New Yin Style Baguazhang links on my blog! Oh, and awesome tips to gauge your progress in a martial art like Yin Style Baguazhang

So I did a little hunting around and decided to add some links to my link list since the world of Yin Style Baguazhang is growing steadily, and my blog should probably reflect that.

The links section is getting pretty far down the right-hand sidebar of the page, but do scroll down and take a look. You might find some stuff that you're interested in or that you haven't seen before. If you've got a Yin Style or related page that you'd like to see a link to, don't hesitate to let me know. I'd be glad to add it!

Since this would make two not-helpful-to-training posts in a row, and that can't happen, let's talk a little about that for a moment.

How you can judge your progress in Yin Style Baguazhang:

First and foremost, the main way that you should be judging your progress in Yin Style Bagua (or any martial art or practice) is against yourself over time. It doesn't matter so much if you're as good as so-and-so in your group because this art, more so than many by like all, is a personal growth art. The most important thing is that you're constantly putting in the effort and constantly moving forward. Thus, look less to whatever wild dragons happen to be in your group and more to your own progress over time.

How do you do that, seeing as you can't really train next to the "you of six months ago" that you might be comparing yourself too? Well, here are some ways that I've had success with:

1. Use video. Videotape yourself doing your stuff. Don't put it on YouTube unless you make it private or really, really feel like what you're putting out there not only will earn you feedback but also benefits the growth of the art -- heehaws looking like heehaws all over the internet with the words Yin Style Bagua attached to them make us look like heehaws in general (note that few if any of the rockstars put stuff up... that should tell you something). Once you have yourself training on video, look at it and correct what you see. Then, later, use those same videos for comparison against the you of yestermonth. Simply take the video yourself doing something, wait a few months, and watch it again, particularly if it's been a while since you last reviewed it (and used it to make yourself better). You'll probably see all kinds of ways that you "sucked back then" (especially if you've used it occasionally to correct yourself and your practice in the meantime) and thus tons of reasons you're glad you went on the side of prudence and didn't put it all over the internets for folks that don't know Yin Style but that like to poop on Chinese Martial Arts to see. You can even video yourself again doing the same thing and look for real improvement or the lack thereof. If you're getting better, then that's good. Hopefully, you're getting a lot better.
2. Use pictures. This is essentially the same thing as the video, but I've found it to be particularly useful for static postures and turning as well as for cool "action shots" with the saber that don't always look so cool on the screen (highlighting stuff to fix). This is pretty much the same deal as the video but frozen-in-time in some sense, so you should already have the gist.
3. Write it down. This is a gift that this blog has given me, and I leave the written record (some of which is embarrassing now) here for others to see and to constantly remind me of where I've come from. If you write the following essays, maybe in a few hundred or a thousand words, about every three to six months, you'll find remarkable changes usually of the "I can't believe I thought that shit back then" nature: (a) What is Yin Style Baguazhang all about? (b) What is the point or use of this technique that I'm interested in studying? (c) What's the best way to train Yin Style (or some technique therein)? (d) Other similar question that's important and valuable to your training, thinking, and methodology. Of course, this technique works with any martial art or practice, so others that don't do Yin Style Baguazhang can really benefit from it too. It also has direct benefit to training - as a teacher I know that spending the time to really crystallize your thinking by forcing yourself to put it in clear, concise wording has the effect of tremendously focusing and organizing your thoughts, not to mention the fact that it kind of stokes the fire. Every now and again, go back and read what you wrote. That might remind you of some great ideas you tried, but it will almost definitely show you some of your development over time because deeper understanding and insight will produce a much better document on any of these kinds of questions. Of course... you could just do this by "remembering," but it's not quite as sobering as seeing some total b.s. you used to think in black and white right in front of your face. As for blogging... you could, but you have to face the reality that every word of hee-haw that you write on the net is essentially there forever to anyone that wants to find it (including people that might have otherwise been interested in Yin Style and people better than you that might not be happy that you're putting out b.s., even unintentionally). This is a dangerous road, and I've had bumps from it so far.
4. Keep a training diary. This is less like essays and more like numbers... "How long can I turn in this posture or that? ... How does that compare with three months ago?" Here, you'd be looking for hard evidence of development via conditioning, something many, many exercise professionals like to do and encourage. This won't really tell you anything about the subtle stuff, though, and it can become consuming, taking the focus off of doing things well and putting it on just doing them more, so use this method with caution. A better method might be to consider "How many strikes do I feel like I can do really well and consistently get good results with?" but that's easy to overestimate.
   
5. Practice applications. Unlike many martial arts, Yin Style doesn't center its practice on actively sparring with another person. In fact, I think that to say that about 90% of training in Yin Style really should be solo stuff, at least for now. Applications practice is an opportunity to learn how to make some of your moves work, to feel another real body, and to see if it's going well. It's also a time to test yourself. Jinbao says rather frequently that applications practice should be a test of your solo practice. If your solo practice is right and good, then your applications will be good. If not, then not. Simply put, if you can pull off applos that you used to think were hard/impossible, then you've gotten better. It's a nice measure. I've personally found that development in Technique A comes along because of training many other things and just generally getting better development overall, almost like magic, though it works best when lots of Technique A has been thrown into the mix. Applications practice is a pretty good measurement of your developed skill, even if you don't make it the centerpiece of your training.
   
6. Ask someone. Your training partners and/or teachers will have a significant sense of your development typically. If you've made progress, they probably notice, especially if they've got more experience than you do. Ask for feedback, and you'll probably get it, with specifics. This is a gift of study groups, in addition to having regular contact with others, some accountability, and access to learn more from the "teachers" or from the act of teaching, depending on which end of the spectrum you're on.

If you've thought of some other really good ways to keep track of your development, please add them to the comments section. Oh, and don't forget to peruse those links and see if you see something new or useful.