Yin Style Baguazhang is effective. It, in fact, might be the most effective martial art on the planet for those that have what it takes to develop proficiency in it. The title of this blog post seems to imply otherwise, but if trained well, Yin Style can and will provide hardworking, dedicated people with what it takes to defend themselves practically in real fights. Part of that development requires some conditioning, and while Yin Style is a complete art, in that it offers everything one needs to become healthy and proficient, it is foolish to think that other supplemental practices won't help your development. Thus, if you practice a martial art like Yin Style, or any other martial art for that matter, you need to be sprinting.
Sprinting encourages development.
There's no way to deny the physiological changes that are possible to attain through training a martial art, and Yin Style Bagua is particularly designed around using practical physical development specifically for fighting skills. Sprinting is a supplemental activity that can greatly enhance this practice.
Fitness: Since sprinting is enormously challenging to the body, it forces rapid changes to take place. Notably, as the huge musculature of the legs, buttocks, core, and posterior chain are all activated powerfully in sprinting, a huge metabolic requirement is involved even in relatively short sprints. Over time, this can reorganize the way our bodies use fats and carbohydrates to produce a more physically fit, more fighting-ready physique. This effect is dramatically enhanced by driving your muscles past their aerobic capacity. One result of all of this is a metabolism that stays significantly elevated for hours.
Strength: Furthermore, intense exercises like sprints, particularly when done in intervals, have been shown in many studies to alter the way our bodies express various hormones, notably the androgenic hormones that are tied to physical development. In short, adding a few quick sprints to the end of a training session will create physical changes in our bodies that strongly reinforce the other goals of training: our bodies will change faster and more effectively if we take advantage of this intense activity (in terms of Chinese theory: a maximally yang activity, good for the young, vigorous people training the art at the very least).
Sprinting is self-defense.
Cut it however you want: your art might be as bad-ass as Yin Style (or whatever else you think is the best art), and you might be the Chuck Norris of that art, but sometimes, running away as fast as possible is your best bet in a self-defense situation. In fact, short of complying with some requests of an armed assailant (like a request for money, watches, jackets, or other property that can be replaced) and the ability to move explosively and surprisingly, running away at a high speed is probably the most important aspect to successful self-preservation in a real situation, even if strikes are exchanged before it happens.
Running fast: Sprinting is running at maximum speed for a relatively short distance. This is exactly what you will have to do in the case of running away from an assailant or running to help someone you see being assaulted, and in the latter case, you'll need to be able to do something when you get there, even if it's just making a lot of noise. If you do not train this activity, you will not be good at it. If your life or someone else's life depends on you being able to cover 50 meters in a relatively short time, you'll be far better off if you've done that at least a few times before, preferably regularly. Running away can save your life. Train it.
Explosiveness: If you are in a fight, one of the most important aspects in generating power is being able to generate power explosively. Yin Style focuses tremendously on this aspect of training while we drill strikes and forms, and the other practices of the art help us do an even better job of it. Sprinting is, in every respect, an explosive activity, and it trains the right kind of muscle fibers and nervous system pathways to encourage even more explosive movement capacity.
Sprinting is hard on you.
It definitely is not advisable to overdo it with sprints. If you haven't sprinted in a few months or years, which is pretty common for adults, you might not want to just break right into it. There are a lot of ways to injure yourself while sprinting, with hamstring tears being relatively common. Low back injuries from heavy involvement of the hip flexors and activation of the posterior chain are also possible.
Build up to it, just like everything else. Also, use some sense: if you haven't sprinted since you were sixteen years old, you really might not want to go run eight or ten sprints on your first day out. Run a couple, and build up to more. Also, whatever the Olympics has you thinking, 100 meters is a lot further to sprint than you probably think it is. Start with 40 or 50 meters or so and work up.
Give yourself adequate time to rest in between, either walking it off or training something else while your body adjusts. You shouldn't need to do this activity more than a couple of times a week to get maximum benefit from it, so don't get wrapped up in needing to do it every day.
Like anything else, sprinting requires good form for maximum effectiveness and safety. Take a few minutes to peruse YouTube for some videos on the topic before you go out and try it out.
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