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).

Differences and Similarities

By request, I'm going to address some of what it is that I "got" about the similarities and differences between the sweeping and hooking palms as mentioned in my article. Really, the two palms are quite different, and that's important to note. In actuality, when you look at all of the forms of the sweeping palm and the hooking palm and take a careful look at the striking methods, you'll see that they're pretty diverse in both cases. Still, they're quite overlapping as well. Something similar exists for the cutting and chopping palms, I think. These things, it seems to me, are done particularly in the basic strikes, which are chosen to be representative, so as to help reinforce the ability to find and execute the forces of the strikes (which in lots of ways are similar in the big picture and yet different in the details).

The big themes of sweeping and hooking, in theory, are, I believe:

• Sweeping endeavors to create a sticky, scraping force and moves in a wheeling fashion. An opponent hit by a sweeping strike, particularly one that glances off or that is used to open the opponent, should be dragged off balance a little by the strike. This is accomplished by an idea of wheeling and scraping. Sweeping strikes also hit directly, cutting into the opponent like a sword.
  
• Hooking endeavors to move the opponent as if they were being snagged by a big hook. The name is dual in meaning: the arm is shaped like a hook and the arm is used like a hook. To use a hook well, one would have to stretch out and then come back, push and then pull, if you will. The idea is that the arm should be carrying the opponent somewhere as if he's been snagged by a hook, so there's a real idea of moving the opponent around with a hooking strike.

A couple of examples, I think, are useful to make things more clear. Ideally, what you need to do is pick a couple of the really similar strikes and do similar applications with them, trying to find how it feels different. First, let's think of inward sweeping and inward/severing hooking in the simple application that you've opened the opponent already and stepped in to throw him, leg behind his leg. The sweeping strike moves in a wheeling motion and therefore should turn the opponent some, but since it seems to hit more directly, I tend to get more "straight back" in terms of reaction from my opponent unless I *really* try to spin them around. It's not as straight as something like a chop, but it's pretty straight. In contrast, severing hooking seems to really spin the opponent because it's almost like you're lifting him up with the structure of your arm and really thinking about moving him out and away from you with a slight jerk back at the end. The opponent's reaction is very round.

In the second example, there's an application that's relatively accessible using any of rising sweeping, rising cutting, or opening hooking (the first and last on this list being quite similar in execution with that same slight difference) where the opponent's arms end up crossed while you stand behind him and put pressure on his arm and throw him down. It's in the Forcing Hand dvd, for instance, but the exact move isn't important to this discussion. Doing that move with sweeping until it's relatively comfortable, then with hooking until the same, and then going back and forth really underscored the difference. Hooking has a very strong "I'm carrying this guy around" feeling to it where as sweeping does not. Sweeping has more of an idea of knocking the guy out of the way but in a manner where there's still connection.

I don't think this is very clear, but I'm going to let it stand. It's quite difficult, I'm sure you can appreciate, to discuss movements and kinesthetic sensations in text, and as far as applications go, they never come out well when written down (at least I don't seem to think they do). The point is that the two palms feel different even though they have techniques that are done very similarly, and that those similarites boost development in the gross skills while those differences hone the mind to pay attention to and use subtle differences to achieve different results in the same or different situations. As far as I know, the only way to "get" it is to realize there's a difference, train how you believe that difference might manifest, try it out, revise, refine, and then train it and try it again and again. Baguazhang is not redundant (that would be inefficient and unneccessary), and so if they feel the same to you, then you're doing something wrong, i.e. it's incorrect to say or think or feel that "opening hooking is just like rising sweeping with a closed fist and slightly more bent arm." While on the outside, gross level that's largely true, there's different intent there that can only come about by looking for, focusing on, and then training the subtle difference in strategy and technique between the two strikes. Still, the similarity is strong enough to achieve the following two goals, in my experience: 1) getting beginners started with the hooking strike, and 2) to have a strong overlap in the "finding the force" effort in both strikes.

