A Yin Style Baguazhang beginner's guide to what you need and what should you do with it

Suppose you're just starting out on your adventure in training Yin Style Baguazhang, or perhaps you've been at it for a while and want to be sure you've covered the bases. There's not a whole lot of stuff out there, as you've probably found, but there are some things. This post is meant to be a little introductory guide to what you need to get, a little commentary on that and other YSB material out there, and a quick note about how much you should train. Since this topic is potentially huge, I'll do what I can to stay brief with it!

Videos:
There are quite a few video titles out there concerning the enormously complex and detailed art of Yin Style Baguazhang, and for a beginner, some of these are absolute must-haves. While it is absolutely critical that you have some hands-on training with live instructors that can guide you and correct you, it is possible to get quite a decent start and to have lots of material to keep your training lively and interesting using the videos that are available. Certainly, no one expects you'll master the material on them on your own, but there's something of a growing expectation that if you're serious about learning YSB, then you've taken the time to familiarize yourself with and do what you can with the material available on the available DVDs. These actually come from two sources and are of two kinds.

Yin Style Baguazhang, International, video titles:
If you really want to learn YSB, these are videos that are necessary, particularly the titles concerning applications that are on the list, at least if you're interested in learning Yin Style for fighting. All of these titles are excellent and highly recommended, and for adding a "deeper understanding" to your training, they're musts. You really don't want to miss these, and you want to try to familiarize yourself with the content of them as you can. For beginners interested in getting off to a good start, I'd recommend the Lion Applications and Circle Turning Introduction DVDs as a first priority, the Seizing and Grasping title as the next priority, and the Footwork DVD just below that. The Nine Dragon Saber DVD is an absolute requirement for folks that have sabers to train with, but until you have one, this disc isn't quite so pressing.

Association for Traditional Studies, video titles:
The Association for Traditional Studies was the first organization in the U.S. (to my knowledge) that attempted to collect documentation of the animal systems and fighting methods of Yin Style Baguazhang, and they did a decent job documenting the basic practices of the art.

• The ATS YSB animal systems series: These videos are made to be rather simplistic introductions to the art, but they're must-haves for everyone that wants to practice. In fact, if you are just starting out, the ATS animal videos for your animal of choice (read: Lion System) is an absolute must, top priority. These document the basic strikes, standing methods, circle turning method (not as well as the new YSB International disc about turning), and forms of the four animal systems that were covered: Lion, Phoenix, Dragon, and Bear. They're also very affordable now (at least compared with when I got them) considering all that you get. If you're feeling thrifty or unsure about how seriously you'll be training over time, get at least the Lion videos, which is where essentially every serious, modern practitioner starts their YSB journey. The next in line is Phoenix, and the other two are great collections with tons of information about the Dragon and Bear Systems which haven't yet been made training focuses by YSB International. Unfortunately, since it is the cornerstone, the Lion System video is perhaps the least detailed (being the first that they made), but it should be at the top of your priority list for learning the basic drilling methods of YSB, without which the applications videos are of slightly reduced helpfulness despite their vastly better clarity.
• The other ATS videos that are worth key mention: There is a 64 Qinna method DVD illustrating some seizing and grasping methods from each of the palms of each of the animal systems that seems to provide some information that isn't really available elsewhere except by direct instruction. It's worth a look if you want to complete your library and round out your training, especially since the late Dr. Xie is demonstrating the techniques. There's also a saber basics video available on this page that gives instructions in the basic strengthening drills of the Yin Style Bagua dadao, if you've got one.

Yin Style Baguazhang written material:

Although this list isn't exhaustive, the articles on the Yin Style Baguazhang About page need to be read by everyone interesting in practicing. In fact, as you train, you'll need to reread them over and over, as there is a lot of information contained in them that will be over your head until you've done a lot of training and experienced these things for yourself. Let these articles be a guide to what you need to be looking for as you train as well as some insight into how to train correctly. They're very important!

Other than a powerhouse attitude of making it happen and training hard, these various videos and articles are all you need to get started on your Yin Style journey. YSB, for the most part, requires very little in terms of space for training, so there are few excuses. Now I'll talk about how to use these videos and how to set up your training time if you're new.

How to use your videos:
The videos that show basic techniques are best used by learning a few techniques or one form at a time. Drill that information to the best of your ability, paying attention to meeting as many requirements as you can (taking notes from the videos helps tremendously!). Do the best you can to try to recreate the techniques in appearance and to find the power and finer points while you train. You'll need corrections from a hands-on source at some point (more on this below), but this is a good place to start.

The applications-style videos are dense. In my experience, taking a small piece of it, getting together with a training partner, and working hard at trying to create the proper application is a very important part of learning to fight well in Yin Style Baguazhang. While it's a very illuminating practice to see big pictures if you watch straight through these (encouraged as well), they're impossible to digest this way. Take little parts and try to recreate them. Go slow and take care of each other, though, because many of these techniques can be totally devastating. Without doing this, though, you'll never gain a feel for YSB in use and won't develop well or be able to fight well with it. That's another tip: recruit a partner to train with!

Go to Yin Style Baguazhang workshops, intensives, seminars, and/or classes:
Hands-on training is critical to getting anywhere in a martial art, particularly one as complex and intricate as YSB is. You have to get to other experienced Yin Style practitioners to get proper corrections, instructions, and development in this art, although most of us that train it get less of this kind of attention than you'd probably guess. Most of the training should be done individually, at home after receiving instruction.

