the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

I would like to take this time, to those who are interested, to give you guys a quick review of spending four days training and learning from Serge Augier. First I would like to start off with thank Serge for being such an open and very funny teacher, I learned a lot and was very comfortable. Serge can hit HARD, and with no apparent effort on his part. Its scary how much damage he can produce from short distances and what seems to me at least very little effort (looks like he was just waving his arms, it was insane). I learned different ranges of engagement, striking, and joint locking on these 4 days. He was also kind enough to let two of my cousins train who are boxers that have fought in the golden gloves, and the strikes they received from Serge where the hardest they have ever been hit. I would go further into what we have done but I would not like to over step my bounds and get into any heavy detail, (even if I did i would be terrible at explaining it due to my very low understanding of the internal arts). If there is any questions I would be happy to answer if I am able too, I also know Serge and his student Arnuad both are posters here so maybe they can chime in and give better details to those who are interested.

So bottom line is if you have a chance GO SEE Serge, you will not regret it, awesome martial artist and human being. I will go back now nursing my many bruises......ouch.....

-Rob

A big + 1

Serge is the best. Such a clear teacher and a true pleasure to be around! To echo the above and as I have said many times here, if you have a chance ... jump at it!!!

Glad you had a great time rob!

Thanks for chiming in Middleway, I have a hilarious story that I don't think Serge would mind me telling. He was showing me strikes form push hands/spinning hands range of engagement, how many strikes can be hooked to strike the back of the head. He demonstrated by slapping me on my back. No big deal, the slap didn't hurt as bad as the rest of the stuff he showed, (did i mention before ouch?). When I went back to my hotel to shower, my cousins told me to look in the mirror and to look at my back. i had a perfect HAND PRINT of where he slapped me!!!! You could even see the pads of his hands embedded perfectly in a nice looking bruise. It lasted two day before it disappeared....from a strike that was not even close to anything with any juice in it.....let that sink in. I know it would normally sound like BS but this was proof on my own body. Seeing is believing, and I am truly blessed that Serge was nice enough to hold nothing back.

-Rob

Dear 100kilos, congrats on training with Serge. I had the opportunity to see him in a seminar organized by Alex Kozma. As I wrote in another post Serge has the ability to explain the most difficult-inner-in depth things with the simplest way!! So thanks for sharing your experience and story!!

Best
Evaggelos

Hi Rob,

It was great having you and your cousins with us last week!

It's great that your cousins felt the difference with 'boxing strikes', very different experience indeed!

Internal martial arts are very efficient when you have a great teacher and appropriate trainings ;-)

See you soon,
Arnaud

Hi Rob!

Thanks for sharing your experience with Serge and Arnaud in Chicago!

I can attest to what you have felt from Serge. It is quite exceptional but can only fully be appreciated when felt in person I think! So if anyone has the chance to attend a seminar or go to Paris they should!
If that's not possible at all, there is also the way of online distance learning. A few times we have had visitors in class doing the online distance learning and I am actually very impressed with what they have gotten out of that in terms of movement quality!

By the way, we are a small group here in Copenhagen training Ba Men Da Xuan under Serge, feel free to have a look at www.daxuanschoolcopenhagen.com

Martin

Hi Rob !

Thank you for sharing your experience with us (Ouch is always a good sign )
I remember very well the first time me and my brother met Serge in Paris in 2004. Serge showed us so fast what the internal fighting arts are all about (intention and power) !!!
His teaching and methods to develop the internal qualities are adamant. This is the Real Deal !!
We have been students of him ever since and have been given the permission by Serge to teach in Norway, Oslo. Please feel free to contact us through our website http://www.daxuanschooloslo.com

Again to all of you that have not had the opportunity to train with Serge I strongly recommend you to do so !!! The internal fighting arts do still exist !!!

- Henning, Oslo, Norway

Hi Rob

Thanks for sharing your experience of training with Serge.

I think everyone who has trained with him would agree that his level of skill and power are something else!

His teaching is very precise and clear and his tradition has a very clear way (with exercises) to train and develop the qualities he shows. This applies to all of the aspects of his teaching, physical, nei dan, shen gong etc

All of his students are developing these qualities through the training and their development is very easy to see very quickly after starting.

For those who are interested in the deeper aspects of taoism he's also teaching:

- The cultivation of the Human Qualities (body-mind-breath)
- The knowledge of the Changes of the World (Yi Jing)
- The Science of Destiny (Bazi, Ziwei Du Shou)
- Taoist Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine
- The Art of the Forms (Feng Shui and Morphopsychology)

For those of you who are interested and live near Paris or are happy to travel, I highly recommend training with him in person.
Contact through his website www.sergeaugier.com

Serge also has a great distance learning program.
http://www.sergeaugier.com/enseignement-distance-en/
I've had the oportunity to meet a few of the students who only study this and they are developing good physical qualities from this way of training.

If you are in London I teach on Sundays in East London.

There are also classes in Gloucester uk, Oslo, copenhagen, Chicago, Hong Kong and Melbourne.

Have a look at the contact sections on for a link to the other locations: www.daxuanschoollondon.com

Darren

that is always a great pleasure to share some of the Internal Concepts with motivated guys.

i had a great time in Chicago, thanks to Arnaud, Caroline and Jeremy, and i really enjoy meeting some of the students

I was happy to see interested boxers, open minded, and to show some of the Internal qualities of the Daoist Arts.

it's meeting people like this that makes me travel !

remember, there is no other secret than hard work, with good teaching, and it does work !!!

Thank you to Rob, Rocky, Joseph and my students in Chicago !

There's a lot of skepticism when it comes to the internal arts. But after a little reading, one can find that there has to be something to be learned from the internal arts. I have fought kyokushin karate, boxing, wrestled in high school.. And after meeting Serge all of my doubts on the internal arts were smashed. I've never been hurt to the body before and without any effort, Serge made me fold. Smile and all. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face when I felt that. Aside from that he had a realistic approach and didn't have the "my style is the answer to all styles" ego that is seen often. Every exercise was given with the right information to internalize what was happening. His students had the qualities he was teaching. I can tell you that I definitely see myself traveling to Paris for some more. My deepest respect to Serge, Arnaud and Jeremy. I'm humbled and motivated. I had a blast and can't stop talking about my experience

and you will be welcome in Paris!

you can meet all the guys...and they have the same qualities (the one who do the efforts)

it was a pleasure meeting you !

see you soon

Already saving up for Paris.

I am definitely excited to see some shen gong exercises to put into practice. This has also interested me very much.

So did the boxers get in and mix it up

Hello Wayne Hansen

Rob was nicely talking about my little teaching in Chicago, I was only teaching internal art at this time, we were not exchanging.

When you go learn boxing, do you « mix it up » with the trainer?

Is this question about fighting ability?

I would not be very good at boxing, I think…the gloves, the distance of sparring…not what i can do.

Can I defend myself? yes, I think so…but it is not the subject there, is it ?

The subject is that I can teach you to get better at martial art and spiritual work, i am a teacher.

All my students will spar with anybody, the students who chose to learn martial arts.

Most of my students practice for spirituality, not fighting.

But sparring and fighting are not the same thing at all and the older martial arts are made for self defense, not for sparring.

And, of course, I invite you to visit us sometime, wherever we can meet, to see how we train.