Sunday, January 01, 2012

Summarising Matsuda Ryuchi's "拳法極意-発勁と基本拳"

As mentioned, I was reading Matsuda Ryuchi's (松田隆智) newest book, "拳法極意-発勁と基本拳" (roughly translates into "Secret of Martial Arts - Generating Force and Basics"). In the book, he talked about 5 martial arts styles and their basics, which he felt is the essence of martial arts. I have taken the liberty to list the various basics in each of the 5 martial arts styles that he mentioned in his book.

八极拳 Bajiquan
马步站桩功,单挂掌,单劈手,白马翻蹄,盘提步,鹞子穿林,熊步沉坠功,马弓捶,冲捶

形意拳 Xingyiquan
三体式,劈拳,崩拳(and 钻拳,炮拳,横拳)

心意六合拳 Xinyi Liuhe Quan
刮地风,单把,横拳,挑领,鹰捉虎扑,斩手炮

翻子拳 Fanziquan
一步三拳,连珠炮动,八翻打

陈氏太极拳 Chenshi Taijiquan
八门劲,缠丝劲,弹抖劲

Matsuda-sensei is focused on his search for the strongest punch, which is why his book focuses so much on punches and how to generate force for the strongest punch. It is not necessarily about the strongest/best style of martial arts, or which is better than which. If you are already a practitioner of any of these styles, it may be beneficial to focus on these basics. And if you are not, and wish to broaden your base, these basics from these 5 styles may be something good to work on while remaining dedicated to your own central style.