Ask Dr. Jimberly -- "Humongous Godzilla Sword" -- What's with the dadao anyway?

Here's another edition of Ask Dr. Jimberly, where I share questions and answers that I get about Yin Style Baguazhang with a wider audience: What's the deal with that "Humongous Godzilla Sword" (read: the Yin Style bagua dadao)?

Snow day! Train hard!

The other day I posted some training tips for training in cold weather, notably after we trained out in some cold. Today, something relatively rare happened in East Tennessee: it snowed and stuck. I took some advantage of the opportunity to test out some of my tips with a short training session outside (and even got a picture for you, although it's posed, from after some of my training). After going out today in snow and ice, I have a couple of things to add to that previous post.

Battle saber proves I'm weak

I train hard.

I got to thinking the other day, though, how much more ridiculous training with the saber would be if going to battle with the saber was a realistic possibility, supposing I was somehow such a soldier as my training with the saber somewhat suggests I pretend to be. Here's some of my realizations:

First, it's hard for me to do drills with the saber for a long time. In fact, it's hard to hold the saber for a long time. By a long time, I mean maybe a quarter or half of an hour. If I was training for battle with the saber, I'd have to hold and use the saber for several hours at a time without the option of putting it down and taking a little drink while my muscles feel like they're about to bust out of my skin.

Second, I'm getting better at the saber, but I'm by no means great. If I was going to battle with it, because I'd prefer not to die in such an engagement (which I surely would if I went to battle with it right now against anyone that knew how to fight with some kind of comparable armament), I'd have to be blinging great with the saber. "Eh, that was pretty good," just wouldn't cut it.

Third, I can put out some power with the saber on some techniques for a few techniques (see "first"), but if I was going to battle with the saber, I'd have to be going balls-to-the-walls for hours with it to be successful. Good Lord.

Fourth, did I mention not being able to put it down???

Why am I writing about this hee-haw-dom? Well, because it makes me think about what kinds of goals to have in saber training. To be really great with it by my standards now would be to be mediocre according to going-to-battle standards. I just thought it was something to try to keep in mind while training with the saber... imagine really using it for what swords were used for. Here's a picture of me doing one technique in a short series and doing it rather poorly at the best of my ability.
Disclaimer: I'm aware of the history of the bagua dadao as being designed to be a training implement and not necessarily a true battle weapon, although it quite clearly could be used as such. Whether or not it ever saw real combat or even if it would, that doesn't change the mentality that might (or should) underlie its training.

Serious leg workout: Yin Style Baguazhang style

I seriously wonder if there is a leg workout out there more effective than the lying step?
Monday, at group training, we focused on lying step, building up to and showing the new guys (yea! new guys!) the lying step sweeping form. We did the form a few dozen times, and we took a bunch of drills out of it and some of the others to practice the lying step technique. A few days later, I'm still pretty well convinced (by the lingering soreness!) that the lying step might be the best way in the universe to get strong, fast legs.

Here are some lying step training ideas for you to work in:

1. Go the distance: find a long, relatively straight distance to cover (a driveway, a gymnasium, a hallway) and do a lying-step strike, kind of one-step method, turning either forward or backwards, all the way down (and back!). Do it several times and feel your legs shuddering for days! From the Lion System lying step forms, these kinds of steps could either be the ones in "moves 3 and 5" or in "move 1," which gives you two very different drills and very different ways of frying your legs;
2. Box it up: Do your lying step drills (like "moves 3 and 5") in the box-stepping method, one advancing, one retreating.
3. One-two-three: You guessed it! Try doing the lying step drills (like "moves 3 and 5") along a line in the three-step drilling method. We tend to step on "one" by drawing the leg back and then extending it before the weight shift, but you could just do a weight shift there. It depends on your training and use goals.
4. Lying-step squats: all the fun of regular squats except that you keep one leg straight out in the lying-step position and do all the work with the other leg. This isn't strictly martial, but it turns your legs to mush.

