Yin Style Baguazhang Fall Tour 2011: San Fancisco, CA, Sept. 22-25, 2011

The San Francisco, CA, Yin Style Baguazhang Fall Tour, 2011 edition, workshop with He Jinbao is less than a month away, and it will officially kick of the U.S. Fall Tour this year by YSB, International. Those people interested in experiencing real baguazhang first-hand and doing so with the lineage holder of a very respectable system in the art should pay close attention to this one. Not to make it sound too much like an advertisement, if you've had interest in baguazhang, Chinese martial arts in general, or Yin Style in specific but don't know the first thing about it, this is the seminar for you!

This year's Yin Style Fall Tour set of workshops is designed specifically to meet different practitioners at different levels, among other things, and the first stop of the tour, in awesome San Francisco, California, is designed to meet beginners to the art with a foundational seminar in the Lion System, which is considered to be foundational to studying this martial art. For those that haven't ever studied the art, this seminar is the perfect introduction as it will be the foundational material presented at a foundational level by the top practitioner of the art.

For YSB practitioners that are more experienced, this seminar represents a great chance to review your foundational material and get some nudges toward deeper understanding of this foundational material. The focus will be on the sweeping, cutting, chopping, and hooking palms of the Lion System, featuring standing strengthening, basic strikes, strike combinations, footwork, striking while stepping, and forms (like what other branches of baguazhang sometimes call "double palm changes") from those striking methods, with applications. In addition, there will be standing strengthening and circle turning practice, including basic directions-changing drilling (like what other branches of baguazhang sometimes call "single palm changes") in the Lion representational posture. Each day is rounded out with an hour-long session into the footwork and kicking methods of the Monkey System, including a form from that system.

Each day is, as in previous years, broken into two sessions, morning and afternoon, with a 90-minute break for lunch between them. The morning session will last from 8:00 am until 12:00 noon, and the afternoon session runs from 1:30 pm until 6:00 pm.

This year's San Francisco workshop will last for four days, September 22-25, a Thursday through Sunday, and it is organized so that the curriculum reflects two miniature seminars, one on Thursday and Friday, the other on Saturday and Sunday. The material for each of those two is mostly self-contained, in case you have to travel and can only catch part of the workshop. To get the most out of the experience, however, all four days together present a much more complete set of lessons.

• On Thursday, September 22, attendees will use the morning session to train Lion and sweeping palm standing strengthening as well as sweeping strikes and combinations with and without footwork. Applications will follow. The afternoon will be similar for the cutting palm, finishing the day with an hour-long introduction to bending kick methods from the Monkey System.
• On Friday, Sept. 23, the morning will feature Lion circle turning with direction changes followed by drilling the moving with the force sweeping form, including drilling basic strikes from that form. Applications will follow. The afternoon will study a form from the cutting palm, studying the moving with the force cutting form with an additional focus on footwork in moving with the force forms from the Lion System, and finishing out with an hour-long intro to Monkey System stomping kicks.
• On Saturday, Sept. 24, the morning session will be for training Lion and chopping palm standing strengthening as well as chopping strikes in a format similar to Thursday's, including applications. The afternoon will be similar for the hooking palm, and the day will round out with an hour of hip and springing leg kicking.
• On Sunday, Sept. 25, the morning session will train Lion circle turning, as on Friday, followed by drilling the turning the back chopping form. Applications follow. The afternoon studies the windmill hooking form including a focus on footwork. After applications, the day will finish up with a form from the Monkey System.

To get yourself arranged for the YSB-2011-SFCA stop, contact Matt Bild for further details, including cost and location. Don't miss it!