When Time Is Short: Training Ideas for When You're As Busy As I Am Right Now

I'm crazy busy right now. In fact, the only reason I'm typing on this is because I temporarily have a mental block on what I'm working on: preparing to defend my thesis. I've been given the task of preparing the entire defense by November 9, which is barely over two weeks away. I think usually people have the date pretty well narrowed down a few months in advance, so I figure this can only go "well." In any case, the posting will be a bit lighter than usual during this time, but when I'm kind of burnt up for the moment (as now), I'll find time for this sort of thing when I'm not squeezing in some training, which seems to help unknot my fatiguing brain.

I know a lot of folks are crazy busy much or almost all of the time, and so I think this is an appropriate topic, even if left drastically incomplete. As usual, I invite folks training other martial arts to comment and add in ideas, though I'll focus my post on what kinds of baguazhang-related training I squeeze in when my time is short.

Generally speaking, I think when your time is short, you're going to get the most out of picking one or two basic things and drilling them in bursts during your free time. Perhaps you really want to get better at a technique or a movement, nothing as large as a typical "form" or "kata," unless you practice something like Yin Style which has just short of a billion very short forms in its canon. You also want to choose things that provide a lot of bang for the buck, which means that you're taking time to carefully master one fairly complex movement or you're blasting your body with an exercise that can provide a lot of benefit in a short period of time.

In Yin Style or any other traditional art, for me the exercise that fits the "bang for my buck" bill the most powerfully is standing strengthening, which admittedly I usually go a little short on in my overall training profile. Standing strengthening practice, one of the four pillars of Yin Style training, is by necessity a shorter-duration exercise than most of the other practices. It's difficult to get a good, worthwhile session of striking training in a five- or ten-minute break between other obligations. Five to ten minutes of standing strengthening is a pretty solid set of it for most folks. It also requires a minimal amount of space since very little is in motion: just the space of a yoga-mat-sized area is needed to really rock out some standing strengthening, and those fit just about anywhere. Unlike many of the other practices, as long as you're a bit discrete, standing strengthening is easy to "sneak in" in places like your office with less likelihood of being noticed (or having security called on you thinking you're an escapee from a mental ward -- true story of a member of our group) than doing something "absolutely ridiculous looking" like turning practice or strikes. Thus, when I'm in hard-academic mode, like now, I end up quadrupling (or more) the amount of standing strengthening I do while dropping almost everything else so that I can have back-to-back fifteen-hour work days for weeks on end (weekends included).

Drilling something complicated that I want to get a basic hang of is another favorite. I do this a lot (in my house or on a quick jaunt into the yard for some fresh air and breathing space, though behind a closed door can work too without drawing too much attention) when I'm trying to gain a new skill. The back-step drills that came out of Beijing this spring are a notable example: often enough I'd have time to really go drill them and other things, but right about then, I got academically slammed and had to hang a bunch of training up for a while. When I wasn't standing, I was trotting across some room in my house (en route to the kitchen for refreshment, bathroom for relief, or back to the office for more toil) going through those back-step drills as a means of locomotion toward my destination. I might only get 6 or 8 reps in each direction, but I got a lot more comfortable with the stepping pattern and coordination in the process, and since I'd take breaks about once every hour or so, usually with three runs of this kind of thing involved, I actually ended up with a fair number of repetitions in a day, 6x3x10=180 to 8x3x10=240, which is far more than I would have had if I just gave up and said I was "too busy" to train.

Weights are a temptation in tight times. You can feel like you get a lot of effect for very little time input (pick up your nearest 25-pound dumbbell and do 20-30 bicep curls straight with it, it only takes about a minute and a half and your arm puffs and cramps up like it's going to explode, split, or fall off). The downside to this is that while you get a little strength training out of it, you don't get any martial training. Since you're not going to have enough time to really bust out some seriously good routines of either sort, I think it's better to do an exercise like a drill that builds up a skill over time rather than something that just gives me a little pump in my arm or leg, although squats are a great way to revitalize you when you've been sitting for too long (so those get thrown in sometimes anyway just to get the blood pumping quickly). Standing strengthening really seems to be a better choice, though, another reason I like to hit it hard and often in these busy periods, because it seems to really open the body up and get things (Blood and Qi) flowing and moving smoothly. Weights never do that for me, and standing strengthening is really an all-body kind of activity, so it feels a lot more complete for that short amount of time (working your whole body in 10 minutes instead of two muscle groups, for instance). If I'm in the market for something heavy to balance out my desk job, five minutes of basic drills with the saber (if I'm working at home!) usually is enough to get a fair sweat going and make it feel like I've done something -- something martial!