A goal for development and training can be to get deeper, lower, faster, and stronger lying steps. You can facilitate the first two of those goals using side lunging stretches (drop into a lying-step position and use it as a stretch with your hands on your knees or the floor for support and safety... add strengthening and balance when you're better at it and more confident by lifting your hands). Other wide-leg hamstring and leg adductor stretches are helpful too. To facilitate the last two goals, try doing a smaller number of each drill and really pushing hard, trying to get some explosiveness in the technique (i.e. make it pliometric).

Of course, the real point is to be able to use it as well as to do it, not just to get a workout in. Be sure to combine in your strikes (see the forms for ideas if you need them) and to do this a lot. For it to be usable, you have to have excellent balance and the ability to place your foot precisely in an instant. You also have to be strong enough and flexible enough to get your leg and body into the correct positions for use, so while you stretch, drill, and strengthen, think about the uses!

Two Weeks Until the Seminar

The 2009 Fall Tour kicks off here in Knoxville in just a day over two weeks. Yikes! The preparations still to do for the seminar and for my training... what a list! In any case, here's a slightly more detailed version of what's going on, just in case anyone stumbles upon this and is interested. For practical "I'm interested in coming" information, see my previous post on the matter by clicking here.

Very General Overview:
The first two days (Thursday, Friday) focus on foundational training and the last two days (Saturday, Sunday) focus on turning, forms, and applications. Both dadao (big saber) and shuai jiao (fast wrestling) practice are scheduled during the last two days. The seminar is open, requiring no previous experience in Yin Style Baguazhang, although having some background at least in the martial arts or fitness would be helpful. Interested parties can schedule to attend full days or half days (save the last half-day) individually or attend the entire seminar (recommended in all cases where it is possible). Contact us for details (see below for a link to contact information).

Thursday, September 24, 8:00a-12:00p
The morning session of this foundational day focuses on the Sweeping Palm of the Lion System. First is standing strengthening practice in the Lion representational posture and the sweeping palm posture. Then the remainder of the morning is devoted to practicing sweeping strikes and basic striking combinations. If you've never done any Yin Style Baguazhang and are interested and able to come to a Thursday morning session, this is the ideal place to start.

Thursday, September 24, 1:30p-6:00p
The afternoon session of this foundational day focuses on the Cutting Palm of the Lion System. The afternoon will proceed like the morning with "cutting" replacing "sweeping" for the first three and a half hours of this 270-minute session. Cutting is another excellent place for beginners to find something, so if you can't make a Thursday morning session but can make it in the afternoon, this is good for you. The afternoon session finishes with a new-to-essentially-everyone session in some of the basic kicks of Yin Style Baguazhang, lasting for one hour. The time in between the sessions, obviously, is a break for rest and lunch.

Friday, September 25
This foundational day follows the same framework as the previous day, focusing on the Chopping Palm of the Lion System and the Hooking Palm of the Lion System in the morning and afternoon respectively. The times are the same as Thursday's times for both sessions. These practices, while different from the material on Thursday, are also excellent foundational material, and in some ways they echo the themes of the material from Thursday. Thus, if you cannot make a Thursday session but can make a Friday session, this day would still be great for beginners to come to. The day will wrap up with another hour-long session of studying the kicks of Yin Style Bagua, sampling a few others from the system.

This is a photo from one of the foundational days in the recent London Intensive in which He Jinbao directs myself and another noteworthy practitioner in some fundamental practices. Applications such as these will be largely or entirely reserved for the final day of our seminar. Click on the image to see it slightly larger.

Saturday, September 26, Morning
The times are the same as for the previous days, but the focus on Saturday is different. The morning session starts off with circle-turning practice in the representational posture of the Lion System and then studies one of the forms from that system: Enfolding Cutting. Drilling the form and strikes from the form, likely with combinations included, is on the menu. If you're a beginner and interested in coming to this session, it may be in your best interest to contact one of us as soon as possible for a quick primer in this seven-movement form.

