A Direction?

After meeting with the group last night to rehash what we learned in Vermont as well as to start to try to compile a direction for us to go forward in our training through the myriad paths of Yin Style Baguazhang, we may have settled some of the debate that I was having. A couple of assumptions underly this decision though.

1. We need much more practice on what we worked on in Vermont (true).
2. A new set of curriculum will be announced from Beijing in the spring (probably true).

Personally, my goals are to continue with my training as I have been (in terms of intensity), though the direction will be different. First and foremost, Matt told me to get stronger, so getting stronger is my immediate priority. I'm doing all kinds of "proxy saber" drills each day, back on the push-up (and other body-weight exercises) wagon, and adding all kinds of tasty things like whey protein to my diet. As for which of the directions I'll be taking per those I mentioned in my last post, I'm still unsure. We didn't discuss those ideas fully, partly because of Assumption 1 above. The group seems intent on focusing diligently on the three forms we reviewed and worked on in Vermont, the same three forms we've been drilling hard (though somewhat incorrectly) for months now. That puts me in one of two positions: forget my ambition to develop strong skills with four of the form-types or use those three form-types (moving with the force -- studied cutting, lifting and holding -- studied sweeping, and lying step -- studied grasping) as the first three to test my approach. Perhaps that is what I will bid to do in the coming 5-6 months.

This offers a bit of a compromise into how I could study the striking methods over the same time period as well (each also a "study in themselves"). Since we studied hard on the sweeping, cutting, and grasping methods, perhaps while we're trying to develop much better skillfulness with those particular forms, I should be working those striking methods diligently as well. That gives me two intersecting paths to follow, three times at least. I could use the rest of the "magic eight" to expand beyond that if time allowed, but I'm almost sure it won't. I think I will try to consider doing something like this, using one form as a basis (for example purposes, lifting and holding - sweeping, then going to the others:

• Study the lifting and holding forms, learning all eight of them, putting double emphasis (or more?) on the sweeping variety. That should give me practice with what we studied while being able to investigate its underlying theme from another set of perspectives (7 of them) as well. I should continue to practice the other two that we focused on, though more as a maintenance effort than a deep development effort (so as not to lose sight of or forget requirements, nuances, and details).
  
• Study the sweeping strikes concurrently, putting particular emphasis on the basics and those occurring in the lifting and holding form.
• Borrow stepping methods from the lifting and holding form and drill the movements from the forms as well as the basics using those stepping methods (in addition to others?).
• Incorporate standing in the sweeping palm posture (and the Dragon posture???) on a daily basis, in addition to whichever other postures suit my fancy on that particular day/week.
  

That might give a solid basis for how to conduct my standing/striking/changing practice for a month or so at the least. After that, I can change to another of the forms or continue if I don't feel satisfactory progress.

I think I'm on to something. I just hope it's not crap.

A Study in Itself

A few words that Matt Bild passed on to us in Vermont, almost as an aside, have really stuck with me and will probably shape my training for the next few months or years in a significant way. He said, simply enough, "the sweeping strikes are a study in themselves." When I heard it, I was pounding out sweeping strikes, trying to pay attention to four or six (or more) requirements I hadn't previously been aware of, trying to integrate them into my training, trying to understand their importance as well as develop the coordination required to modify that which I had done tens of thousands of times without those nuances (actually, they were bigger than nuances in a few cases). It wasn't until later that the significance of those words started to sink in and mesh with other ideas I've had, some that I've held pretty close to my chest up until now. I'm thankful my memory retained them despite the ferocity with which I was putting my body through the paces.

By extension, each of the striking methods in the Lion System as well as the other animal systems, which share a lot of techniques with each other since Yin Style Bagua is so well-knit, is also a study in itself, meaning that makes for at least sixty-four intense studies just on basic striking methods. I yearn to develop understanding of at least those in the Lion System in the coming year(s). There's more than that, though. Sixty-four interrelated studies would be easy compared with the complexity of baguazhang. There are also the themes of the individual animals and how they play a role, making for eight larger studies. There are also the forms, which appear again and again: interlocking, moving with the force, turning the back, lifting and holding (ping tua), windmill, lying step, reversing the body, and enfolding. In each system, seven of those attacking methods is addressed, and each of those methods must also be a study in itself. That's a lot of studying! Each form plays a different role slightly depending on which attacking method is being employed, but underneath the attacking methods is part of the theme of the form. Each form plays a different role within each animal system (I've deduced from what Matt said about moving with the force in the Lion System having a particular character that I didn't expect or realize), and yet within each is another part of the theme of that particular form. That's a LOT of studies unto themselves, many or all of which deserve and need attention in their due course if these methods are to be understood.

