I had training with Chu Yucheng one on one for about a month (besides my tuina studies in shanghai). Master Chu is a very nice and friendly person and often corrects you with a smile.
I already have experience with baguazhang and I wanted to learn something new, additional or use my time in shanghai to see what other masters are doing. So Master Chu had a look at my bagua in the beginning and made a schedule according to my basics. He can only speak Chinese, so a bit of Chinese language skills would be good in order to study with him. Otherwise its sometimes too difficult for him to correct or explain things. We learned the 8 palm changes of his “Kiang” stye baguazhang, which is actually a mix of Li CunYis and Liang Zhenpu’s style. Not like the Liang style I have seen from Ma Chuanxu or Li ZiMing.
Master Chu’s baguazhang is very practical and straight with lots of strikes and sometimes Xingyi stepping. We also learned Li CunYis basic form called bagua wuxing san pan zhang, bagua five elements 3 levels palm. 3 forms with xingyi stepping and bagua techniques, which reminded me a lot about the famous bagua 64 hands form.
Master chu likes to show applications and keeps his forms simple and very practical. He will show you the use of each technique and how to perform it correctly. I joined one of his group classes, where partner work was a big part of his teachings.
Most people were doing xingyi quan and two of his disciples were practicing a Wudang two person form. That was absolutely interesting for me because I have been in Wudang. His two people sword form come from Li Jinglin a highlevel famous Wudang swordsman from days gone by. I would definitely like to learn this next time…
The only downside which I would mention is, that he seems to keep forgetting parts of his bagua forms and important movements which he showed a day earlier. Probably because his love is for xingyiquan and so is his teaching focus.
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