I liked it...
Before I write a proper review of this book, I'd like to start with a brief story about other teacher's opinions of Earl.
About twelve years ago I asked a local tai chi teacher on what he thought of Earl. "All that's O.K.", he replied, "if you believe in throwing chi balls at your opponent."
Goodness - people really have it in for him. I don't know why, perhaps because he's wholly, and appropriately, broken down all the bull from the alternative arts which got so badly hijacked by the demi-hippie movements of the sixties and seventies. The teacher I write of in the above statement actually tought the Chen Man Ching short form...without wishing to offend anyone out there, there's a hell of a lot more to tai chi and the realated arts then some condensation of an already watered down form. And where do these people get their ideas of chi balls? The only person I know of writing about that sort of stuff today if B.K. Frantzis, and to be frank, I wouldn't want to mess with him whether he did tai chi/bagwa or not!
Earl and his stuff gets it from both ends. People accuse him of being too 'magical' about the effectiveness of his styles, (hence the 'chi-ball' remark), or he's labelled as being just another external artist pretending to do internal. That must be where the rub really is. How can you defend yourself without being even a little bit external? Are you going to think them to death???
And so, onto the book. To be fair it's not that pretty to look at, and if you don't already have some knowledge of Bagwa then it might drive you round the twist, as it where, (sorry, bad pun). But there is still a lot to be gotten out of it, even for the novice.
The real benefits of this rather large volume, though, comes after you know a bit about the art and this style of it in particular. I've been pracitising tai chi and bagwa for nearly forteen years now, (goodnes - where does the time go?!), and this book is still a help to me even three or four years after I got it. It's a reference, that's all. No way would I want, or even fully attempt to learn the basics of Bagwa from it - the systems just too comlex. Buy the accompanying DVD, which has everything that's in the book, and learn from that.
Now, as to the content of the book - well, it's pretty superb. Earl does know his stuff, and from experience I can tell you that it works. Bagwa is incrediably good for your health and is so powerful for self defence, but it takes work and dedication.
The last point I'd like to make is that much of the stuff is external - it has to be whilst your learning the forms and practising the qi gong. It takes years of development, in tai chi and bagwa, for the style to become 'internal' - where the forms 'do' themselves at the tiniest, slightest levels. Luckily, until then we still have the benefits of the exercise from the forms and the qi, which will still circulate even at basic levels. You can't just go into these arts and 'be' internal, unless you're pretty special, because they challenge many of our beliefs about 'hard vs. soft', and because we've picked up so many bad habbits over the years.
So, it's a very good book, but perhaps not entirely for the novice. Get the DVD.
Oh, and don't buy the book. You can download it for free on Earl's site. The man seems to put his money where his mouth is.
Ironically, there are not many books on Bagwa out there, but the ones that are are nearly all good. This is no different.
Bagwa should last you a life time, and not just of mindlessley doing the forms. There are people I know who just keep coming back to it, because it has intricasies that are so challenging.
It should also be able to teach you something solid about defending yourself right from the very begining, and this does. The sixty-four palm changes are so powerful and defensive that you really should be able to deliver a hard, albeit external, blow from the off - the basic stuff is just body meachnics. In fact, I believe that Earl used to teach these to law enforcement officers in Australia who needed some way of attack/defence very quickly.
In my own opinion, after all these years of repeatedly having my eyes openned to the posibilities and effectiveness of Bagwa, I would say that, for any style of martial art class, if you walk in as a novice and don't pick up a powerful way of defending/attacking in your first lesson, then don't go back - life's too short to dilly around to another man's drum...go with your own and get on with life. After all, it is just a martial art.
And for those armchair martial artists who want pretty suits and someone they can call master and bow down to every five minutes, I say this: if you haven't had any experience of fighting for your life on the streets, then read Geoff Thompson's books - they're gruesome and horrible, and they paint an exact picture of what it's like.
Remember, Bagwa, like Hsing-I an Taiji, were developed to survive the unexpected and ultimate confrontations, and the instruction in this book reflects that - it's for life, not for the safety of the dojo.
Someone once said 'you know when you've got the right art when you fear actually having to use it', well, that's certainly true of this.
Personally, I try to enjoy it for it's health and beauty.
Long review, bit o' politics, but I hope it helps.
better used w/ videos
I've seen the criticism of Erle's BaGuaZhang book & felt compelled to offer a few words in his defence, since his training materials have been a big help to me. He provides certain insights into ChiKung & BaGuaZhang that are not easily found elsewhere-- insights that have proven their worth to me in actual practice. The scope of his materials is perhaps only matched or exceeded by the training videos offered by Dr. Xie Peiqi & He Jinbao (via Plum Flower Press).
That said I would not want to use this book without the BaGuaZhang videos he provides via his website.
Park Bok Nom's books on the subject are excellent & provide much more on fundamental training practices, but stop short of the forms. Whereas, Erle's stuff tends to emphasize the forms & their application. Together, a beginning student might just have the best resources available, short of personally training with a truly knowledgeable teacher. "Baguazhang: Emei Baguazhang" by Liang Shou-Yu, Yang Jwing-Ming & Wu Wen-Ching is another good resource.
As far as accusations that Erle's BaGuaZhang is fake... you hear a lot of that kind of bad-mouthing going on between the students of various branches. Each seems to have their claim to being the most authentic. Personally, the deeper I get into BaGuaZhang the more commonality I see: Luo De Xia is a respected BaGuaZhang artist who I also study and his teachings are not terribly dissimilar from Erle's. You need to get past the superficial differences & get to the principles at work. If Sun Luc Tang's or Ch'eng Ting-Hua's or Jiang Rongqiao's branches of BaGuaZhang are under suspicion, then Erle & Park might be accomplices.
Regarding "fa jing", Erle's approach is less mechanistic that most other's I've seen, but taken along with those who instruct on the "proper" body mechanics (like Park Bok Nom), his "angle" is worth at least considering, especially for those practicing nei gong.
And when it comes to "dim mak", who the hell knows? This stuff, it it can really be made to function, is so advanced that there are very few authorities who can meaningfully address the subject. Meanwhile, most of us have a lot of practice to do just to master the more physcial aspects of BaGuaZhang.
Erle's approach is more free-wheeling and less heirarchical than most you'll find. This may rub some people the wrong way-- those who prefer something a bit more formulaic. Clearly, Erle is doing a lot of creative and interpretive work. As there should be. We must think for ourselves, practice, research and explore; and not rigidly follow someone else's "way". This is implicit in the I Ching. And this is why there are so many different schools of BaGuaZhang-- every teacher evolves their own way of doing it based on a common framework of principles. Erle definitely has insights worth considering, as do many other BaGuaZhang teachers.
Practice then consider. There is no other way. Talk is cheap.
*sigh*
First and foremost, if you are interested in a good book on a comprehensive study of Bagua, Park Bok Nam is the way to go. This book however, all I can say is, if you are more interested in just (random) applications and learning something that goes in the complete opposite direction of real Bagua, fine, then get this book. But just remember authentic Bagua is alot smoother which can make it more effective for defense along with creating greater health benefits and coordination.
I have been told Erle has excellent Taichi stuff, I guess its true. But like some of the other stuff of his I have checked out, he seems too tied up with dim-mak applications and san-shao to the point that you forget what it is you were originally studying.
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