Honestly, as a quick aside, it reminds me of learning karate a long time ago. I realized at some point that you have to learn to use your upper body independently of your lower body so you could strike while moving and so that you could avoid telegraphing your techniques with your stepping. I also noted that your lower body had to be able to move independently of your upper body so that you could kick or move without giving away what was about to happen or so that you could keep your balance in awkward situations that might involve twisting, turning, kicking, fading away, jumping, or being pushed. Later, I realized that developing those independent skills was the very beginning, as long as it might take, because eventually the upper and lower body would have to work in harmony, using those individual skills as needed but more by applying their lessons to total-body movement and usage. It's like that in bagua but a thousand times more intricate.

One thing I had intended to start, probably shortly, is an in-depth study of the forms, using one attacking method at a time and studying each of the striking methods within that form. That would give, within the Lion System and its theme at least, eight perspectives on the idea of, for example, the moving with the force attacking method. I was excited and hoped to be able to investigate these things deeply enough to get through at most four of the methods in this manner over the next year. Then, I hoped, I'd have a better understanding of what those four attacking methods were about, and my bagua would benefit greatly from it. Now, I'm a bit confused as to what to approach because I never had thought clearly that the striking methods themselves are also each their own study! My head is filled with ideas, and I haven't invented a way to combine them yet.

For instance, I'd like very much to spend a few weeks or a month just working hard on the sweeping strikes to see what kind of lessons I can glean from training them in a dedicated manner. To do that, I've already realized, it is very helpful to learn all of the sweeping forms in the system because it gives eight perspectives on how to use them (the basics, characteristic of Lion, and the seven other animals-derived forms, characteristic of the Lion borrowing ideas from the other systems). That's contrary to my plan to study "moving with the force," e.g., purely for a month or two. I could blend the two endeavors, of course, studying all seven forms of a palm at the appropriate time along with focusing on those strikes and then the other seven forms of a particular attacking method, but that seems to be a lot more than life will afford me time to work on! I'm betting that concentrating on one or two things at a time is better than trying to do everything at the same time, so I'll probably hybridize but pick one road or the other to really drill. The basic striking methods seem more fundamental, so they probably should come first. Still, I was really excited about my study of the forms, so I'm torn.

For now, I'm caught in a quandary on which road to follow because I feel like they're a bit exclusive for someone with a non-bagua life to live as well. Thus, for the moment, I've only been reviewing that which we did in Vermont on a daily basis, though not nearly as hard as we did there (I'm quite thankful to be able to use things like my legs normally again too). I've also put the turning back on, but I've noticed that my (redneck-style improvised) saber drills are cutting deeply into my ability to rock out the Lion posture on the circle like I could two weeks ago.

This is one of the best parts of baguazhang. The study is too complicated and deep to ever get stagnant or boring. There is always and will always be so much to study and train.

Off to an okay start

I wish I was off to a good start, but taking off all of Thursday through Sunday and half of Monday put me so far behind that I'm only just now coming up for breath. I've trained some since I've been home, but never in that hard, fierce way I prefer to. Yesterday, I worked the saber drills I learned with a broom and then holding 5 lb. medicine balls in my hands, and I worked them several times -- enough to be notably sore today. I even did them with my katana, which was okay for a couple of the drills and for looking kind of cool with the form, but it's too light and short. It's no comparison. It's not the same as a dadao. I need to get one.

