Notes about sparring--a two-edged sword

Yin Style Baguazhang does not spar as a functional part of its training. Some folks might try to paint this as a black mark against the art, believing that "pressure testing" in the ring is the only way to make or prove a fighter, but this is incomplete thinking. I'd like to elaborate on the topic of sparring a little bit here, then, to give a more complete picture, one that illustrates sparring as a training method that has two edges that cut both ways.

Making movies! Here's our latest one against a more-resistive opponent

So, it's been forever and again since I've posted on here--like before, tied up with other projects and not giving much time to the blog. Is it self-depreciating at this point to promise to do better in the future, knowing I very well may not?

Anyway, we've been keeping up with our training (re: my circle-turning goal, I am well ahead of schedule now and will, in fact, hit 10,000 minutes for the year so far sometime this afternoon, which is a bit of a milestone, I suppose). We've also been trying to arrange it to make videos to showcase a little of what we know Yin Style has to offer--even if we're having a hard time getting that to translate onto video.

The six characteristic terms of Yin Style Baguazhang

Yin Style Baguazhang is a formidable martial art. This is partly due to its deep theoretical underpinning and strict adherence to that in practical training. As is frequent with Chinese arts, there is a list of six terms that define how to practice Yin Style Baguazhang correctly. These, of course, are more broadly applicable to any martial art, if the practitioner wants to do it well. From my perspective, making these ideas explicit has been instrumental in taking my own training to new heights. These terms define how Yin Style Baguazhang should be practiced at all times.
The six terms are: stable, accurate, vicious, cold, crisp, and fast.

Yin Style Bagua Knoxville seminar with He Jinbao, Day 1

This is lifted from the Yin Style Bagua Facebook page. Check it out if you haven't already. Anyway, our first day was awesome, as the post indicates! Local fighters and martial artists, come see what all the fuss is about and train hard like a superman!

Knoxville, TN, Workshop - Day 1

Isometric strengthening postures were trained to develop improved circulation and muscular strength. Three foundational strikes each from the Lion system chopping and hooking strike attack methods were then taught. Each technique was drilled to develop body coordination and waist power when striking. The strikes were then paired with various types of footwork and drilled for power while moving. Partnered applications of the strikes in various combinations were then trained to show changes in technique during combat. Emphasis was placed on tight integration of footwork to set up proper position and support technique.

He Jinbao and Yin Style Baguazhang International in Knoxville next week!!!

By this time next week, some of the toughest men and (hopefully) women in Knoxville will be finishing up with dinner and getting ready for an early bedtime after one of the hardest days of martial arts training in their lives. Yin Style Baguazhang International is coming to Knoxville again, for the third year in a row, and the workshop taught by incredible martial artist He Jinbao kicks off bright and early at 8:00 am next Thursday, October 20. Local martial artists that haven't yet decided to take advantage of this awesome opportunity to improve their fighting skills are highly encouraged to do so! If you live near enough to Knoxville to be able to make it, then don't miss it!

Yin Style Baguazhang Fall Tour 2011: Knoxville, TN, Oct. 20-23

I hold a special place in my heart and on my blog for the Knoxville, TN, visit of the Yin Style Baguazhang Fall Tour, 2011 edition, taught by He Jinbao! It's home! Our U.S. Fall Tour stop this year by YSB, International features the  Lion System at an intermediate level. In Knoxville, though our training will actually take place in Maryville, just south of Knoxville, we look forward to a great seminar this year. Any and all are welcome! Definitely come see us and train with us! I'd like to extend a special invitation to any and all martial artists in the Knoxville area that want to experience real baguazhang, want to deepen the fighting arts they already practice, and that want to learn practical fighting techniques of awesome effectiveness... plus all the ones that really like hard, old-school drilling for skill.

The curriculum will be on the chopping, hooking, seizing, and grasping palms of the Lion System, and as mentioned before, it will be at an intermediate level, so while it isn't required, some familiarization with the Lion System will be very helpful. Consider getting the foundational videos to prep yourself, which can be found on a link on this post of mine about getting started in Yin Style.

Yin Style Baguazhang International U.S. Fall Tour 2011, Knoxville and beyond

He Jinbao of Beijing, China, with assistant and translator Matt Bild of Yin Style Baguazhang International are coming to the United States again in 2011 for the annual YSB U.S. Fall Tour of long-weekend workshops (including Knoxville, TN, for my local folks). If you don't know what Yin Style Bagua is all about yet, then you're missing out. These workshops offer a very rare opportunity train in real baguazhang directly with an absolute and recognized expert in the art, the lineage holder of Yin Style Baguazhang, in fact. Start here by checking out the official brief introduction to Yin Style Baguazhang video that showcases a bit from all eight animal systems, including He Jinbao demonstrating awesome fighting applications on some brave British volunteers.

Now that you've seen what you could be training at the seminar, continue reading below to get the key details about what's new in this year's series of workshops and for what is going on in each of the stops. This year's workshops will be presenting material out of the Lion, Phoenix, and Monkey Systems, as well as a continued introduction to the baguazhang jian (straight sword).