Saturday, September 26, Afternoon
This day's afternoon session focuses on another of the forms of the Lion System: Windmill Cutting. Again, you might want a primer on the seven-movement form if you can come to this session. The last hour of this day's session will be on basic drills with the bagua big saber (dadao)

Sunday, September 27, Morning
The morning session on Sunday, with the same times as previously, is similar to that on Saturday morning: circle turning training and a Lion System form -- Moving with the Force Seizing. Again, you might want a primer on the seven-movement form if you can come to this session. The last hour of this session will be the beginning of a structured, long applications session. We will hold this session at a different location from the others to have access to mats.

Sunday, September 27, Afteroon
The afternoon session on Sunday is for applications practice, reviewing and learning to apply many of the techniques studied in the previous days' sessions. This is the sole session that carries a full prerequisite that you've attended something previous to it in order to attend. The session will be structured around the material we covered throughout the seminar and last for three and a half hours, the last hour of the last day being reserved for some fun tussling in shuai jiao, which is a bit like judo but faster and with a different philosophy. The goal here is less to develop skill in shuai jiao and more to get some practice with that kind of exercise and feeling the weight of a resisting opponent. We will still be in the matted environment for this session.

This photo is of myself and yet another noteworthy practitioner practicing applications. In this scene, I am taking him down with a basic cutting palm strike. Click on the image to see it slightly larger.

If you think you can or want to come and you haven't made that explicit to our tour organizer, please follow this link to his contact information and contact him as soon as possible.

Accessories Workout, With Pictures!

I figure it's about time I start putting some pictures on here. So... I did a workout today and took some of the process. Since I didn't have a photographer and didn't want to goof around with the timer and all of that, they're all from my perspective. That makes them probably quite a bit different from what you're used to seeing... awesome. I'm definitely the "different" sort of guy. The only pictures I took were of some of my saber stuff and some accessories, although my workout integrated those kinds of things with yard work and empty-hand drills -- standing, some turning, and striking drills. All-told, I went at it for about two hours before I decided I was too excited about putting up some pictures and too thirsty to continue.

Here are the tools of my trade today: saber (freshly polished), twenty pound dumbbell (for accessory exercising), and Heavy Gripper 200 lb (also for accessory exercising). They made for quite the little workout.



After the photo opportunity, I launched into some standing and striking and then picked up my saber for some harder work. The goal was to turn in the Green Dragon Shoots to the Sea posture for fifty revolutions in each direction, however many times I had to go in each directly to accomplish that goal. This picture is a perspective shot of me in the posture. Notice that the saber tip is at eyebrow height.

I followed that exercise up, which was hard, with tracing the saber to the count of fifty in each hand and then dumbbell shoulder presses (two sets of twelve) to further tax the muscles that hold the saber up, although my hands were way more taxed by the posture than my shoulders were. Here's a perspective shot of the "closed" position with one of my lovely maple trees in the background.


After the dumbbell, I did a set of ten with the gripper. Actually, I did a set of ten with it after each of my three turning exercises with the saber. It's really hard to close. Two hundred pounds is a lot of required force. Then again, four people in London told me that they believe that I have, in the words of the Iced-JohannesBerg himself, "the bone-crushing strength in my hands." I only use these things about once a week and only after crazy saber and crazy ox-tongue palm workouts, which I think do more for the grip anyway (unless I do seizing and grasping postures... I'll do grippers after those too... whew, burner).


After doing some yard work and some more empty-hand drills and another round of standing Lion (I'll have to take a perspective shot of that sometime... I can't believe I didn't think of it), I decided I should turn with the saber in Lion posture. Good thinking. That was hard. It took four sets, but I went thirty times in each direction. Can someone say shoulders? I almost couldn't by the time I was done.


Since the Lion section of the Nine Dragon Saber form seems to have a lot of chopping in it, I think more than any section except the Rooster one, I decided to do hook-chop after that: twice in each hand so that I ended up with 30 total on each side (18, 12 for the breakdown). That was kind of hard. Here's a perspective shot of that, which was hard to take because I posed for it after the sets. I followed that up with lateral and front shoulder raises with the dumbbell (ten each in each hand) and then the gripper again and then more empty-hand striking drills of the zig-zag stepping variety.

