Don't Let Your Training Get You Down

Yin Style Baguazhang is a tough art to train, as are many, though this one in particular is described as having "rather dry" training methods that make it difficult to learn. It's also a very deep art that requires a serious commitment to become skilled. Because of how its presented in seminars, because of the immense size of the art, or because of the seemingly endless layers of complexity in the techniques (just properly "finding the forces" of the techniques is said to take three to five years of serious investgation!!!), it's easy to start to feel like there's more to do than we have time for in this art if we really want to get it. To compound that, there's life, which seems to interject an awful lot of stuff into our days that just put the block on training. Piled even on top of that are words we've almost all heard that go like this: "you have to stand/turn/practice/etc. for a long time to get development." Putting all of that together is a recipe for discouragement in training in the real world.

Here are some different words to remember: "Five minutes of training is more training than zero minutes of training."

Sure, you're not going to get a whole lot of development in five minutes, but if it's all you have for your training today or this week, then you're going to get more development in those five minutes if you use them training than if you don't. Maybe you could stand strengthening. Standing strengthening for five minutes with real effort is pretty hard and can get you some development. Maybe you could focus carefully and intently on the mechanics of a particular strike that you either really like or really feel deficient on. Using your brain at full power for five minutes on feeling the mechanics of a strike can actually bring about a real change in your understanding of that strike as long as you follow up on that with some solid training later when you have more of a chance. For me, at least, that follow-up is 100% easier to talk myself into (sometimes I have talk myself out of it so that I can work or do chores or some such) if I've investigated the strike and renewed my interest in it, even if only for a few minutes... like I've whet my appetite and can't wait to find out more. Five minutes of turning isn't a great way to get development, but it is a great way to use five minutes if it's all you have, particularly if you put your training intention on the right things: focus very intently on one particular aspect of posture or mechanics, like the proper use of the legs in stepping or the proper way to lift the crown and tuck the tailbone while still managing to walk "naturally."

The thing is, it's just too easy with an art like this to feel like you're not giving it, or the opportunity you have to train in it, the attention that it is really due. Then it's easy to beat yourself up about that, and that's not why anyone's training: to feel like they have another obligation or something to be disappointed in themselves over. You have to get over that and train when you have time to train and take what you can from that time. Having only five minutes that you could use to train and then not training in those because you just deem that it's not long enough to do anything is the only way you're really shortchanging yourself. Having a life that presents you with only five minutes that you can train on a particular day is just that: having a life (and we all have them!).

A long time ago, I was given two pieces of advice about training in Yin Style that apply more generally, and I still think about them on a regular basis:

1. "Five minutes of turning (read: training) is more than no minutes of turning (read: training);"
2. "At every point in your life, you have three directions to choose from: you can do something that moves you forward, something that keeps you still, or something that moves you backwards in whatever you're working on. It's up to you to choose which one of those you want."

I think a lot of folks that train in martial arts, particularly Yin Style Baguazhang or other internal arts, have this idea that the only way to get great development is to train for hours on end most of the days of the week. To become a total expert like a lineage holder, that might be true. Honestly, though, essentially all of us will not become "lineage holders" without doing something idiotic like making up our own lineage, so that's kind of moot. The truth of the matter is that the only way to get great development is to train as much as your life and circumstance allows you to, which includes and allows for your interest in cooking, having a family, wanting to go to Cancun and lay out on the beach and do nothing for a few days, or whatever else. If you decide you really, truly want more development, then you'll find yourself reorganizing your life around fulfilling that want, but the measurement is entirely personal and therefore that kind of change isn't required or even expected.

It's tough to keep your chin up, but remember what I remember: "Five minutes is more than no minutes," and you'll progress. If you do five minutes and find that you suddenly have ten, then great. If you do five minutes and find that you're running late, then at least you got five minutes.