New Year's training resolutions 2010

I feel like I should start this off with some classic New Year's resolutions words that seem to spell disaster: "This year's going to be different...." Well, hopefully it is. I've been thinking an awful lot about my training over the past month, not least because of my stupid toe that was making doing much training outside of a seated position (yeah, right) quite difficult if not impossible. I'm back on the horse full-tilt again now, though, and here are some of the things I think make good New Year's training resolutions. As usual, feel fully free to make comments to add some of your own!

Do _______ more consistently (fill in the blank per your needs)
For me, what this one comes down to mostly is standing strengthening and turning. Those two aspects of training either end up being the main component of my training or almost evaporate completely, and those two situations seem to occur cyclically in a-few-months-long intervals. That's not good. Some standing; some turning; every week. I'm not sure that doing some of everything every day is that good of an idea any more. Then again, perhaps I'm just not training enough.

Be more balanced and organized in training
It's really been an easy trap for me to fall into to focus almost all of my training on the saber: when I first got it I was nuts about learning the entire Nine Dragon Saber form and being strong enough to be able to get through it all in one go; later, I went completely ape with some basic drills. Like weights, the saber gives quick, obvious results. The price of falling into that trap has been a decline in the amount of other exercises that I do, many of which were daily staples in the past.

Move more
Maybe I'm just a turd like this, but I tend to notice that doing moving-step striking drills and forms, some things I really should be doing a lot of, kind of get ignored all too often for standing-in-place methods, which are great but a bit limited in terms of developing use and better coordination (both being highly sought training aims). I'm going to try to up the moving-step this year significantly. If you're not brand-spanking-new to the art, you might consider it too, based at least on what JB had to say about it last summer.

Be organized/have a plan for your training
Note that this point applies to any martial artist or even any active person, so if you read this and don't practice Yin Style Bagua, keep this one near the front of your mind. This is perhaps one of my weakest links in developing a solid training regimen. I tend not to be very organized, to my own chagrin, and I'm sure my potential development suffers for it. Usually, my method is that I get up, think about what I might like to do that day or something that I haven't done in a while, and then I just do some of that. Since it's easy to get into ruts, I tend to do those things repetitively for a while and then either get stuck doing them far too much (to the detriment of other training) or end up fizzling out. An organized weekly plan seems like a better approach.

On that note, an organized daily agenda would also make a good addition to my training program -- here are the times that I train, and I stick to those times and train during them. Furthermore, I tend to do very well if I develop curriculum for myself (subject to my recurring downfall -- curriculum is easier to write down than it is to execute). Spending a little time each week or month developing curriculum and then choosing specific daily exercises to do along those lines would greatly benefit me.

Set speficic, measurable, realistic, attainable, short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals (Another note for everyone)
In that same vein, I really need to do better with my goal-setting. First, goals need to be specific, measurable, realistic, and attainable to work. That means:

• Specific - "I want to get in better shape" or "I want to be able to do xxxx technique better" would be very vague goals that are hard to meet. It's important to be specific in goal-setting so you know what you're working toward and when you've met that goal. "I want fluid, solid body movement in xxxx technique" is more specific and easier to attain.
• Measurable - In training Yin Style Bagua, this one is the rub. Measurable is easiest in terms of doing things by the numbers: "Turn for an hour," "Do 1000 of xxxx technique without needing a break," etc. Those kinds of goals aren't really great for internal arts (but are awesome for supplemental training activities). What's needed instead are measurements that are more subtle: getting lower in your stances and maintaining them longer; turning well for an hour; routinely turning well for 10 minutes before needing to change sides, etc. Doing xxxx activity at least ##% of the days this year is also good.
  
• Realistic - Setting a goal like turning for 1000 hours in a year might not be a realistic goal -- even if you have that kind of time, putting in almost 3 hours a day on average might be outside of your body's ability, particularly if you can't turn well for 3 hours in a day yet. Set goals that are realistic if you want to attain them.
• Attainable - "I want to be able to levitate." Cool. I think most people would get excited about developing that skill, but it's probably not attainable. Many people that practice martial arts, internal arts in particular, come up with some ridiculous ideas about what they'll get out of their training. Try to keep your goals in the "pretty clearly attainable" box, and you'll probably have a lot more success.

Goals also come in a variety of time scales. Generally speaking, shorter-term goals are more realistic and attainable, although longer-term goals can be more driving. Since this is an article about 2010 resolutions in training, I'll keep my longest-term goals at around a year.

1. Short-term goals: These are best set in the weekly-to-monthly time scale, depending on the goal. "Short-term" monthly would be in terms of development, and weekly might be in terms of hitting a particular variety of exercises or spending a set amount of time training or working on particular activities or techniques. These should be very attainable, which means there should only be a little bit of a change (in the positive direction) as compared with what you can do now.
2. Medium-term goals: These are best set in the monthly-to-quarterly time scale, again depending on what you're talking about. Learning a particular set or group of exercises or seeking out a noteworthy degree of development in a particular technique or method ("finding the force," for instance) would make for good medium-term goals.
3. Long-term goals: In the context of this article, these would be quarterly-to-yearly in length. You might be looking for a dramatic change in coordination, agility, flexibility, endurance, or strength on this time scale.
   