Okay, so what would I do after that? A short turn in the Lion posture, of course, and then... good times of all good times:
You're damn right you know what that is. Turning in the Qilin (Unicorn) posture. That sucked bad at that point, and so I only went twenty times around in the right and fifteen in the left (my left wrist still isn't 100%). That took four sets to get to. I've really got to turn more with that thing, seriously. I don't even think that I'm twisting my arm under far enough since looking at the picture indicates to me that the blade isn't pointing straight up. Damn, yo. The followup to this monster is the most Qilin/Unicorn feeling of the basic saber drills that I could think of: arcing. I can do a bunch of those, so I did fifty on each side in one go. Then I picked up the dumbbell and did curls and then forearm curls (one set of twelve of each) and threw that thing on the ground because my forearms felt like they were going to pop. In response, I did another set with the gripper and tried not to cry.

Afterwards, I busted out some more striking drills, working striking combinations from the Lion System basics and did a little more yard work before deciding to hang it up for the day and get to other things. I'll probably do a bit more in a little bit now that I've had plenty to drink and a little to eat, and then I'm planning to stretch and do my Taoist energy exercises that I've recommited myself to (for the third time) before bed.

As I went out, my wife saw me, and so I showed her how shiny my newly polished saber is. She snapped a picture of me admiring it. By the time my workout was over, I was as shiny as it... probably shinier. So... that's how I rolled today. What fun!

Published

For the first post in my second centi, I'm glad to announce I'm published:
http://yinstylebaguazhang.com/lindsay_london2009.html.

That's my experience in London this summer nearly as well as I can say it. It's pretty clear that getting the opportunity to go to a seminar like that and taking it is really an unbelievable chance that would be awfully hard to pass up!

Snow Circle, Mark 2

It snowed again today. I took advantage to make a better snow circle, since it snowed (read: still is) harder today than last time, making a nicer picture for my winter-themed bagua hijinks.


An observant person will notice a few things: first that this picture is taken from the opposite side as the previous snow circle since the gash made by the truck is on the right now. It's hard to see that gash, but I stepped on it and slipped about four times in the twelve minutes I turned (the slipping got old, and painful). The truck left a rut through part of my circle that makes a sudden, sharp drop of a few inches, which when wet (seeing as our "soil" is clay) is very slippery/dangerous. Cuidado! Circulo mojado! Further, the twelve minutes will likely be called into question because of the smatterings of snow all over the circle (particularly on the left). Lo, it was snowing (hard) when I turned, and in the two minutes it took to grab my camera, the snow did some damage to my muddy rut. Here, in fact, is exactly (I timed it) five minutes later:


Even the quite unobservant can see here the mark of the tire, most damaging in the upper right (northeast corner) of my circle. Some of the contour is also visible along the entire eastern edge. Awesome. As of now, it looks like I never stood on it, save for a red-orange-brown spot in the northeast corner where the wet earth keeps bleeding that staining mud up into the still-falling snow.

The crazy part is... it was almost 70 F here yesterday. The sad part is that it might stop us from being able to get together to train tonight....

Snow Circle

It's rare here, and the picture is ugly (no less because of the truck that ran over my circle last week and made it all warped and bumpy or for the uneven snowfall due to my circle being rather near a tree), but I can start my "a circle for all seasons" project with my first picture of a snow-circle. It's snowing here today with the snow actually sticking, which happens once or twice a year typically, usually with less snow than today, and so I took the opportunity to go turn in it, setting aside my dissertation for a bit while I toiled in the cold and wet. At the end, I took a picture of my circle. Here's the result:


The goofy left side is where the truck's massive-assive tires ran through it, leaving ruts that I've tried to pound down a little bit and wrecking some of the hard-earned symmetry of my circle. Still, I now have a snow-circle photo. I'll see about creating an album on here over the next year: a circle in all seasons. Maybe I'll follow through on that, and maybe I won't take time to take the pictures.