Any fellow martial artists out there? Martial arts are definitley an obsession of mine, or at least the closest thing I have to an obsession (besides my loving fiance of course), even the ones I don't practice, I still find them fascinating to learn about.

I currently practice two forms of Neijia kung fu: Gao style Bagua, and Chen style Taiji. As soon as I'm done with these two, my teacher is going to teach me Hebei style Xingyi.

I really like the internal (or neijia) arts because they feel more me, some people like to argue and say stuff like chi and internal strength don't exist...but these people have obviously never sparred with an internal arts teacher. My first day of class, my teacher put a giant phone book in front of my chest, and it looked like he hardley tapped it, and it sent me flying across the room. Chi is very real.

Anyway, any other martial artists?

damn, sounds awesome man. I really wanted to get into it, but it's always been too much money or time or no one worth learning from. Yours sounds like the real deal though. Good luck.

Question: have you ever had to use what you know?

To answer your question Melancholy Rocket, no, I have not had to use it yet, and I hope it stays that way. See, it's a very deadly martial art if used right (all three are), and when we learn the applications to the forms, it's usually something that would either leave your opponent paralyzed, or dead. However, it is very effective once mastered, but it takes a long time to do correctly.

My teacher will teach you for fifty dollars a month, no more, no less. And I noticed you're from michigan, I am too. Which area in michigan are you from, maybe I could PM you some information about the class? Hell, I could give you contact information for ever legitimate kung fu teacher in michigan if you'd like.

forgive the double post, but I found this video on youtube thats a xingyi vs. bagua (two of the arts I do) that shows a lot of the form to fighting applications. You might be interested in this Melancholy Rockit.

It's seven minutes long, but if you watch at least the first couple minutes of it, it'll give you a good idea of what to expect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiVHkKV-Zrk

I am a world champion in Teakwondo but I don't do it any more cause of medical problems but I always wanted to go back to it. Although now I swim and all thoughts of Teakwondo are well and throughly gone.