A little warning: I used to be very good about developing specific numbers-oriented goals in all three time scales, but they became a bit of an obsession that I'm now sure was detrimental to my development overall. I frequently pushed myself beyond my capacities (good, but only to an extent) and cared more about doing 2000 of xxxx technique by next Tuesday than I did about getting better at xxxx technique. Not good.

Quality first and then quantity
Based on my previous goal-setting line, let me admonish you that the easiest, most realistic and attainable, most clearly specific goals always involve numbers. Remember that for real development, you have to get it right first and then ramp up the numbers, so if you decide to attach numbers to your training (do X repetitions of activity xxxx, or do activity xxxx for X minutes), make absolutely sure that you don't count poor-quality. Your main focuses, I think, should be on doing things well and getting better at those things. If you're not meeting those goals first, then all the numbers in the world don't matter.

Another little warning here: numerical goals are an awesome way to ensure some overtraining issues will develop. Some that I've done or seen done in the past and now consider to be a bad idea are:

1. 100,000 pushups in a year (before I was doing bagua). That's a lot of damn pushups. I did it, but my pushup ability turned to crap. I could do a lot of sets of small numbers of pushups, but doing a large number in one go was right out. I'm not sure what kind of fitness that is, but it's certainly not optimal. I also was not getting stronger after the initial phase of the training.
2. 6,000 tracing the saber in a month (in each hand) -- originally conceived as 200 in each hand per day. I actually did 7000, for the record. This was specifically a test to see what that kind of training would do to my body. The result was similar to the pushups experiment because to keep up with the numbers, I felt like I really needed to trace the saber every day to do it. I think that caused some overtraining issues, though I definitely am stronger now that I did it.
3. 100,000 strikes in a year. Back before I knew anything about training (the first year and a half or so), this is how I approached doing lots of strikes: try to get some thousands of each one every year. I did a lot of poorly executed strikes and got in pretty good shape. I also got a bunch of injuries and didn't get a hell of a lot better at the techniques I was working on.
4. Turn for at least 30 minutes a day (on average) for a year (~180 hours or ~10,000 minutes). This was good for getting on the circle more, but it turned the practice into a serious chore that I started to dread. It's also really easy to get behind when work gets busy, and then it gets really easy to beat yourself up over it.
5. Run 4000 miles in a year. I didn't do this. F*** that! I have a friend that did it, and I can't imagine anything good coming out of it. This didn't have much to do with anything in the post actually; I just really like telling people that I know someone that ran 4000 miles in 2009 (on purpose).
   

Build the group
Most training in Yin Style Bagua is individual, and that's fine. A lot of good stuff comes out of training together: obvious need for curriculum, bringing new people to the art, comeraderie, partner practice, help and corrections, motivation to keep working, group accountability and encouragement, a sense of family and group unity. For us in Knoxville in particular, I really hope to see 2010 as a year in which we really build up the group aspect of our training: more frequent and regular meetings, more folks, more curriculum, a good location, etc. This is our group's roughest challenge, I think, and a big goal for us this year is to make our group a little more solid.

What is Yin Style Baguazhang

"What exactly is Yin Style Baguazhang?"

The following two links provide better information than I can, since they're from the source. You should definitely check them out and share them with all of your friends: About Yin Style Baguazhang and A Brief Introduction to Yin Style Baguazhang, both links courtesy of Yin Style Baguazhang International.

I get asked this question more frequently than I'd ever have expected, although I honestly wish I was asked it more often by more interested people. The answer, like the answer to so many questions in the world has various levels of depth, depending on who I'm talking to:

• "Yin Style Baguazhang is a martial art." [Obvious answer to people that are completely clueless about the martial arts].
• "Yin Style Baguazhang is a Chinese martial art." [Still obvious answer, usually to the same people, although sometimes the addition of "Chinese" is a conversation-ender, unfortunately -- thanks a lot, wushu competitions and kung-fu tards.]
• "Yin Style Baguazhang is an internal martial art from China." [The addition of the word "internal" usually comes when I know the person knows a bit about martial arts and that bit is "karate is martial arts and martial arts is karate." The word "internal" here has two effects: either it ends the conversation or it evokes another question: "You mean like Tai Chi?" More on this below.]
• "Yin Style Baguazhang is a deep and complex internal martial art from China that is relatively young, newly opened to the world, and focused primarily as a very effective fighting style." [That's what I say to people that know more about martial arts than "karate is martial arts and martial arts is karate" but less about martial arts than people that do a lot of martial arts.]

None of those answers is incorrect, but none of them is complete either. That, of course, isn't the same as saying they're wrong, but we can do better. Perhaps the best answer that I can give, given my current, rather low level of understanding of this deep and complex internal martial art from China, is something along the lines of

"Yin Style Baguazhang is a branch of baguazhang, which is the art of changing [oneself to accord to and to find and take advantage of a situation] with its theoretical underpinnings in the Yijing, the Book of Changes, and Yijing's "bagua," meaning its eight trigrams (which are symbolic representations of possibilities), in particular Yin Style Baguazhang is the branch of baguazhang that studies each of the eight trigrams individually as its own martial art as well as in a combined manner while adhering to the concept of a 'hard palm' approach."

I don't think many people would do well with that... which reminds me starkly of what it feels like when people ask me things like "What, in a nutshell, is your (doctoral) dissertation about?" If I try to give a satisfactory answer, I always end up getting that face, to which I have to pause and ask, "What? Did I lose you somewhere? We're almost done with Page 1."

