Stephan Berwick – True Strength Yang

Review

Stephen Berwick’s True power mode “Yang” is inspired by the basic learning process of traditional Chinese martial arts and is a remarkable result of decades of systematic study and practice of Chinese martial arts. Unlike many other training approaches, the body tightening regime presented here not only strengthens the muscles, skin, and joints, but also effectively increases the body’s flexibility and ability to withstand contact injuries. As a Chinese martial artist and professional head coach of a kung fu team in China for more than forty years, I really appreciate this method of body training that is well structured and instructed to easily follow the audience. – Bai Wenxiang, senior national Wushu coach of China, Vice-Chairman of The Chinese Wushu Federation of Shaanxi province and former head coach of the Wushu team of Shaanxi province.

It’s part of the human psyche to experience something amazing and want to emulate it. People hear a professional classical musician and want to play the whole concert themselves; see a beautiful picture and want to create their own masterpiece. Martial arts are no different. In an effort to quickly master the combat system, it is natural to strive to master the most complex movements as quickly as possible. After all, all art is based on fundamental principles, and this seems to be what Stefan Berwick’s True Yang power DVDs offer all martial arts practitioners: basic body punch exercises, in a unique training approach that stimulates and strengthens skin, muscles, and joints using only relaxed, flexible limb movement (jacket quote). There are many forms of body preparation, so we need to ask what makes Berwick’s method unique. First, his method is not completely unique, since aspects of what is presented can be found in many combat training systems. The statement on the DVD cover States that much of this comes from the Tong Bay (Back Striking) and Fanzi (Catch and Hold) Boxing systems. Many martial artists are familiar with warm-up exercises, where the hands move in repetitive patterns, flapping parts of the body in the process. Berwick has put together a lot of exercises that first work on the upper body, then on the middle part, then on the lower body, and then on the whole body. The first DVD is 87 minutes long and includes ten sections: (1) Introduction (2) Vertical kick (3) Impact turn (4) Impact kick (5) inside and out Kick (6) limb Kick (7) step limb Kick (8) bone Strengthening (9) structural Strengthening (10) Perform the exercises. Sections 1 through 9 average 5 minutes of training each, and the last section presents three training sessions using material from all previous lessons: five minutes (intensive), twelve minutes (condition), and twenty minutes (exposure). What makes the practice unique is that each involves punches; usually with the hands hitting some part of the body, such as the hip or forearm. To harden the bones, foot stomping is used, which, like other heavy-load exercises , – journal of Asian martial arts, volume 18, number 4-2009