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!

Cooking with JB: An Odd Subject for my 100th Post

Even though this is my 100th post and should therefore be commemorated with some tale about how I did everything I know how to do in Yin Style 100 times on each side, I have no such tale to tell. I did realize, however, that I'm also currently writing a blog about things that I cook and that since while I was in London, I was staying with Matt and Jinbao and thus got to eat a lot of JB's cooking, which I'm now trying to replicate, and I bet some YSB folks would have interest in. On that blog, I've been documenting my attempts, when successful, at some of the "hash that JB would sling," if you pardon the slang. It's all traditional Chinese home-cooking, nothing fancy, and it's all quite good. Here's where to go to see some of those recipes (as well as a couple of my own), look for the ones with the keyword "JB" in the title. For the record, I didn't actually get any of JB's recipes, but I do pay a lot of attention to the things I eat (very slowly) and have been cooking long enough to do a fair job of recreating things that I try. Most of these are very close or spot-on.

We did train hard last night: sweeping, cutting, and chopping strikes primarily, along with a nice round of standing strengthening, a little bit of forms practice, and a little bit of saber practice, so this post isn't completely devoid of training news.

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....

Stirring the Ashes

I went out to work out this evening. I decided that my wrist could deal... I just wouldn't let my left hand play much. I started out with the saber, as I usually do, and did tracing in my right. It felt nice but like I haven't done it much lately (I haven't). Then I decided to test my left hand (having no sense or indomitable spirit or some such) and did fifteen repetitions of the exercise. That compares very favorably with yesterday's zero. It still hurt a little, but a little is not a lot. Then I did some chopping drills with my right hand, some turning with my right hand, some standing with my right hand, and then took my saber for a walk down my really long driveway to get the mail, which earned me some awesome stares from people driving by. I came back from the mailbox and did a couple of sections of the form several times and decided that I was really forcing the workout: I really just didn't want to do it. The momentum of half-assed workouts that have been mostly all I've done since getting back from London had killed my spirit. I put my saber away, kind of disheartened, and then I forced myself to go back out and work on strikes.

I got outside and started doing some striking drills: standing in place method -- not interested; box stepping -- not interested; zig-zag stepping -- not interested; standing in place method again -- not interested; think of applications and work on homemade combinations drills with those -- not interested! I almost gave up at that point and then, for some reason, I started doing the zig-zag stepping method again, only striking with my right as I went (and stepping through and "parrying/redirecting" with my left on the interim steps) -- very interesting. I did a ton of those, right hand one way down the driveway, left hand on the way back. I varied it across several strikes that I feel have things in common but interesting differences, and almost a half an hour later, I felt like I'd really stirred the ashes. It fired me back up.

Habits only take a few days of ignoring to break, so if you want to train well, I think that means you have to be consistent.

My Saber, My Wrist, and My Remedy

Every person that does something physical needs this book: The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief, Section Edition by Davies and Davies. Seriously. Get it. Use it. Love it.

I'm not here to be a commercial; I'm here to talk about training. Well, as many of you have read, my wrist is still pretty well wrecked from maybe overdoing it a little bit in London (or being weak, however you read that). Well... I went out to work with my saber today and did a drill about forty times in my right hand (described below) and felt pretty damn good about that. Then I went to do it in my left (the wrecked-wrist side) and nearly dropped the saber in extreme pain on the first attempt, which was obviously piss-poor. That's not acceptable, and it's holding my training back. Then I tried tracing the saber back and forth. I did a bunch in my right and a whopping two in my left before I couldn't really hold the saber up any more. I'm secretly to the point with my wrist "right now" where I can't unscrew a jar (not a new, sealed jar, but one that's been opened many times) in the morning without some real difficulty and pain. That's screwed up. I can't do cutting strikes worth a crap, my standing and turning postures in Lion are a partial failure due to the external rotation of the bottom hand that I can't really do, and a number of the qinna strikes are also wrecking me or largely inaccessible. That is unsatisfactory.

I came directly inside after tracing and put the saber down earlier and picked up the book mentioned above. I re-read every page that related to wrist pain of the kind I was primarily experiencing and within about ten minutes had identified the most likely areas that are causing me trouble. I spent half an hour working hard on them (painful) after that, and function is improved probably by 60% in one session. I'm still not going to man-up the saber in my left hand until I'm more near 90-95% improved, but the jar is no problem, seizing and grasping seem to be much better, and cutting only hurts a little. External rotation: check. I did some standing strengthening in the Lion posture to celebrate. Nice.

We all get sore from training, and if we're training correctly, we're probably sometimes getting some repetitive-use injuries. Many of those can be treated by following the instructions in this book and enduring a little pain. That means we can train more, harder, longer, more frequently, and sooner if we end up injured. Awesome.

The drill: the first series of movements from the Monkey-King section of the Nine Dragon Saber form, up through TaiGong Goes Fishing, snapping the saber back into the Monkey-King posture after going fishing. Since I can't do that whole series forty times, I interlaced it with repetitions of turning around the circle once in Monkey King and doing the first movement (Fair Maiden ... Buddha), then stepping back onto the circle for another go around. I probably did the full-to-fishing sequence every fifth time, once facing forward, once facing backwards.

Some Yin Style Bagua Training Tips

It occurred to me last night that most of this blog is kind of an adventure in describing my trials, errors, and tribulations with training Yin Style Baguazhang, and since it's kind of giving me a slightly authoritative voice (or so I hear), I decided it would be nice to provide some tips for training. None of these will be too fancy, and it will certainly not be a comprehensive list. It's just a short catalog of some of the things that I've done that seemed to help me. I think it would be great, in fact, if anyone that's interested would post some of their own successful tips as comments to this post. I also think that many of these training tips would help folks that practice any martial art, or with a little more creative stretching, any endeavor whatsoever, so feel free to pass it along if you know someone that might benefit from it, inside Yin Style or out.

1. Never Zero
This is a rule that I've lived by for almost three years now, and what it means is that I do not let a day go by with no training. That doesn't mean, necessarily, that I'm throwing strikes or turning or even sweating every single day. Sometimes I'm sick. Sometimes I'm working a lot. Sometimes I'm busy or traveling (no, I didn't practice my sweeping strikes on the plane to London). Sometimes I'm just tired. On those days, I have videos I can watch, notes I can review, and an active imagination that I can tap into. All of that counts as training too as long as it's not the main body of your training. Of course, never-zero usually means sweating for me, at least thirteen days out of a fortnight.

2. Do Something
Yin Style Baguazhang has umpteen thousand things to train in it. There are four pillars, each of which is huge, plus saber. There are scores of forms, hundreds of strikes, at least a dozen stepping methods, eleventy billion postures to stand or turn in, and who knows how many ways to put them together. Sometimes that overwhelms me, and then I just start doing something. Almost always, I get into something that I really want to train, and things go great. It doesn't have to be organized every time you set out to train, and with so many things to choose from, sometimes it just comes down to choosing something and going with it.

3. When it Works, Capitalize On It
Some days, I feel like hot potatoes with my sweeping strikes, for instance. On those days, I work the crap out of sweeping strikes, and I tend to get a lot of benefit from it. Also on those days, I sometimes decide to work on something else that I'm not feeling so great at, and I've noticed that I don't get as much from it. Then, when I'm smart, I go back to sweeping strikes, or whatever it is that I'm rocking out, and crank it. Yin Style Baguazhang has a lot of things that need getting good at, and those things have to be developed one at a time. Working on things that are working for you is a great way to develop a lot in a short time, capitalizing on your gains for future gains. It's like compound interest of training.

4. When It Doesn't Work, Make it Work
I don't know how many times I've sat there and thought about it for a while, and then, with a look of disgust on my face, decided "I suck at such-and-such." I used to get discouraged by that. Now, I see it as an opportunity. "I suck at cutting strikes, so I'm going to go do cutting strikes until I don't suck at them," I might tell myself. Then I go do a lot of cutting strikes, looking for why I suck at them and trying to make them better. Eventually, usually over the course of drilling them like that for days, I don't feel like they suck any more and I start to like them instead of feeling discouraged. Then, I can go back to Tip #3 and make some serious progress.

5. If You Like It, Then You Should Get Good At It
Most of us are into Yin Style because we like it, right? That means there's something in Yin Style Bagua that we enjoy, and if we enjoy something, then we should do it a lot (that's what enjoying something means). When we do it a lot, we should be getting good at it. So, if you like something particular, like in Tip #3, do it a lot, get good at it, and capitalize on your interests and fancies. You don't have to train things that you hate all of the time. Eventually, we're each supposed to start making Yin Style personalized to ourselves, which means focusing upon and using mostly the things we like and the things we're good at. It's best if those things are the same things.

6. If You Hate It, Train It More
See Tip #4 for this... really, it works.

7. Concentrate Your Training
For me, it's been much more effective to spend most of my training time over several days or even weeks working the same form or strikes a lot of times. It seems like that would be dry and rote, but it's kind of the opposite. It really helps make the techniques improve which makes them likable which makes a feedback loop on training because it puts you back into the realms of Tips #3 and #5. It also seems to speed development more than choosing lots of different things and trying to work all of them. That latter method just feels too scattered.

8. Be Details-Oriented
The devil's in the details, particularly here. Pay attention to the details of the requirements of the things you practice, going over the checklist and trying to kinesthetically feel them for yourself. If you don't feel them, then they're probably not there or lacking. Look for proper form, execution, and economy of the movements, and you'll be on the right track. Ask yourself if it feels right: e.g. "does this form really feel like it's windmill?" or "this strike comes from the Lion System... my force should be heavy and full... would I describe it that way?"

9. Be Purpose-Oriented
Why are you doing the things you're doing? To get good? What does that mean? Looking back at Tip #8, you should be constantly asking yourself why you're doing what you're doing. Every part of every movement should be economical, efficient, and make sense in terms of use and application. You cannot get good by trying to get good; you can only get good by trying to develop your training to the point where it achieves specific goals that you are aware of: get stronger, more rooted, balanced, more powerful, develop a heavy and full force, be cold, crisp, and fast, etc. If your purpose is "to get good like Matt and JB," you'll never get there because their purpose was to develop each technique according to the rules with an active, alive, refined execution.

10. Watch Yourself
Pictures or (better) videos of yourself training are really valuable. You'll see that in a lot of ways you're lacking more than you think. Some folks post their training in private or public venues on YouTube or other such places. You don't have to. Just check yourself out and see what needs to be seen. No technology? No problem: try a mirror.

11. Train Themes
This is a training method I feel I've had a lot of success with: training material that's related by a theme. Maybe I'm into cutting strikes. I stand strengthening in cutting, do some turning in cutting (it feels different if you've never done it), do oodles of cutting strikes, and try to learn and practice several or all of the cutting forms from the videos. I might spend a few weeks or a month just on cutting strikes, and at the end of it, I have a new and real appreciation for cutting strikes. It really works. Maybe instead your theme is an attacking method, i.e. a particular kind of form. Fine... you're into Lifting and Holding? Do as many Lifting and Holding forms as you can. Try out different palms within an animal system, or, if you have the videos and a little background, try out some of the Lifting and Holding forms of a different system. It's adventurous and teaches a theme, and afterwards, you'll have a better grasp of the idea of Lifting and Holding, its use, its applications, and even, in this case, some small insight into the Dragon System. Cool.

12. Make a Routine and Do It
Write down what you want to train in a day and then go out and train it. You can get a really well-organized training session that way and develop a lot. Just be warned: writing down training ideas is far easier than executing them! Example: "Today's goal: 1000 tracing the saber in each hand." That was easy. Now go do it. Yeah right.

13. Mini-Intensive
Get your crew together occasionally for a mini-intensive. Plan it out ahead of time and make it long and hard, similar to a normal intensive or workshop day. Start early on a weekend, say at 8 am, and train until lunch. Come back after lunch and bust it until dinner. Try to cover all four pillars and make it as much like a day pulled from an intensive or workshop as you can manage.

14. Four-Pillar Days
Sometimes you should concentrate your training on just striking or just forms or just something. Sometimes it's great to try to hit all four pillars in a day and feel like you've really accomplished something.

15. Be Complementary
Yin Style Baguazhang is a complete martial art, so nothing extra is needed to develop. Still, in the words of The Man, "how could more strength be bad?" Add in complementary exercises to your routine. I, for instance, noticed that my shoulders were a particular sticking point for me in terms of dadao development, so I would do drills with the dadao and then lift medium-weight dumbbells in routines that benefit my shoulders. Then I'd pick the dadao back up and go again. Some movements and drills can even be replicated in slow motion using weights or semi-isometric contraction. Another particularly beneficial exercise I've incorporated is to hold dumbbells at shoulder height and do slow squats, starting off with holding a low horse stance and then holding it again every fifth or tenth (depending on the weight) repetition to increase leg strength. I've also incorporated jumping jacks and short sprints between sets of strikes to increase my aerobic capacity slightly. As long as the complements don't take away from the primary, these things can only help your training.

16. Turn a Lot
You knew it was coming. Turning is the cornerstone practice of Baguazhang, and it is in some sense the most simple and yet most profound exercise in the art. Training turning seems to benefit every aspect of development, and it should take years of hard practice with it to get really good (meaning you and I both need to turn more!).

Hopefully these tips are of some use. If you have some to add, please leave a comment. As I think of more, I'll make another post of this sort in the future.

Back to Drilling

Last night was great. Our group got together, and things went really well. I started to share some of the drills we did in London, which was an awesome intensive for being able to build solid curriculum for practitioners both new and old, and we were so excited by them that we used up almost our entire two hours working just on a couple of them. That's the kind of old-fashioned, hard, focused training that really seems to make a difference in terms of development.

Unfortunately, one of the drills we worked was a cutting-strikes drill, and thus I did point cutting and was unwilling to purposefully mess it up on my left to accommodate my angry wrist. On the up side, I know for sure that point cutting is the culprit that gave me tendinitis because for the first time in two weeks, despite use of the saber, it's worse today than it was yesterday. On the down side, it's worse today than it was yesterday by a fair margin (it's hard to do the dishes again... darn).

I think today I'm going to work on chopping because it seems to bother my wrist not at all (alone of the first four striking methods of the Lion System). That should be good.

A Testament to Incorrect

Since I've been back from London, I've been doing what little turning I've been doing in places other than on my increasingly famous circle, which is worn into my yard and has been consistently muddy since I got home. I got on it tonight after a long day of not doing much of training value and decided to put into action some of the things that I learned about turning while in London, particularly involving the role of the waist in the process. I quickly noticed that my circle, which takes about seven steps to get around, is too big.

I've never put the proper amount of emphasis into turning my legs using the waist, mostly because I don't think I had the faintest idea of how to do it. Now that I'm more able to do it, I am keenly aware of the fact that my circle is about a foot's width too large in diameter, a problem not particularly helped by the fact that while I was gone, the very vigorous grass in my yard seemed to encroach further than ever into the annulus that I've walked, suffering, so far upon... incorrectly, if only a little.

This is a reality of seriously training an art that requires constant refinement: over time patterns in our training may become quite evident and then become evidence of the mistakes that we've been making or the attention that we've been lacking. I have to admit, though, that I didn't really expect to find this lesson so palpably underfoot.