So, after that face, usually one of the following long pauses and ensuing questions comes out, making that a good way to communicate what Yin Style Baguazhang is by comparing it with what it isn't:
...
...
...so, is it like "Tai Chi?"

The answer to this, of course, is "yes and no." Yes, it's internal, so yes, it talks about qi and the cultivation and practices thereof. Yes, it's a longevity art. Yes, it's sometimes all smooth and flowy. But...
No, it's not all soft. No, it's not always all smooth and flowy. No, it's difficult to kick someone's ass with what passes as taiji in most corners of the world today, but that's not the case at all with Yin Style Baguazhang, which is directly billed and trained as a fighting art. No, Yin Style training will make you sweat, a lot, often, and if you're not sore, then you're doing it wrong. To phrase it as my compatriot, B.A.M., once did (speaking to someone that would have been somewhat confused with "it's a Chinese martial art"),

"It's a bit like taiji... like taiji on steroids... with teeth." -B.A.M.

...
...
...so, is it like karate?

The answer to this is also "yes and no," of course. It's harder, at least in its practice methods, than most of what folks in the West tend to think of as "internal," but, though hard, karate is external. Yin Style Baguazhang is not so hard on the body as karate, though the training can be more physically demanding. There's no free sparring that I know of, and if there is, it's not considered a central method of training. Yin Style Baguazhang's overall "shape" is more circular than karate. Importantly, there is no filler in Yin Style -- everything is for use. I might catch hell for saying it, but it's flatly true: There is filler in karate, stuff that either has no use beyond demonstration or that fills in gaps between useful techniques (i.e. stuff that no one can remember a use for or that hasn't been handed down, or both). Everyone that does karate, at least on this continent, knows that truth if they're honest with themselves. In fact, in all likelihood, many techniques in many kata in karate have been modified from useful techniques after the uses were forgotten (not passed down from teacher to student before it was too late, e.g., or purposefully withheld until that same time) in order to give them new, often fruitless "uses." Yin Style Baguazhang, then, is not like karate.
...
...
...so, is it like BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) or MMA (mixed martial arts)?
No, it isn't. BJJ is primarily a ground fighting style. BJJ has some stand-up stuff, particularly throws, sweeps, takedowns, joint manipulation, and some basic standing self-defense, but it's primarily a grappling/wrestling art. Yin Style Baguazhang has aspects of joint manipulating, taking-down, and throwing the opponent -- what martial art wouldn't?!? -- but it combines those seamlessly with striking, stepping, and moving. There's no distinction of "now is when you can strike" and "now is when you can throw," at least not in the sense of there being rules that dictate what is and isn't allowed. In many ways, though BJJ is a good art that produces or supplements a lot of good fighters, it is a lot narrower than Yin Style Baguazhang. Also, BJJ tends to focus on the sporting aspect of the art rather than on the fighting aspect, although most decent BJJ players would make rather formidable fighters in real-life self-defense situations.

MMA is a sport, not a martial art, so that question is moot. It's a bunch of arts combined into a fighting strategy to be used in a sporting competition worth a lot of money. It makes good, dangerous fighters that can take their "games" to the street if needed, but MMA itself isn't a cohesive art and can't really become one -- even its name indicates that. Yin Style Baguazhang, by contrast, is a single unified style with an underlying theory that just happens to be every bit as encompassing (if not more) than MMA. The Chinese bagua is supposed to represent all possibilities, so one could say that baguazhang is the art of all possibilities.
...
...
...so is it all... you know... kung-fu-ey?
No, no, no! It's solid. It's practical. It's attainable. It's realistic. It's pragmatic. It is not esoteric, mystical, or filled with hoo-doo. You're not going to stand around in pajamas (silk or otherwise) breathing softly for a period of time and then become invincible or able to fart lightning. Since Yin Style Baguazhang is a Chinese art, some of it looks like what you see in wushu competitions, but much of it doesn't.

So... what about all that cool martial-arts-kind of stuff, like black belts and stuff?
We tend to train Yin Style Baguazhang in (comfortable) street clothes, the kind you would feel okay working out and sweating in -- including shoes. We don't wear uniforms or fool with belt ranks. We don't do a lot of bowing or kowtowing or calling people by titles. You can wear a belt if you want to, but usually athletic-type pants have a drawstring that helps keep them on for you. We essentially just train as well as we can in a really cool art with a lot of depth and value in it.

So... what do you need to know to know about what Yin Style Baguazhang is, in plain language without all the "hard palm" and "trigrams" business?

You need to know that Yin Style Baguazhang is a great, effective martial art from China that can be fighting-centered or health-centered that martially practices changing a fighting situation into a winning fighting situation. It has tremendous depth and complexity, but the methods of practicing are direct and effective. It's not widely known or practiced despite its value and efficacy. It has practices that many Westerners would find strange (like turning the circle practice -- which could serve as another partial answer to the "what is it?" question, with answer "baguazhang is the art of turning the circle"), but then again, so does any activity originating in another culture.

