Crazy Baji Dude

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm sure as hell impressed. How can I get this fast and crisp? (Something more helpful than, "Practice.")

Very, very nice. Love that combat application; poetically deadly. Some of the stepping he does has a Xingyi element to it. Suddenly I feel extremely motivated to intensively train Baji & Xingyi!

Hmmm, the guy is fast and crisp, but BAJI???? This kind of energy would be great for fanzi or mantis or something. It actually reminds me a lot of when Jet Li, who is a fanzi expert, does some super fast baji in a scene from fist of legend. I say for good baji, look more at like Lu Baochun and some of clips posted in previous threads. This is just the wrong idea for baji IMO...interesting though.

Whether it's Baji or the Carebear Stare, this guy would waste me and I would love to have his speed and precision at my disposal, no matter what art I'm doing.

Most good Baji I've seen has been performed a bit slower than this, but to me, it still looks alot like Baji. The stomping, striking, and gravitational power all look highly reminiscent of Baji IMO. Though, it seems there's also some Xingyi influence in his movement, which I think is pretty cool. Even if it isn't pure Baji, it's still pretty impressive. I didn't even think of the Fist of Legend scene, but it does look alot like that form.

Quick and precise movement like this utilizes quick-twitch muscle fibers. A good way to develop this kind of movement is to train with resistance bands. Nice thing is they're pretty cheap and easy to carry around. Try doing some basic Baji drills (like the Lenny) while holding a band. You could probably even perfrom the entire Xingyi basics routine while holding a band; that might be pretty darn effective.

Also--and probably most importantly of all--just train with the intent to get faster and more powerful when you're doing forms. Try to not let yourself laze through the motions, really push yourself hard with each set.

Hear me out though, I still think it's important to see why this is somewhat problematic. This guy's performance of baji, to me, would be analogous to a musician playing along to say a Beatles tune and just randomly breaking out into Steve Vai-esque heavy metal shredding. The shredding is impressive, but does absolutely nothing to add to the value of the song, and infact, ruins the feel. My opinion is that this performance is less than artful. There are indeed moments that are quite good and I am not meaning to disparage his skills, but I find it quite masturbatory overall. Another way to think of it would be to imagine using a taiji-like feel to perform long fist. It just isn't appropriate to dink along to a style that is meant to be more dynamic, athletic, and acrobatic. That doesn't mean that there wouldn't be some useful ideas to come out of experimentation, but most normal people masturbate at home in private. Then again, I guess most of us martial artists aren't particularly normal. I just find it odd to basically say, "Hey, check out my baji.", and come out flying, bam bam bam bam bam bam!!! Just like it would be a bit delusional to say, "Check out how awesomely I play this love ballad!", junk jigga junk jigga junk jigga junk, jow jowjowjowjow jowjow, boop boop boop boop boop boop boop, meedeleemeedeleemeedeleemeedeleemeedeleemeeeeee!!!!!! (Strong Bad reference there if you are familiar).

Lol, good analogy Blake. Haven't seen Strong Bad, nevertheless, I see your point. I remember when John said that martial arts tend to attract weirdos--perhaps we are strange indeed (though, not as strange as many others out there :p).

Idk, I kinda like the added flashy speed in the performance, but to each his own. Now, I'm not sure if I'd like a heavy metal version of a Beatles song. I thought Type O Negative did a pretty good cover of Day Tripper; probably not everyone's cup of tea though.

My music knowledge/tastes probably wouldn't seem very sophisticated to you guys, but I get the point of the message, even if it's in a language I don't completely comprehend. Anyway, I do agree with you, I'd just like to achieve the kind of speed, precision, and body control that that guy has. It may not be the greatest baji, but I have to be honest and say it's better than I'll ever do. I'd also love to have Lu Baochun's power and many other people's many other things. I'm often impressed by some dancers (even people like Lady Gaga) at how connected they are in their movements, much more than a lot of the amateur martial artists I've seen (including myself). That doesn't mean they could take me in a fight ;-)

My post was partly intended to see if anyone was even still alive out there. It's been dead here lately.

Been dead here too--this snow is crazy! Need to get a collective of qi-heat to melt it all away .