduction into the internal arts from a Kun Tao perspective.

If you were at the workshop this weekend you walked away with a solid understanding of (and ability with) how to use these arts in a real fight.

Kun Tao Silat

Kun Tao Silat is a mixture of Indonesian (Silat) arts and Chinese (Kun Tao) arts. This art is very aggressive.

If an opponent begins to take a fighting position you don’t wait for them to finish you attack.

The first target is whatever is most available. We covered using the fist, open hand, elbows & forearms to destroy your opponents limbs.

The workshop (and video) also covers how to controlling the distance so you will not be overwhelmed by a sudden flurry or combination of strikes and how to stay out of hamburger range.

Next we worked with a couple ways of increasing your power and then knife work. Of course everything we’ve done (and will do) applies directly to blade work just as much as it does to empty hand fighting.

Power of Soft

The video then switches gears and teaches how important soft and fluid work is for defeating an aggressive opponent who is using a lot of destructions like what we already covered.

Remember Thailand is right next door to Malaysia and Indonesia. If you’re not familiar with the powerful and explosive striking of Silat & Kun Tao then think about a powerful Muay Thai fighter who has trained since the age of 5. Then add blades and groundwork and you start to get the idea of what these arts are training to do and to deal with.

Grappling

Last but not least we took a look at grappling. How Silat does it and how it deals with grapplers.

We also worked with take-downs and tackles though we ran out of time before we could get into much ground work. (of course these are covered in depth in our Kun Tao Silat Curriculum.)

If you have not yet checked out our Kun Tao Silat program this video will give you a solid introduction to several of the core concepts and it will teach you some powerful fighting techniques you will be able to learn and use very quickly.

I’m going to begin the editing process today and we’ll have this series ready for you early in march. Until then you can stop by one of our free classes at 7pm on Monday nights and learn the basics of what I’ve talked about here.

Read part 2: Xing Yi

One hand is forward. The other is back.

The front arm should hide the back one so that your opponent cannot see your back hand until after the hands switch.

Stand facing a mirror and do Pi Chuan. The front hand drills upwards and falls as the back hand drills upwards and becomes the front hand and falls.

Now adjust your position and movement until the front hand completely hides the back hand until it’s too late.

• Repeat this exercise with the other 4 fists.
• The drilling from the last post will help.
• You will need a slight angle to the mirror for Pao Chuan and Heng Chuan

Anytime you do Xing Yi the movement should be hidden.

This is a twisting spiraling force through the entire body in each movement.

Down through the legs into the ground. You’ll feel pressure on the outside edges of your feet as they try to turn outwards (but don’t let them)

Up through the body and out the arms. You should feel this spiraling help connect and unify the entire body.

It’s important to know that although you should feel this twisting through the entire body it can happen mostly internally. So you wont always see it in the movement.

Begin by working out the transitions in order. Pi to tsuan to beng to pao to heng to pi.

Then begin mixing and matching the fists until you can quickly flow from any fist to any other.