That last bit reminds me of something I thought of the other day that really tickled me. Since we often get asked why we turn the circle, I often retort or think of retorting with "why do you run?" Is it any more ridiculous to adopt a strenuous posture and walk in a circle as a form of personal training than it is to run with neither the goal of escaping danger nor the goal of getting somewhere else? Nope. So I imagined, ironically as I was out running, asking a runner: "What exactly are you running from, anyway?" The answer I came up with tickled me to no end: "Obesity."

Local Introductory Seminars in Yin Style Baguazhang in and around Knoxville, TN

In an effort to achieve two goals, our study group has decided that we're interested in offering the opportunity for us to come in and discuss some of the principles of Yin Style Baguazhang with friendly local or regionally located martial artists, preferably at their schools. To be clear, let me elaborate.

Mission Statement and Statement of Goals:
Mission: We, as the Knoxville, TN, study group, officially recognized by Yin Style Baguazhang International, are interested in seeing the growth of martial arts and martial artists in the area as well as promoting interest and growth in the art of Yin Style Baguazhang itself.

Goals: Our goals with these seminars are twofold -- to introduce Yin Style Baguazhang as a martial art to local/regional martial artists to enhance their training in their own arts or to generate interest in studying and training Yin Style Baguazhang directly.
Furthermore, we'd like to drum up enough interest to have more folks attend our (hopefully) annual seminar (see here for some details concerning the one that we just held) with He Jinbao of Beijing, our teacher and a true master of the martial arts with nearly unparalleled skill.

What is meant by local/regional:
Local: We live in Knoxville, TN, and some of the very nearby communities. If you live or train in Knoxville or a town very nearby, then we'd be happy to come by and share a little of what we've seen with you.

Regional: If you don't live really close to Knoxville but are within an hour or two away, we'd be willing to consider visiting your group or school as well.

What we can offer:
There are three things, really, that we can offer to local martial artists that already train in some style or another.

1. We can offer insight provided via our training in Yin Style Baguazhang into how you can improve your current training methods for real, remarkable results. We can do this by introducing some of the methods of training used in Yin Style Baguazhang and offering advice on how to tailor those methods to the arts that you already train.
2. We can offer a basic introduction to the art of Yin Style Baguazhang including a variety of its basic practices, methods, and some of its underlying theoretical framework.
3. We can offer Yin Style Baguazhang based applications and host the seminar in a self-defense-for-martial-artists perspective.
   

In all of these cases, you'd be guaranteed something different and interesting, and in the first two cases, an excellent workout would no doubt come as part of the package.

Ultimately, we feel that this art is very underrepresented given its effectiveness, and we'd like word to spread. Realizing it won't spread without someone spreading it, we feel that we can reach out and offer something to the local martial artists that they can really take home with them to enhance their training and potential. We'd also like to increase exposure of the art so that more folks will feel that it is worthwhile to take the opportunity to meet He Jinbao when he comes to this neck of the woods, his level of expertise in the martial arts being high enough so that certainly anyone that spends time training under his direction will be able to improve in their own practices substantially.

What we're not interested in:
Challenges:
I know it makes me look a bit the puss to say that we're not interested in challenges. We're offering to spread knowledge here, which you can reject freely if you don't like it. Our goal isn't to prove ourselves to anyone. I'm more than happy to have you leave thinking that I suck without anyone having to eat a knuckle sandwich to prove it or say otherwise. I'm also more than happy if you think I'm awesome, particularly if I don't have to kick you in the jangles to prove it to you. Personally, I tend to thank people for not kicking me in the jangles and like reasonable folks that feel the same way.

Making money:
Our goal with these seminars is not to get rich or even to make money. We would be, however, asking for a small honorarium or per capita fee for our time, and that money would only be used to offset our travel and training costs, which are rather modest and would therefore be reflected with a similarly modest fee (approximately $10 per attendee per hour or thereabouts). Furthermore, we're not interested in making money via invitation to the seminar with He Jinbao. We do not make money off those seminars: we are charged an honorarium/per capita fee for those (pay this much or however much you bring in, whichever is more) and do not retain any profit from them. Additional seminar income would be used to help us offset our expenses in hosting/lodging/feeding He Jinbao and his translator when they come to town. We're about getting more attention and interest in this art and recognize that direct access to He Jinbao is just about the most effective medium for that goal to be realized.

Gathering Students:
We do have a study group, and it does get together. It's nothing even closely akin to a martial arts school, however, and thus, while we do want our group to grow larger, it does not present realistic competition to an established, real (if you will) martial arts school. We currently meet once per week and have no set curriculum. We offer no ranks or anything of the sort, and we meet where it is convenient, as often as not in someone's yard or garage or in a public park. Generally, we get together and work on what we're individually working on in a community-like setting, and those with more experience help and direct those with less experience in that endeavor. This group is and always has been open to anyone that's interested in trying it out, no strings attached, no commitments to ever come back, no requests to put a halt to any other training you might be doing or interested in. Feeling competition from our group would be like an established church feeling competition from a small-scale Bible-Study group that meets once weekly. With the seminars, we are hoping to be able to come and share our slightly different perspective on the martial arts with folks that are interested in learning martial arts.

Don't hesitate to contact us if you're even remotely curious or interested in hosting us!

Yin Style Baguazhang Is Coming to Knoxville!

