Xilam a Martial Art from Mexico

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One of the highlights of the Cardiff Martial Arts Studies Conference was the idea that martial arts are being used for identity transformation.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, this notion is being pioneered by women and is very exciting.  Since the early 20th Century people have been trying to change their identities.  The Boy Scouts come to mind, as do the less rigid journey-into-the-wilderness Outward Bound programs, created as New Age coming of age rituals. Psychotherapy, and psychology in general, have dabbled in this notion with limited success.  Psychedelic drugs are defended on this basis in some circles. But the notion that there are specific tools of culture conceived specifically for the purpose of transforming identity may be a new idea.  

Xilam is a new Mexican martial art created by Marisela Ugalde.  I learned about it in a video presentation by George Jennings (adademia.edu).  The name Xilam means removing the skin!

This art obviously draws on Asian martial arts, but it has been reconceived.  Watch this video on Vimeo.

Or this slightly longer one on Youtube:

Here is their website.  http://www.xilam.org/

 

New Stuff Old Stuff

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Okay, now that the wood goat year has started I've got a lot to say.  But first let me get some of this stuff I've piled up for you out of the way.

1.)  This is a martial art dance form from East India.  It has material that I know from Indian Dance and from Chinese martial arts.  China and India have a lot in common culturally, but they may be a few hundred years out of sinc.  Indian is much more comfortable with its religious localism than China is, that might be the biggest difference in the current era.  

2.)  Here is some footage from the Chinese demonstration at the 1936 Olympics.  Awesome, some choreography, some games, Guan Gong wielding a halberd? what else?

3.)  Okay, everyone has already seen and commented on this video.  My only addition is that it is cool and was meant to turn teens on to archery!  
4.)  Good news, the brain heals!  Maybe we can get head-attacks back in the NFL (American Football).
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5.)  A useful discourse on the meanings of xing and ming in Daoist internal alchemy, Neidan.  I don't think this is a great place to start although it is a good exploration of vocabulary.  Think of these two terms as categories of discourse, a sort of short-hand for teaching.
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6.)  Check out this awesome collection of old-time martial arts videos!  Vintage baby!  Epic Old Rare.
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7.)  Here is the oldest Jujitsu footage ever taken.  Notice how the pre-Fascism era stuff integrated theatricality effortlessly.  
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8.)  I thought I would write a whole piece on Prince Nassem, but I never got around to it.  Everybody hates him because he was too much of a "show-off" and a case of "wildman beats the master."  But, by breaking conventions he got great results.  Okay, he eventually lost.  Nearly everyone does.  Does it matter that he lost to someone with more orthodox skills?  Watch this highlights video if you haven't seen him before.  I think people should study these outliers, he was obviously doing something RIGHT that no one else was doing. 

Snake Daoyin

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This is Daoyin from Vietnam.  Elsewhere I have explained that the Daoyin Paulie Zink does has about twenty animals, it was a Daoist religious theatrical martial training system for animal role specialists.  Paulie Zink was explicitly being taught monkey kungfu (or Tai Sheng, which means Great Sage which is another name for the Monkey King).  All the animals were at times framed as being supportive training for learning the difficult parts of the various monkey roles (there are five of them).  Another way to understand it is that monkey is just the most developed role of the twenty animal roles.  That's how he explained it to me one afternoon, but I don't have that in writing or anything.

That is why I was delighted to find this video on Youtube.  It is almost certainly the same system, the snake movements are the same, but this woman has the full blown snake role.  I would love to know if she has little bits of all the other animals or if she just learned this one?  In any event, if this type of Animal Role Specialist Daoyin is old, like 500 years old, I'm betting there were at one time experts for every single animal.  Are there any other high quality masters of animal daoyin out there?  Experts in an animal other than snake or monkey?  I know there are dog kungfu experts but that appears to be a lesser amateur style.  Are there any pig masters for instance? How about crab masters?  Or frog masters?  Send me the links if you find them!  Please.  Also I'm taking a break from Facebook so if you comment there, please comment here too.  Thanks.

I Bought an iPad Mini

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I bought an iPad Mini with a case that has handles, a tripod attachment, two lenses, and a directional microphone.  I took these four videos and then I took it back to the store so I could get more Gigabits.  The new one is on order and I should get it in a couple of days.  It is pretty fun. Getting good video is likely to be key to running a martial arts business, so I'm upping my game.  Let me know if you want me to video anything specific, you know me fighting a bunch of ninjas with nunchucks or whatever.  

If you add comments at the bottom that is great, it is also great if you put comments on the Youtube channel because that seems to spread the videos faster.  You can also subscribe to my Youtube channel, I'm trying to bust 500 subscriptions and I'm at around 450.  And of course if you share one on Tumblr or Facebook, or Google Plus or your own blog, that is probably even better.  More to come.