Gongfu Crew

This episode features the fascinating style of Wuzuquan, or Five Ancestors Boxing. Itself an amalgamation of different martial arts traditions, it is also one of the more famous southern styles of Kungfu. Our guest, Russ Smith, shares insights from his long martial arts journey, which began with Okinawan Karate and later led him to Five Ancestors Boxing. We dive deep into the varied training methods and the intricate philosophy of this southern style.

In this episode we dive into the practice of Bajiquan within the Wutan tradition, founded by Liu Yunqiao in Taiwan. Vincent Mei, who learned the art in Taiwan and is now teaching it in NYC, shared his insights with me. We talk about the approach of training with Wutan, focusing on the specifics of Bajiquan power generation and partner training, as well as the differences between Chinese martial arts and other martial traditions.

For more info on Vincent, including his online teaching efforts, go to https://bajishu.com/

You can also check out his channel wutanusa on Instagram.

This episode will focus on the training methods of Yiquan (Mind Boxing). My guest is UK-based Paul Rogers, who has been practicing and teaching Yiquan for decades. He shares his understanding of the method, its theory and practice, and his collected insights based on a long journey in Chinese martial arts.

More info on Paul on his website: https://internalfightingarts.eu/

This episodes deep dives into Xingyiquan, one of the so-called internal martial arts, usually grouped together with Taijiquan and Baguazhang. It was quite influental during the Republican era on the Chinese mainland, where its practitioners were known for their martial skill and fighting prowess.

I had the opportunity to talk to Byron Jacobs, who was fortunate enough to learn from Di Guoyong, himself one of the most renown Xingyi practitioners of Beijing. Byron is also very active in the online martial arts community through his Mushin Martial Culture platform and the Drunken Boxing Podcast. In addition to that, he recently published the well-received book "Dragon Body, Tiger Spirit", a translatation and explanation of the Xingyiquan classic texts. You can find it in the shop on his website:

https://www.mushinmartialculture.com/our-story

In this first full episode of the Podcast I had the opportunity to talk to Will Wain-Williams, the man behind the Monkey Steals Peach channels. The style of Kungfu that he studied himself for many years is Taiji Meihua Tanglangquan, a form of Praying Mantis Boxing. He introduces the style and goes in-depth regarding its goals, training methods, techniques and tactics. At the end of the episode we also come back to Monkey Steals Peach and talk about what comes next for the channels.

Find out more about what Will is doing here:

https://monkeystealspeach.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnWbYukwGkgW3W1PBVfWEMA