I know I already mentioned this, but it bears repeating since it's a major goings-on in my training-related life (which is what this blog is about). Yin Style Baguazhang International is coming to Knoxville, TN, in just under a month! (Don't know much about Yin Style Baguazhang? Start here for the YSB International page!)

When: The seminar is going to be awesome for four consecutive days: Thursday, September 24, through Sunday, September 27, starting early in the morning (8-ish), continuing until lunch at 12, picking back up at 1:30-ish, and finishing in the evening between 5:30 and 6. That's more than eight hours a day of instruction from He Jinbao and Matt Bild.

Where: In West Knoxville, near the I-40/I-140 intersection. Contact us directly for more details. At the moment, some of the seminar will likely be held in Maryville (25-30 minutes south of Knoxville via I-140) as well since we will have much-appreciated access to a mat-covered floor there.

How Much: The cost will be $100 per person per day, which is a good deal since He Jinbao is the lineage holder of this branch of Baguazhang. This compares pretty favorably with what you'd find in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) seminar hosted by someone in a comparable position in the hierarchy (e.g. seminars with some of the Gracie family's students -- not a Gracie -- run in the $50-100 for two hours range).

Who: Anyone interested in experiencing the training practices of Yin Style Baguazhang firsthand with direct access to the best guys the art has. Folks with martial arts backgrounds that would like to develop or deepen their training are particularly likely to benefit. In fact, even if practicing Yin Style Bagua isn't one of your goals, your self-defense ability and overall martial arts training is very likely to be enhanced by this kind of experience.

What: The focus will be on the Lion System of Yin Style Baguazhang, which is also what this blog is about (don't know what Yin Style Baguazhang is? Click here to find out more!). The basic practices of the art as they pertain to that particular branch of it will be taught and explored in details. While the specific material on each day will be different, over the course of the seminar the following will certainly be addressed: striking drilling practice, combinations practice, forms practice, standing strengthening practice, turning the circle practice, dadao (Chinese big saber) practice, and applications of the techniques. Usually these seminars also leave open the opportunity for Q&A with the teachers, which is especially good when folks come and ask martial-arts-related questions. The opportunity to get direct, personal feedback from them is also available at those times as well.

What Else:

• In addition to He Jinbao and Matt Bild, several of the senior students in Yin Style Bagua from across the U.S. will almost certainly be in attendance, providing examples to follow and training advice for folks less experienced in the art.
• We're hoping for a pretty good turnout, so if you read this and are interested or know someone that might be, please follow this link and contact Bradley Moore for further specifics.
• Any and all are welcome to come if they are interested and can make it. Experience in the martial arts is helpful but not required, and it is worth noting that the workout will be rather physically demanding.
• Folks within a short drive of the Knoxville area that already train in an art and that are interested in tasting something new and good are especially encouraged to contact us and try to make it up for as much of the seminar as possible.
• Local schools or groups that think they might be interested and would like for Bradley and I to come by and give you a primer before the seminar are also encouraged to contact us (it would be helpful for you if you did that). You can do so here or by contacting one of us using the e-mail addresses here.
  
• Local individuals that thing they might be interested and would like the same kind of attention, contact us about coming and visiting our study group and its regular meetings in a park in Maryville on Monday nights. For the time being, our study group is meeting for free, so you'd only be out on some time.
• This is an internal martial art, but "qi warriors" probably won't find what they're expecting. Being realistic and pragmatic, Yin Style Baguazhang isn't advertising magical powers or anything of the sort; just intelligent, mature, well-designed martial arts techniques play center stage here. He Jinbao's skill is high enough to be worthy of some legends, though... at least in my humble estimation (which I'm sure I can find quite a bit of backup on from the folks who know him!).
  

Growing the Group

One of our major goals here in Knoxville, TN, is to grow our group, and we're finding it very difficult. Of course, we want to do it ethically, which makes things a bit harder. Here's a little bit of our group history along with the trials and tribulations we find in growing.

A Good Beginning
When I started training a few years ago, we had a facility and some folks. I think my brother and I made the fifth and sixth members of the study group, actually, when we started. The facility was pretty good: spacious, matted, and well-lit, if a little exposed to the elements for an indoor place (it was a warehouse at a martial arts supply company, so if it was hot outside, it was hot inside, and if it was cold outside, it was cold inside). It was also free, which was pretty good, due to connections that our founding member had (and no longer has for a variety of reasons, half of which are good). The group grew pretty steadily, if slowly, there to a maximum of about eight or nine, even though some people (like my brother) left the group over the course of that time. Things were actually pretty promising back then, and it looked like we would have some real growth over time, reaching our goal of roughly 15-20 serious members in relatively short order. Then we lost the facility, and things basically went to crap.

The Dark Year
This year wasn't really dark, and it actually lasted almost eighteen months. In fact, I think some of us made some huge progress in the year that followed losing the facility, although 90% of it was on a completely individual basis since we couldn't find another facility for the same very reasonable price (free). A few of the most serious among us still got together from time to time, but the "students" at that point mostly started to vanish. By the time we found the place we're training now, which isn't really that good, the group had dwindled essentially to the three of us that now form the "core" in Knoxville, one of whom has a lot of family and work-related issues that have hindered his training of late. It was up to us to start growing again.

