Favorite 3 BSL Sets

[JamesC]

I know Wing Lam taught them all out of order too.

Which really makes you wonder why they are numbered the way they are...

[GeneChing]

When the BSL 10 are complete, they are meant to be practiced in order from 1 to 10. They are taught in the order of simplest to the most complex. The simpler sets are in the middle, the first five (4-8) as we used to call them at Lam Kwoon. They are shorter and sort of like wind sprints in the middle of the work out. #1 has all of the kicks, in order to get your legs warm. #2 & #3 are long and complex. The final #9 and #10 are the most sophisticated, left for the end of practice. That's the simple version, but I'm sure you get the idea.

If you could pick 3 sets from the 10, with each form having a clear progression and purpose, which would you choose?

Okay, that's a different question. I would go with #5, #1 & #10. That would be for teaching order. In practice, it would be 1 -> 5 -> 10.

[JamesC]

Good to know Gene.

I have considered getting some of the BSL videos for exercise purposes. I am a tightwad though

[Jimbo]

When I lived in Taiwan, I studied Changquan (Northern Long Fist) for a couple years. One of the styles of it was Cha Chuan (Zhaquan), a.k.a., Jiaomen Changquan (Islamic Long Fist). Besides 10 Roads Tan Tui, of that style, I only learned 2 of the sets:

Si Lu Zhaquan (#4 road)
Wu Lu Zhaquan (#5 road)

I read somewhere that very few Zhaquan practitioners, even masters, have all 10 Zhaquan sets. Also, Zhaquan is actually not Bei Shaolin, since its roots are Hui (a Chinese Muslim group), not Buddhist.

I also trained some Mei Hua Long Fist.

On a side note, Long Fist in general is considered an ideal base from which to study other northern systems. I personally never warmed to Northern Long Fist, although I found the sets/techniques fairly easy to do at the time. Many of the Long Fist teachers de-emphasized the application aspect. Nonetheless, I still have a healthy respect for the combative roots of Long Fist.

[bawang]

learning multiple forms really started in qing dynasty because the boxing ban caused multiple lineages to shrink down to one person

a kung fu style usually has a mother fist form that all the lineages share and the rest unique forms are redundant