Speaking of having a job that keeps you crazy busy, you might not have one like I have that keeps you sedentary while you're working. If you do, then these kinds of exercises are perfect and great. In fact, they're pretty much necessary. The sitting still really starts to take a toll on your body, mostly in terms of circulation and muscular tension, after thirty or forty minutes. Your brain gets sluggish after that much time of relative inactivity also because of the less smooth circulation of blood (and Blood and Qi). Getting up and doing something that promotes its flow on at least an hourly basis (I've been told half-hourly by several reputable sources) is almost a necessity, so don't think of it as taking away from your work to stretch out and move yourself around a little.

If your job is more physical, and you're crazy busy, then you're probably too tired to train much. What you need, though, is something that puts you back together. Ironically, if you can put the heart into it, standing strengthening is great for that, as is "running through" drills, focusing more on the mental aspect of mastering the inherent skill rather than the physical aspect of putting in power and ferocity (like "learning speed" practice). Another option, one that I frequently employ even as a mental worker at a desk, is to get up and do some stretching. It's just nice for opening up the flow (again of Blood and Qi) and making me feel better kind of all over. It's not as directly martially beneficial as training would be, but being physically wrecked makes for a difficult push into some training, even if it's light.

Finally, when time is tight, there's a time that everyone has free: just before they fall asleep. Even though you're probably tired by the time you hit the pillow, on days that I'm crazy busy, I usually am a bit wound still when I lay down. This is a prime time to be opting for visualization of the techniques, skills, combinations, applications, forms, and other practices in the art, which is a very valuable constituent of good training. Even if there's no time, energy, or will to get up and really stand strengthening in between job requirements, it's quite easy to get yourself thinking about your training and training in your mind. That, my friends, is better than nothing when you're really strapped for time.

That's some of the stuff that I do when my time is tight: more standing strengthening, more running through "confusing" drills in slow/medium-motion, a couple of sets of saber basics (when apropos), stretching, and visualizing. What do you do?

Local Introductory Seminars in Yin Style Baguazhang in and around Knoxville, TN

In an effort to achieve two goals, our study group has decided that we're interested in offering the opportunity for us to come in and discuss some of the principles of Yin Style Baguazhang with friendly local or regionally located martial artists, preferably at their schools. To be clear, let me elaborate.

Mission Statement and Statement of Goals:
Mission: We, as the Knoxville, TN, study group, officially recognized by Yin Style Baguazhang International, are interested in seeing the growth of martial arts and martial artists in the area as well as promoting interest and growth in the art of Yin Style Baguazhang itself.

Goals: Our goals with these seminars are twofold -- to introduce Yin Style Baguazhang as a martial art to local/regional martial artists to enhance their training in their own arts or to generate interest in studying and training Yin Style Baguazhang directly.
Furthermore, we'd like to drum up enough interest to have more folks attend our (hopefully) annual seminar (see here for some details concerning the one that we just held) with He Jinbao of Beijing, our teacher and a true master of the martial arts with nearly unparalleled skill.

What is meant by local/regional:
Local: We live in Knoxville, TN, and some of the very nearby communities. If you live or train in Knoxville or a town very nearby, then we'd be happy to come by and share a little of what we've seen with you.

Regional: If you don't live really close to Knoxville but are within an hour or two away, we'd be willing to consider visiting your group or school as well.

What we can offer:
There are three things, really, that we can offer to local martial artists that already train in some style or another.

1. We can offer insight provided via our training in Yin Style Baguazhang into how you can improve your current training methods for real, remarkable results. We can do this by introducing some of the methods of training used in Yin Style Baguazhang and offering advice on how to tailor those methods to the arts that you already train.
2. We can offer a basic introduction to the art of Yin Style Baguazhang including a variety of its basic practices, methods, and some of its underlying theoretical framework.
3. We can offer Yin Style Baguazhang based applications and host the seminar in a self-defense-for-martial-artists perspective.
   