A New Place to Train
While out on a walk with my wife one night last year, I found a pavilion behind a school that satisfied a few of our most important criteria: lighted (we meet in the evenings), covered (it rains a lot here), and free (it's in an area that is a public park outside of "extended school hours"). Awesome... except that it's in Maryville, TN (a town about thirty miles south of Knoxville), and it doesn't have walls (something people tend to look for in a martial arts school, it seems). It's also exactly the same temperature as outside, which is rough in the hottest and coldest months of the year, and there's absolutely no protection from bugs (mosquitoes, most notably). It hasn't been a huge boon for us in terms of attracting new members, but it's been better than not having a place at all. That's where we've been since sometime last summer, and it works more or less. We do, on the plus side, have some exposure... but no one really stops to ask us what we're up to (except the one guy that did, who trains with us now). That's kind of the history of the group, many details omitted. We technically have four official members now, which isn't really very many, and we really want to grow. Using our apparently unpersuasive talking skills, we've managed to acquire around a dozen people that claim that they want to come and train, but none of them have actually done that yet. We've also had our share of "tourists" as the London group calls them: people who come and train one to three times and then never come back.

Advertising
I decided a while ago to try advertising on CraigsList, though I'm not sure why I continue it at this point except that I know it drives an awful lot of traffic to our group's website (which could use an update...). We've had quite a few e-mails from it and a few guys have actually come and tried it out (all tourists, I think). The general responses contain questions that underscore my essential reason for publishing this post (wondering what to do about these problems):

• "Why don't we get belts?"
• "Why is it free?"
• "Where do you get your training?"
• "Are you sure it isn't in Knoxville? Will it be soon/ever?"
• "Really, why is it free?"
• "I'm not going to pay for one class per week.; why don't you have classes more often?" (...it's free... ???)
• "No, really, why is it free? Is it really free?"

The main issue, apparently, is that people seem not to want one of my favorite parts of all of this: it's free. That's dubious. My latest experiment has been to post a new ad (today) to CraigsList that says "the first few lessons are free" to see if there's a greater response with an expectation to pay. I intend to misdirect people that ask about the money with "why don't you come try it before we worry about that...," a classic used-car salesman technique. Why the hell don't people want free stuff? I don't get it.

Potential Solutions
We've discussed the following plans: get business cards/flyers, market ourselves slightly more aggressively, and dupe people on the money issue. The first two of those are fairly straightforward and consistent with what's going on with HQ. The duping is funny and probably won't ever really happen. It would go down like this: "Classes are $X per month for the first three months, and then we'll discuss the more serious payment options if you want to stick with it at that point." Then, what we do is put all of the money those people pay into a box or an account until we have said discussion, at which point we tell them it's really free and hand back $3X to them because we're not interested in that (we don't have a facility, we don't have bills, and we don't have insurance... it's free). Everyone would laugh except the person that wants to know why (s)he didn't get told that it was free from the get-go.

Ethical Recruitment Concerns
There are a lot of martial arts schools in the area. I have a strong connection with one, and the other main members among us have connections with others. We kind of have a hard and fast rule that we don't advertise to those people at all. Stealing students is not something we're interested in. Something else, though, that I'd be interested in hearing some suggestions about are the following three situations, neither of which we've had to deal with yet but may have to eventually:

• A person that used to go to a school that we're connected with quits that school and then, via whatever means, ends up coming to us to train (mildly sticky); or
  
• A person that currently does train in one of those schools comes to us (under their own power and craft... we don't advertise to them!) and wants to come train with us (moderately sticky), and then
  
• Gives up on the school because of the awesomeness of baguazhang (very sticky).

I figure the first of those options is likely to happen at essentially any given time. People know us, and particularly in those schools have seen our growth in the martial arts realm since starting Yin Style. I figure it's the least sticky and not really an issue, though I bet "you're stealing my students" will still be an uttered issue despite our obvious attempts not to do that. The second of those scenarios might or might not ever happen. I don't know. I don't really want to find out. I figure that the people that migrate in that way, if any ever do, will either be tourists or fall into the third category pretty quickly (based on effectiveness + free = better deal than not free, as long as effectiveness is comparable). Some might be dual trainers, which keeps things probably pretty sticky, but it's really the third group that make me nervous.

Our goal is definitely not to steal students, but Yin Style Baguazhang has a reputation for having people start on its path and then forsake all other arts that they've trained to dedicate more to YSB. Our founding member is that way... he has literally renounced his entire karate background because of his commitment to Yin Style (wanting to have a belt-burning party before we talked him out of setting anything on fire because of the pointlessness of that).

Any suggestions on ways that might effectively help a small group grow are strongly welcomed, particularly if they include great advice on how to get past the "why is it free?" question (our usual answer is "because we love doing this and have no expenses in it, so we don't feel the need to charge for it"). Advice about the "ethical dilemmas" present in having a public study group that exists near commercial martial arts facilities are welcomed also. Locals that are interested in training or that know people that are interested in training are strongly encouraged to leave a comment indicating that to me or to contact one of us directly by finding our e-mails on either the local group's website or the YSB International website (see the sidebar for links).

