Hey this is my first post although i've been looking at this forum for a while. i've been interested in ma for most of my life but have never study an art seruisly(although i have trained at a tkd mcdojo) and recently i have become very interested in ima, especialy hsing-i, but living in a small town limits my training oportunity's. i plan to travel one day and maybe even study ma with authentic masters but intill then is there an art u would recomened that would prepare me for learning hsing-i. locally the only ma training i can find localy is mma, some tai-chi(but mostly for health) and a kung-fu dojo that looks promising www.mousavi.co.uk so what do uyou think?

i really recommend a united studious of self defense school. They have some of the best masters training your teacher and they actually know how to teach. Search them and find out for your self there should be one close to you.

Personally I'd recommend the Tai Chi. At least you would be able to pick the body intergation that you need to have for Xingyi

thanks for your replies. the tai chi around me is mainly for health, will it still be useful? i've got B.K. Frantzis' book 'the power of internal martial arts'(great book) and in it at one point he mentions when he trained in hsing-i in tokyo many of the other students were karate dan grades, and great fighters so would it be useful to pravtice some karate other the others?

p.s. the kung fu dojo does look good but its about an hour away from were i live so its really a last resort.

[QUOTE]the tai chi around me is mainly for health, will it still be useful?[/QUOTE]

If they teach the principles correctly, yes.

If I am right, I thought that BK Frantzis learned Xingyi when he was in Tapei, Taiwan. Sure some of the other students had Karate 'dans'- however, the Karate taught over there is much different than the majority of the Karate that you see in the states.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend an EMA before going into an IMA, however, if an EMA is all that is available, then you will just have to make due with what you have.
The reason I would learn Taiji is because you don't have to unlearn some of the habbits that you will inevitably pick up with EMA training. Habbits that will impeede progress within Xingyi.

thanks fisherman the advice is appreciated, i actualy live in the UK but i think its the same here. i'm going to search for some a good tai chi class around were i live. tanks agian.

yea if you start with an EMA your certainly going to develop some external habits that are going to be hard to break once you start learning internal.

Take the tai-chi. If anything ask the teacher and students there about more martial applications. Also ask the teacher if he knows anyone in the area that will do private training and whatnot.

You really don't have to limit yourself to what you find in the phone book ect ect. There are probably alot of good teachers in your area that don't actively seek students out, but if you are introduced you may find yourself with a private instructor which would be 100x better anyway...in my opinion.

The I-Chin-Ching would also serve you well as a precursor to Hsing-I, so says Master Ji-Ru of the Buddhist Temple in Chinatown, Chicago.