Xingyi Chicken Form

I made a day trip down to see my Xingyi instructor, Jake Burroughs, north of the mean streets of Seattle yesterday.
On the agenda was learning my sixth of the animal forms in our Xingyi system. This was the chicken, or as I like to call it; The Fighting Cock!
The Chicken/Rooster/Cock form is a flowing but powerful set with applications that include fist, palm and knee strikes, a projection, a cross-body arm-drag throw, evasive movement and eye gouging. As usual, in review of my training video I really look like a stumble bum when I first learn these forms, but after weeks of practice it starts to smooth out.
After about an hour and-a-half of form and applications, we finished with Jake beginning to teach me Tim Cartmells "Ground-proofing" system. This is geared to provide strategy for what to do when you are knocked to the ground, how to safely return to a fighting position on your feet, etc.
This is an important aspect to get my 51-year-old wrestlers body used to ground fighting again.

If you are interested in this kind of training in the Seattle area, contact Jake through his Blog "The Ground Never Misses" and "Three Harmonies Martial Arts Center". Jake's a great instructor.


And if you doubt the fighting ability of Chickens, here is a re-post of my Turkey vs. Rooster story from 2009: "Turkeys; Fear The Lowly Rooster!"

When I was running the farm down in Oregon, I had lots of animals, many of which tasted pretty good.
One year I bought six Turkey chicks. Out of the six, one died right away. I fed them out, and when Thanksgiving rolled around I butchered two and a friend butchered a third for himself. That left two very lucky Turkeys.
As it happened to be the Presidency of George Bush senior, I named the male George, and the female Barbara. I figured I'd keep them around until we needed to eat 'em.
All winter long I watched with disgust as the birds drug themselves through the mud at the farm, eating bugs and wheat shoots coming up in the field. They didn't look so appetizing as they battled winter storms and made themselves a general nuisance.
Winter turned into spring, a new girlfriend (now my wife) moved in and the nuisance became a hazard. It seems that Barbara couldn't stand having another female to compete with, and took to flying up in my sweetheart's face. At thirty pounds, that's something to watch out for. I gave her what we called "the Barbara stick" which my sweetie swung mightily and beat some respect into that bitch Barbara.
Now George on the other hand, well he became the life of the party. He would chase anything with a motor. Tractors. Cars. Lawnmowers. Anything.
We would have parties where George would wander in and out between the legs of the guests and stomp his feet and hiss. My buddies would pour beer on his head just to watch him turn purple with feigned Turkey rage. George thought he was top cock.
At times when I let my chickens out to free-range, George decided he hated one of the Roosters. He was at least three-times the Rooster's size, and chased him relentlessly for weeks on end.
Finally the Rooster had had enough, and learned how to fight back. While George the Turkey would try to use his size and weight to bear down and stomp the Rooster, the Rooster figured out how to expertly duck under the Turkey's wing and come up spurring from George's blind side. Over and over he bloodied that Turkey George, and before long it was the Rooster that was top cock. Now we watched with amusement as the Rooster chased huge George the Turkey all over the farm.
Lesson learned?
The mobility, agility and sheer willpower of the Rooster overcame the immense bulk of George the Turkey.

And here's Lou De Xiu performing a very dynamic version of the Xingyi Rooster: