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.