I'm going to try to turn again here in a few minutes, but I don't know how long it will last. I was up past two last night grading and out of bed again at about 7:45 this morning to pick up the torch again. Grading sometimes takes forever and can be extremely draining. I'm almost physically itching to get back to my real training, but I'm not sure I'm going to be capable of much today. I'm even vaguely dizzy and sick feeling at the moment, and I know that taking a nap will last well into the night (and therefore be a bad idea!).

What I have worked on is increasing the precision in my stepping and coordinating my body to this new pattern. I worked so hard all last year adapting my stepping to the one I noticed was most common in doing many of the drills we practice, and in doing so, I made a mistake that now just seems plain foolish. I assumed it was the proper way to step doing baguazhang. Why should it be? Bagua wouldn't paint itself into a corner with only one way to step, but that's sort of what I've done, and changing it is hard. I'm having a particularly tough time remembering to swing my leg in on a cutting-in step, especially in the Lifting and Holding forms. I blatantly see its usefulness and importance, though. I'm going to trust to what they say: hold the requirements in your mind, try to meet them, practice a lot, and your body will catch up to your intentions. I already believe it since it's not a problem really in the Lying Step.

As I'm sitting here, I'm thinking of yet another post I want to make, but I'll wait until I play with the idea in my body a little more before saying anything. Let me just put it this way: what I discussed above and what I'm thinking about (and have made a note of due to my overfull, overtired head) really impress the idea that if a person is really interested in learning Yin Style Baguazhang, that person cannot be lazy: (s)he wouldn't have time! There's so much to learn, so much to train, so much to study... missing even a day without contemplating, experiencing, testing, feeling, and working it is an opportunity beyond recall!

Redefining Can't

After an outstanding workshop in VT led by Matt, I've come home with yet another moment in my life where Yin Style Baguazhang has absolutely obliterated my previous notions of the word "can't." It did so in many ways, but none so powerfully as my rather pitiful first experience with the dadao, the bagua big saber. I wanted it to be better, willed it even, but it pretty much only got worse. My spirit was willing, as they say, but my flesh failed (and some of it hurt probably more than it ever has before -- swelling up, bilaterally, as it did). It was sad really, and I feel a bit let down with myself -- though encouraged to change!

The saber, to be clear, is totally awesome, and I was totally unprepared for it. It absolutely laid me to waste and opened my eyes fully to the fact that I really need to work on developing fuller full-body strength and coordination -- two things my bagua practice is really dependent on and currently lacking sorely. It also opened my eyes to possibilities since everyone else there handled it vastly better than I did, a point which Matt made shockingly clear when I was already painfully aware of it. He was even nicer, I'd guess, than I probably deserved on it (meaning he didn't get vituperative with me), which I'm pretty glad for because I was feeling like a major sissy. It's most accurate to say he turned up the contrast for me just enough to drive the point fully home (for which I'm thankful). I know... strength comes over time, but my showing was pretty poor nonetheless. This experience, pitiful as it might sound, was in no way negative (except the bugs, maybe, which kind of sucked).

There are many technicalities (many on vectors) I've brought home and already started to integrate into my training (yes, I trained today, the day after a workshop ended, despite getting only about 5 hours sleep, getting up at 4:30 am, traveling about 1100 miles, and having worked all day to catch up on what I missed and cover my daily usual), but I think the most profound changes that occurred for me and my training are a change of horizons, a clearer understanding of the possibilities that lie in store if I (properly and intelligently) follow the age-old advice put out so many times so plainly by JB and everyone that has earned skill in this art: "if you want to get good, practice a lot." Well, that and a firmer grasp on how to put my mind into my training and a sincere excitement to do so.

I have only a huge thanks to offer to all you guys that were in VT this weekend, thanks and a promise to use what you all gave me (salubriously).

Big Goals

I've been wanting to post for a few days now, but I haven't felt like I had anything worth posting about. I even wrote a couple of posts that didn't make it up. There was the day I turned for an hour just to remind myself that I could (it had been a while since I even cleared the 40-minute mark), there were thousands of strikes here or there, there were days of getting up early, or failing to get up early, of standing triumph, and of diminished training ability due to work and family obligations. There was even a fairly long post that I killed after typing it, retyping it, fixing it, and giving up on it discussing the nature of my bagua relationship with my brother and how sometimes I wish life put us in a place where we could train more seriously together again (and how I think it would do him good). After I finished turning today, though, I got an idea worth posting about.

