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What is Long Fist Kung Fu?

From About.com

Long Fist, or Chang Chuan, is a general name for several northern styles of kung fu, including Mei Hua (Plum Flower), Cha Chuan (Cha style), Fan Zi (alternately known as Tumbling or Flashing/Lighting Fist), Shaolin and others.

Common features of long fist styles are lower, extended stances, reaching hand techniques and a variety of kicks of various difficulty levels. Long fist tends to be, overall, a very evenly focused style as well, not over emphasizing any one type of technique over another.

There is often some confusion about long fist. Many think that it only consists of the athletic, acrobatic version most often seen today thanks to the growing popularity of China's national sport, Modern Wushu. However, long fist was first a grouping of traditional styles, and the modern forms are loosely based on traditional techniques and routines.

For your learning pleasure, I have created this online tutorial of a basic long fist form. It consists of 4 distinct sections, each repeated once on each side. This form was actually a beginner's training form around 1972 in the earlier days of China's modern wushu program. Enjoy!

Yi Lu Chuan Video - Entire Form

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

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