Yin Style Baguazhang International in Knoxville, TN

I can hardly believe it's almost here! Yin Style Baguazhang International is going to be doing a first-time seminar in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the end of September, and getting it organized is really starting to eat up some of my attention, even though I'm not the main organizer. This has caused me to pause and think... and that has caused me to pause and remember... this is an amazing situation, an amazing opportunity, and an amazing responsibility.

First of all, in Knoxville and the surrounding areas (I live in Maryville, TN, just south of Knoxville), there are a lot of martial artists, but there are very few Chinese martial arts being practiced. I suspect those things go hand-in-hand. First of all, a few of the big karate men from the Okinawan occupation period following WWII brought Okinawan karate here in the 1950's, and it's grown steadily in popularity. There is a fairly large concentration high-ranking karate folks here, and in fact, one of the biggest get-togethers in the Isshin-Ryu Karate System, the Isshin-Ryu Hall of Fame tournament and shiai, is held in the greater Knoxville area (this year in Knoxville itself). There are also a few prominent karate associations here, notably the USIKA (United States Isshin-Ryu Karate Association), and that's no particular surprise since two of the four American progenitors of Isshin-Ryu karate moved to the Southeast, one to Knoxville, after their duty with the Marines. That's made a pretty good reputation for Isshin-Ryu in this area, which was great for me because practicing Isshin-Ryu is what led to me running into a guy that also practiced Isshin-Ryu that ended up introducing me to Yin Style. Perhaps unfortunately, what has passed for Chinese Martial Arts in the Southeast has largely been a bit of a joke, particularly among the rather pragmatic karate fighters, and so the CMA scene in the Southeast is rather bad, to speak generally.

There's been a huge upsurgence recently in the Southeast, particularly in Knoxville, among people interested in practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and mixed martial arts (popularly, MMA) since the UFC gained in popularity through the 1990's and first decade of the new millennium. People here are usually "no-bullshido" kinds of folks: what works is okay, what doesn't work sucks, and that's how it is. The UFC has convinced people of the effectiveness of combining striking and BJJ, largely thanks to the Gracie family, at least in comparison to what martial arts training most people do. This growth hasn't helped the Chinese martial arts scene in this neck of the woods since much of what passes for Chinese martial arts is flowery "kung-fu" stuff that tends to get people beat in tournaments really quickly. Baguazhang is almost a complete unknown in and around Knoxville, and that's probably mostly to do with the strong karate history, growth of BJJ/MMA, and general pragmatism of the people, to say nothing of bagua's relative obscurity and "bizarre" practices (like walking in circles for maybe hours on end holding "weird" postures).

So here we are about to host YSB International: Yin Style Baguazhang is about to happen big-time in Knoxville, and there's some duty on our part to showcase this art to the Southeast and hopefully start changing perceptions: Chinese martial arts can be effective, even standing up to popular giants like BJJ and MMA in the public eye. Who better to convince them of the prowess inherent in baguazhang than He Jinbao? No one, of course, and so we've got to figure out how to get these folks interested in checking out what we're doing.

Though people in the Southeast, particularly in and around Knoxville, carry a stereotype for being backwards and country (we are kind of country, for the most part, and rather proud of it), that probably sheds an unfair light on us as far as martial arts is concerned. The trend I've noticed in the area is a strongly growing attitude of curiosity and exploration, realizing that karate isn't the whole world and that branching out into other knowledge can help, not hinder, development of both people and the arts they love and train. That attitude marries very nicely with the Southern love of the practical: if it works in the martial arts world, people in the Southeast are probably about the most likely to become very interested in it once they become aware of it, not so much as a marketing tool but out of genuine interest in developing the most effective, high-quality martial arts training that they can find.

We're hoping that this spirit makes its way to our little seminar on the last weekend of September, showing this area about a truly effective, beautiful, deep, and difficult Chinese martial art that is indeed martial while ending up with a terrific seminar for both the students and the teachers. Now... just to organize it all....

Growing into TKD

I was at a meeting for work yesterday and I ended up in a conversation with a fellow in his mid-50's that was explaining to me, for whatever reason, the virtues of staying active as we age. He indicated to me that he still runs regularly, hikes and backpacks with a heavy pack somewhat infrequently, and practices martial arts. That piqued my interests, but I didn't really ask anything about the martial arts initially because he was on a bit of a roll there on his soapbox of staying fit. Eventually, he got to the part where he encouraged me, which I knew was coming sooner or later, and he told me that based on my build, in his estimation, as I got older, I might find similar interests and enlightenment, and "who knows, I might even be drawn to the martial arts, like taekwondo," which is apparently "a good one" and what he practices.

I didn't say anything about it except that I thought it was neat that he did martial arts and that it was extra impressive at his age. He went on about it a couple of more times before the meeting commenced and our conversation died. I still didn't say anything about it, choosing to divert the conversation by focusing on his running instead. I guess, though, I have the good fortune of looking forward to growing into a phase in my life when taekwondo will be what I'm after.

In the meantime, I'll be practicing my YSB. This week's project, at least for the first half, will largely be the blocking strikes of the Lion System. Coming up with combination drills with them is quite a bit different in some ways than it was for the other striking methods. I figure that's part of their nature, though. Here's to exploring (in what time I have since my thesis advisor reinstalled "The Fear" deeply into me)!