I'd really like to impress upon everyone interested in training Yin Style Bagua just what a rare gift and opportunity it is to have this kind of access to training directly with He Jinbao -- the current and fifth-generation Yin Style lineage holder. If you're thinking that some ambiguous "later" is a better time to start your serious Yin Style training, then you're sorely mistaken. He Jinbao is still in his prime and very actively involved with the instruction at these seminars, workshops, and intensives, and that's a situation that won't last forever. As Yin Style grows too, time for beginners and more junior students to get so much direct access and training may wane. If you're interested in learning an insanely good martial art at a prime time, then take your life by the horns and start training... and get to these workshops!


In any case, here are the options you have for hands-on training at the time of this writing.

• Workshops and seminars: These are the bread-and-butter for practitioners in the U.S. because instead of doing a U.S. intensive as happens in China and the U.K. once a year right now, YSB International (meaning He Jinbao himself with his translator, a formidable and highly skilled practitioner himself) tour the U.S. each fall with a number of three or four-day workshops, which many folks refer to as seminars. Here's a link to the YSB page with information about those seminars. If you live in the U.S. and practice YSB, you should make every possible effort to attend one or more of these every year if you really want to get better. Hands-on is double-triple-quadruple awesome when it's hands on with The Man himself. You can expect 10-hour training days for three or four in a row, so you want to prepare yourself physically and mentally for long hours of hard toil to maximize your value at these.
• Intensives: These should be higher on the list than the workshops, but because I write this as an American and understand the demands and expenses of traveling for one of these, I've put it a peg lower. Annually, there is an intensive held in Huairou outside of Beijing (China, obviously) in mid-spring. This is kind of the pilgrimage for serious Yin Style practitioners and should be on your list if you can afford it and get the time off. It lasts for a couple of weeks and is a completely immersive YSB experience that will change you forever. You can find additional information about the 2011 YSB China Intensive here. There is another major intensive held in London, U.K., every summer, usually for the majority of June. It is another incredible opportunity to really hone your training and change yourself for the better. If you can't make China, then try to make the U.K., even though all-told, it will cost you more out of pocket. Intensives are structured mostly like the workshops (10-hour training days) but for weeks at a time. Prepare as you can for them, but really there is no preparation that is adequate. Train hard and be ready to become a new person!
• Classes: There are a number of classes in the U.S. and other European countries where study groups of YSB train regularly, often with senior students providing good instruction in the core practices of the art. If you're close enough to one of these groups to attend regularly and you want to learn YSB, then you should be going to every training meeting that they offer that you possibly can. If you're too far away from one to attend regularly but are within a few hours, try to arrange a time to visit and get some hands-on training. You'll probably find most of the groups surprisingly accommodating to these kinds of requests, and even doing this a few times a year will make a huge difference in how quickly you make progress and earn development in the art.

How to train as a beginner:
The short version of this is simply "hard and regularly." You want to make your training serious, interesting, regular, and then turn it into a habit to do that. What's appropriate for someone that's just starting out? The word I've had is to try to get an hour of training in most days of the week (I'd recommend at least four with five or six being better). Most serious practitioners out there that have been at the art for a while probably average close to twenty hours a week, some more than that, to give you an idea of what the road to the Big Leagues looks like. Let's assume for now that you have an hour at a time to train at least a few days a week, though, and talk about how to parcel it out.

The general recommendation I've heard on parceling an hour of training time for beginners is to try to stand strengthening for about 10 minutes of that, drill strikes and forms for about 20 minutes of that, and to turn the circle for the remaining 30 minutes. This, of course, is for solo training. Eventually, you want to find ample time for solid standing strengthening practice and huge amounts of strike drilling practice while aiming to average around an hour on the circle a day, but for a beginner, that's a very, very tall order.

My experience also indicates that it's very difficult, particularly at first, to do proper justice to all of the aspects of training in every training day. You might experiment with and use a method in which you turn most days but make some days "turning days" in which you turn for much longer periods, relatively speaking. You might also have striking days in which you focus hard on strikes and forms drilling, perhaps to the near-exclusion of other aspects of training (some practitioners find that doing a marathon 4+-hour strike drilling day each week is very valuable). You have to look for what works for you, but you've also got to hit all of the practices of the art regularly.

To learn to fight, you'll need a partner to practice applications with. If you live near a study group, that's ideal. If not, recruit someone to train with you. Not only will it give you both a person to learn the fighting aspects of the art with, it will provide you with a training partner that is insanely valuable for keeping you focused and motivated (you'll actually provide this to each other, doubling the value)! This should happen regularly, at least once every couple of weeks with once weekly or more often being even better.

Get fit! Physical fitness is frequently pissed on in the internal martial arts, preferring alleged "internal" strength to "external" power. That's ridiculous! The stronger and fitter you are, the better you can fight, so get in shape. Your training should be hard and vigorous in Yin Style, constantly seeking to hit harder and with increased full-body power, so it will form a core of physical development (as well as the internal strength you seek, if you're training hard, regularly, and correctly). Still, adding conditioning in terms of strength and endurance is an incredibly valuable aspect of training that many of the old masters embraced, despite what we like to believe about magical abilities in the internal arts. Try to find time to incorporate vigorous strength and endurance training (recommended: intense interval training) into your training routine, and you'll be vastly better for it as a martial artist and as a healthy human being.