Bagua & Xingyi Seminar

It’s difficult to think that you’ve not heard of Allen Pittman before, because, to be honest, he is a Legend. He was one of the first few to write books about the Chinese Internal Martial Arts (or 內家 Neijia) in English!

He’d probably tell you not to think of him that way, showing extreme humility, but you can rest assured that you’d get some amazing training by this man.

Allen has been a personal friend of mine for years. I’ve studied a bit of Baguazhang, Xingyiquan, Taijiquan, Qigong, and other topics under his guidance. He is personable, friendly and fun. And above all else – the breadth and depth of his knowledge and experience is a bit over the top. And yet, also quite true and real.

As a matter of fact, Allen was our very first interview on our martial arts podcast awhile back, which you can listen to or download. And then we interviewed him a second time. (If you dig that, you might like to see our listing of Martial Arts Podcasts.)

As you might have guessed, Allen Carroll, our previous resident Xingyiquan teacher, was trained by Grand-daddy Pittman.

Allen Pittman has traveled the world for 40 years apprenticing in yogic, healing and martial arts traditions. He has worked as Teacher, Therapist, Trainer and Bodyguard with people of all ages and cultures. He has written several books and numerous articles and also produces educational DVDs. He founded Physical Training Traditions (PTT), for which, ironically, Sifu Kiessling was the webmaster, in 1985 and has served as bodyguard to H.H. the Dalai Lama, Andrew Young, Ralph Nader, Richard Gere, and Deepak Chopra, to name a few.