In all of these cases, you'd be guaranteed something different and interesting, and in the first two cases, an excellent workout would no doubt come as part of the package.

Ultimately, we feel that this art is very underrepresented given its effectiveness, and we'd like word to spread. Realizing it won't spread without someone spreading it, we feel that we can reach out and offer something to the local martial artists that they can really take home with them to enhance their training and potential. We'd also like to increase exposure of the art so that more folks will feel that it is worthwhile to take the opportunity to meet He Jinbao when he comes to this neck of the woods, his level of expertise in the martial arts being high enough so that certainly anyone that spends time training under his direction will be able to improve in their own practices substantially.

What we're not interested in:
Challenges:
I know it makes me look a bit the puss to say that we're not interested in challenges. We're offering to spread knowledge here, which you can reject freely if you don't like it. Our goal isn't to prove ourselves to anyone. I'm more than happy to have you leave thinking that I suck without anyone having to eat a knuckle sandwich to prove it or say otherwise. I'm also more than happy if you think I'm awesome, particularly if I don't have to kick you in the jangles to prove it to you. Personally, I tend to thank people for not kicking me in the jangles and like reasonable folks that feel the same way.

Making money:
Our goal with these seminars is not to get rich or even to make money. We would be, however, asking for a small honorarium or per capita fee for our time, and that money would only be used to offset our travel and training costs, which are rather modest and would therefore be reflected with a similarly modest fee (approximately $10 per attendee per hour or thereabouts). Furthermore, we're not interested in making money via invitation to the seminar with He Jinbao. We do not make money off those seminars: we are charged an honorarium/per capita fee for those (pay this much or however much you bring in, whichever is more) and do not retain any profit from them. Additional seminar income would be used to help us offset our expenses in hosting/lodging/feeding He Jinbao and his translator when they come to town. We're about getting more attention and interest in this art and recognize that direct access to He Jinbao is just about the most effective medium for that goal to be realized.

Gathering Students:
We do have a study group, and it does get together. It's nothing even closely akin to a martial arts school, however, and thus, while we do want our group to grow larger, it does not present realistic competition to an established, real (if you will) martial arts school. We currently meet once per week and have no set curriculum. We offer no ranks or anything of the sort, and we meet where it is convenient, as often as not in someone's yard or garage or in a public park. Generally, we get together and work on what we're individually working on in a community-like setting, and those with more experience help and direct those with less experience in that endeavor. This group is and always has been open to anyone that's interested in trying it out, no strings attached, no commitments to ever come back, no requests to put a halt to any other training you might be doing or interested in. Feeling competition from our group would be like an established church feeling competition from a small-scale Bible-Study group that meets once weekly. With the seminars, we are hoping to be able to come and share our slightly different perspective on the martial arts with folks that are interested in learning martial arts.

Don't hesitate to contact us if you're even remotely curious or interested in hosting us!

Training Anchors

Training the martial arts, particularly Yin Style Baguazhang, can be very dry and very challenging at the same time. That's a recipe for making it very difficult to pay the full attention to the practice that you need to in order to develop well. With physically demanding practices that have to be done repetitively a large number of times, it is very easy to "check out" mentally and just let the process become one that is mechanical until the body points out that it's just too much to continue. That's pretty much the last thing you want if you want to get real development in this (or any) art. So how can you avoid it?

The easy answer is "mental discipline." Forging your will to your practice (one of the internal harmonies). Unfortunately, that easy answer is tough to act on when you're pounding out hundreds of repetitions of something and starting to feel the wear on your body that those repetitions bring or when you suddenly have all kinds of interesting ideas for what to do next, later, or in a way entirely unrelated to training while you're training. Those ideas come up often enough on their own and distract the mind even during training. Something I've found that helps in those kinds of situations are what I'm referring to as "training anchors."

