I can hardly believe it's almost here! Yin Style Baguazhang International is going to be doing a first-time seminar in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the end of September, and getting it organized is really starting to eat up some of my attention, even though I'm not the main organizer. This has caused me to pause and think... and that has caused me to pause and remember... this is an amazing situation, an amazing opportunity, and an amazing responsibility.
First of all, in Knoxville and the surrounding areas (I live in Maryville, TN, just south of Knoxville), there are a lot of martial artists, but there are very few Chinese martial arts being practiced. I suspect those things go hand-in-hand. First of all, a few of the big karate men from the Okinawan occupation period following WWII brought Okinawan karate here in the 1950's, and it's grown steadily in popularity. There is a fairly large concentration high-ranking karate folks here, and in fact, one of the biggest get-togethers in the Isshin-Ryu Karate System, the Isshin-Ryu Hall of Fame tournament and shiai, is held in the greater Knoxville area (this year in Knoxville itself). There are also a few prominent karate associations here, notably the USIKA (United States Isshin-Ryu Karate Association), and that's no particular surprise since two of the four American progenitors of Isshin-Ryu karate moved to the Southeast, one to Knoxville, after their duty with the Marines. That's made a pretty good reputation for Isshin-Ryu in this area, which was great for me because practicing Isshin-Ryu is what led to me running into a guy that also practiced Isshin-Ryu that ended up introducing me to Yin Style. Perhaps unfortunately, what has passed for Chinese Martial Arts in the Southeast has largely been a bit of a joke, particularly among the rather pragmatic karate fighters, and so the CMA scene in the Southeast is rather bad, to speak generally.
There's been a huge upsurgence recently in the Southeast, particularly in Knoxville, among people interested in practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and mixed martial arts (popularly, MMA) since the UFC gained in popularity through the 1990's and first decade of the new millennium. People here are usually "no-bullshido" kinds of folks: what works is okay, what doesn't work sucks, and that's how it is. The UFC has convinced people of the effectiveness of combining striking and BJJ, largely thanks to the Gracie family, at least in comparison to what martial arts training most people do. This growth hasn't helped the Chinese martial arts scene in this neck of the woods since much of what passes for Chinese martial arts is flowery "kung-fu" stuff that tends to get people beat in tournaments really quickly. Baguazhang is almost a complete unknown in and around Knoxville, and that's probably mostly to do with the strong karate history, growth of BJJ/MMA, and general pragmatism of the people, to say nothing of bagua's relative obscurity and "bizarre" practices (like walking in circles for maybe hours on end holding "weird" postures).
So here we are about to host YSB International: Yin Style Baguazhang is about to happen big-time in Knoxville, and there's some duty on our part to showcase this art to the Southeast and hopefully start changing perceptions: Chinese martial arts can be effective, even standing up to popular giants like BJJ and MMA in the public eye. Who better to convince them of the prowess inherent in baguazhang than He Jinbao? No one, of course, and so we've got to figure out how to get these folks interested in checking out what we're doing.
Though people in the Southeast, particularly in and around Knoxville, carry a stereotype for being backwards and country (we are kind of country, for the most part, and rather proud of it), that probably sheds an unfair light on us as far as martial arts is concerned. The trend I've noticed in the area is a strongly growing attitude of curiosity and exploration, realizing that karate isn't the whole world and that branching out into other knowledge can help, not hinder, development of both people and the arts they love and train. That attitude marries very nicely with the Southern love of the practical: if it works in the martial arts world, people in the Southeast are probably about the most likely to become very interested in it once they become aware of it, not so much as a marketing tool but out of genuine interest in developing the most effective, high-quality martial arts training that they can find.
We're hoping that this spirit makes its way to our little seminar on the last weekend of September, showing this area about a truly effective, beautiful, deep, and difficult Chinese martial art that is indeed martial while ending up with a terrific seminar for both the students and the teachers. Now... just to organize it all....
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