If you've been following the blog lately, then you know I did something of a month-long tribute to the 2011 Beijing Intensive, now at a close, by upping my working out and training regimen to what I termed "Beast Mode." In all, it must have been fairly effective: in the process, I've lost about eight pounds and dropped from 21% to 16.5% bodyfat, according to my scale, which probably isn't very accurate on either of those points. So... I improved significantly in my fitness via hard training coupled with hard conditioning workouts (and a fair amount of hard yard work). How'd my bagua go? Well... that might be another matter.
My ability to turn, stand, and drill both strikes and forms has increased, or so it seems. My endurance for my training seems to be at a post-seminar-level high, and my will to carry on through a couple of hours of training or more, do yard work, and then still bust out some kind of conditioning is back in force (since I've started forcing myself to eat enough when I can stomach it -- many foods taste exactly the same way my poop smells to me and most others taste distinctly like vomit, chemicals, or rotten lemons -- eating is a chore right now and almost devoid of any joy). So... all-in-all, on the surface, I feel like my training was elevated to new heights by my Beast Mode workouts, so why might this be another matter as compared with the improvement in my fitness?
I don't feel as strong, and my applications don't come off as solidly as I think they were a few weeks ago. Part of that might be the weight loss, but I strongly expect that doing large amounts of hard drilling and conditioning with very little time worked in to assess myself with opponents in applications practice has allowed me to slip in that regard. That, in itself, brings up an important point, following what He Jinbao has to say about applications practice, which goes something like "Applications practice is mostly a test. If your drilling is accurate and good, then your applications will be good, even without practicing them a lot."
If He Jinbao's statement is accurate, which I feel that I should believe it is based on his extraordinary level of experience and expertise, not to mention my own experiences, then there's one major conclusion that looms in front of me when I consider these changes: I've drilled hard and, as I thought, well, but it's all too likely that an emphasis on quantity without much check on things has actually led me to drilling inaccurately, or rather that small inaccuracies in my training have been magnified by large amounts of training them.
Another possible conclusion that I'm really forced to consider, and believe is at the heart of how my drilling is insufficiently accurate to create the results I'm hoping for, is that my development and skill aren't yet at a level high enough to get the full benefits of solo practice with only a little applications dashed in there. I know that my applications go through a period of feeling extremely solid and effective after any time I attend a seminar or workshop with those better than I am, particularly with He Jinbao, and that might be due to the huge amount of emphasis on getting the applications exactly right before moving on and drilling them repeatedly for success, something we rarely have time to do in our group training sessions and can't really do in solo practice.
Then again, it could be that the applications I was working with the other day, which had decent results but not that incredible "HOLY CRAP" Yin Style Baguazhang kind of result, were with techniques that haven't been on the front of my plate for drilling throughout this period (I've focused almost entirely on Lion Seizing and Grasping and Phoenix Dodging, Extending, and Chopping during "Beast Mode").
Coming soon, I'll make that follow-up post of the "Ask Dr. Jimberly" sort in which I discuss getting a study group started. Sorry for the delay on that! Stay tuned!
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