A training anchor holds you to your practice. I'm going to take it as a given that unless you're an absolute Superman with an unnaturally disciplined and tamed will that during longer training sessions, you're going to check out sometimes. The goal isn't so much to prevent this naturally occurring process, which will become a distraction in its own right, as it is to pull your attention back to the training at hand. Like an anchor for a ship, which doesn't keep it fixed in one place, it holds a slightly drifting ship close to where it's supposed to be. We all know, if we train Yin Style, that we're supposed to be putting certain attention on several things at once while we drill: proper hand form, proper alignment, proper execution, proper breathing, proper body use, proper motion of the waist, proper speed, proper timing, proper standing, proper generation and emission of force, proper harmonies, proper etc., etc., etc. We also know that it's frickin' hard to do it the whole time and that our minds wander. If Jinbao was watching us train when that happened, he'd tell us that we need more spirit in our training and have to keep our minds on the task.

So when my mind wanders, I've found a number of "anchors" that help me bring it back to task. For me, one of the best anchors is the feeling that properly making the hand-form gives me. In the ox-tongue palm shape, it's the stress in the opponens (thumb) muscles that I can most quickly and easily turn my attention to when I catch it wandering. When I'm making a fist, it's on keeping it as hard as rock. From there, I can do one better and, since my mind is already on my hand: I set my new anchor as double-religiously watching my hands as I practice. For some reason, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on my hand opens the door to being able to focus again on something more subtle, perhaps the tension in my waist properly generating and emitting force, without the desire to close my eyes and just feel it happening. This same kind of attention works great for me during standing and turning pratice as well as during striking and forms drilling.

When I turn, I have massive amounts of mind-wander that sometimes (frequently?) overcomes my ability to think about the hand and settle everything into that first as a gateway to running through the checklist of proper form. Often, I find myself thinking over-much about my feet to the exclusion of attention on my upper body. When that happens, I redouble my effort, usually pulling harder with my thumb (which makes it hurt) to force my attention to that area until I reaffix my gaze and mind to my whole-body experience.

I don't know what anchors other people use and am curious, though. If you've got something to share, particularly something more effective than the "think about the stress in your thumb and then watch your hand" that I use, I'd love to hear it!

Mirrors and Training Martial Arts

I think a lot of folks are hoping for something different for my first real-content post after our seminar, but since we trained in an indoor facility equipped with mirrors, a first for me in training baguazhang, I was able to pause and think for a while about how the mirror was helping my training... and messing with it.

Here's what I've decided: mirrors are a great training tool as long as you can ignore them.

Mirrors are awesome for checking yourself out, so you can correct abnormalities in your posture that perhaps you can't feel so well. Once you correct them, you can learn what the proper posture feels like, be those standing strengthening, striking, or otherwise, and that gives a tremendous advantage in being able to get into the correct position or movement later on. A quick glance at the mirror can tell you if your wrist is bent incorrect, arm is too high or too low, hips are cocked one way or the other, or lots of other little mistakes that are really easy to make and make into habits. For that kind of correction, nothing short of video of yourself training or direct, hands-on corrections from a more senior practitioner can compare.

On the other hand, mirrors are awesome for checking yourself out, and don't we all like to see how awesome we look when we're training? That's really the problem with them! I found myself checking myself out far too often during the seminar, mostly because I could. That really started to help me after a while, not because of the little tweaks to my training it provided but rather because of the amount of extra attention it forced me to place on watching my hands while I trained instead of my sweet reflection. Mastering myself to that change in focus, however, was really difficult, so I can conclude that ignoring a mirror is far harder than it seems!

As far as other martial arts go (since I like reaching a broader audience), I know that in karate we are usually told to look straight ahead, instead of at our hands, as if we're staring at the opponent (during kata/basics practice) and at our opponent during sparring practice. I have no commentary on whether that's right or wrong at this point -- they're just different methods of training, each surely with its advantages. I also know that an awful lot of students doing both of those exercises are enchanted by their reflections, so I know it's just a dangerous and helpful a thing in many other arts to train near a mirror.

My verdict on the matter, then, is that mirrors are a good tool to help you train, but ultimately, you have to learn to master yourself an ignore it completely once you've used it for its purpose, and added difficulty comes from the fact that most people are quite fascinated with watching themselves do things.