The YSB workshop I'm attending this fall is literally days away. Due to my brother coming into town, my work requirements ramping up heavily, and an assortment of other minor duties to have to attend to, my training did the opposite except in the applications department. There was some turning, some standing, some of everything there is supposed to be, but not a lot of any of it. I felt guilty for slacking off, and it took a solid forty-five-plus on the circle today to give me my idea. It starts with the close of the seminar and subsequent return to "normalcy."

I realized that I respond well to big goals and poorly to small ones and even more poorly to a general absence of them at all -- meaning vaguely defined "wishes" instead of clearly delineated goals. When I say "big goals," I don't mean ones that are unreasonable or unattainable but rather ones with a rather long time requirement. One year, for instance, I committed myself to doing 50,000 pushups and twice as many crunches. I hated pushups by the end of the year, but I did them all as well as 30,000 the next year, which is pretty good considering the hatred I developed for them (sadly, this isn't the most extreme pushup goal that I've done... that was 10,000+ in 10 days, which went well enough (sucked but was met) but caused some problems -- this was not in either year mentioned above!). Anyway, I've decided to set forth some fairly large goals of that nature, though, for my Yin Style training unless information that comes out at the seminar this year directly contradicts my plan.

The time frame to accomplish these goals is "from the end of this seminar to the beginning of the (first) one I attend in Fall 2009 or roughly the same date if for some unforeseen reason that becomes an impossible stopping time."

1. Turning for ~7200 minutes (120 hours, just under 20 minutes per day, on average).
2. Standing for ~7200 minutes in strengthening postures.

You might have expected more. The list looks kind of bare now that I see it in print. Really, I just wanted to put something down for the turning and standing, which I intend to take even more seriously over the next year (as I have been really for the last few months as well). I figure 20 minutes a day on average is reasonable and attainable, particularly since the admonishment from Beijing is "an hour a day." Physically, I think that's possible (but VERY hard unless some interesting physiological/energetic change occurs after some number of days of grinding through it), but with *Life* in the way, I'm convinced it's unlikely to occur. A third of that is a nice enough understatement so that I hopefully can overshoot that by a fair percentage (I'd really like to see 10,000 minutes or more total for the year, with 12-15 being even more exciting -- doubting anything above that is very realistic). The same, essentially, goes for standing. More is awesome, but I'd rather undershoot and attain than overshoot and fail (having experience with these kinds of things, I know all too well how discouraging it can be to get a few months in and realize the near impossibility of satisfying the remaining requirements).

I'm avoiding discussing other aspects of training because if I start attaching numbers to strikes or forms, I end up focusing more on the numbers than on the training. If that starts to happen with standing and turning (which are of a different nature, so I don't think that will occur), these goals will be bailed upon forthwith!

There is a small host of other things I'd like to see happen as well, for instance

• Turn for more than an hour (continuously) per day for at least 10 days or two weeks or some such.
• Turn for at least 3 hours continuously at least once, maintaining the requirements.
• Get and close the 300 lb. gripper (several times?).
• Fix my recurrent back issue (see next point).
• Get way more flexible and nimble (i.e. do some freaking yoga like I tell other people they should do because it's really beneficial and balancing against the two main facets of my life -- sitting in chairs and training hard physically).
• Seriously train the "plank" position (maybe aim for something like 500-1000 minutes in the position over the course of the year).
• Do way more seated meditation (20-30 minutes a day seems like a good baseline).
• Finish my G.D. Ph.D. and then never do math again (just kidding about the never part... I'll just need a vacation, I think, perhaps to China).
  

I may end up with something to do with basic saber exercises too, since it looks like I might get on that path before too long (Yikes! More pillars!). Luckily (or unluckily?) I might not have to worry much about that right off because I neither have a saber nor know how to get one, making saber drills hard to do.

I suppose I'll see how it goes. I don't want these not-directly-bagua goals to mess up my bagua training, though, so they will definitely take the backseat. I'll keep you posted. HA! Posted! I kill me.