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!

Fire and Ice

"Sometimes you've got to think about presentation; you've got to make it look good for people."

He Jinbao said that to us while discussing variations on the Nine Dragon Saber form in our seminar in London this summer, and the extra little kick thrown in by Matt was "You've got to think about fire and ice sometimes." Since I don't speak Chinese, I don't know if Matt or JB said "fire and ice," but I'm assuming for now that it was Matt. I could be wrong.

I do know that Matt made "The Billionaire" and I do a fire-and-ice drill one day, and today I brought that drill to Bradley. The drill itself is completely insignificant to this post and almost insignificant to training: it's one drill out of several dozens and probably one that most people that work the dadao are have done: stab forward and then pull back, squatting into a low stance and supporing the saber arm with the back of the wrist, using the waist to drive the movement, of course.

The point here is really that doing this fire-and-ice drill made a normally "boring" drill a lot more fun, in other words, it increased the excitement that we had for the drill and encouraged us to do more drills in a similar way -- more drills, in fact, than we would have done had we not walked down this road. The basic idea for "fire and ice" is that you and some partners get together and do the drills a bit like a synchronized swimming team, so to speak. For us, we stabbed directly at the points of each other's saber so that they ended a few inches or a foot or so apart (measured ahead of time). Then we moved in step with one another. This drill would be particularly cool with a larger group also. I know for sure that it drove me to do more of them and gave me something different to focus on while I was doing the drill, so it really pepped it up for me.

The thing is, group training in Yin Style is an interesting phenomenon. As far as I can tell, it has some very useful purposes:

• Introducing the art to less-experienced practitioners or helping to advance their practice;
• Group accountability/encouragement to do more and better drills;
  
• Commeraderie;
• The ability to see and be seen, primarily for correction's sake;
• Share ideas and training tips;
• Practice applications.

There are surely others, but making an exhaustive list of such a thing on the spot is difficult, particularly when you get familiarity blindness (meaning we all know the benefits of group training and are so familiar with them that it's hard to see and say those things clearly sometimes in an exhaustive list). One thing that is particularly good about Yin Style (although it's true for every martial art, even if it's not explicitly encouraged) is that solo drilling really takes center stage, and the hard truth of the matter is this: you don't need a group to do it or to do it well (although for the corrections/learning aspects it's really helpful). Thus, why use your group meeting times for focusing primarily on the things you should be doing at home, training on your own?

That's where doing drills with the fire-and-ice mentality comes in. The drills are the same, but they feel and look different. If we all stand in rows and just do them, that's fine, but it's very similar to what we are experiencing in our solo practice just with more people around (who might be added distractions?). Fire and ice gives a different kind of purpose and a certain novelty to the exercises, and it is certainly not something you can do on your own. As far as training practicality goes, more attention to distance and positioning are required for the drills, so those aspects of training become more realistic than when drilling solo, say out in the middle of your driveway (in case you don't want to tear up your grass or something).

Apparently, fire and ice can be applied to the form as well. In fact, it was mentioned, since we were doing the form in fours, how cool it would look if we all did the "boatman plunges his pole" maneuver so that our saber tips all pointed to the middle of the room at the same time. Then it was suggested that we should all think about our positioning and movement so that we could accommodate that goal. Then we didn't do it, not even once. Looking back at it now, I think of it as a missed opportunity. Putting some thought into these kinds of things, not as a center of your practice but rather as a peripheral sort of drill can add depth and fun to what otherwise might seem tedious, repetitive, dry, or even boring. Plus, when we do it, we get to look cool, and how cool is that?

Yin Yoga -- Fix It If It's Broken

This post is about supplementing your Yin Style (or any martial arts) practice with a form of yoga called Yin Yoga. Yeah, yeah, I know... supplemental practices! Yeah, yeah, I know... I've mentioned this before! The thing is that this particular branch of yoga is really helpful for putting you back together after hard training, particularly when your joints are aching and sore or if you have any kind of chronic pain. The practices are primarily suited for the lower body, probably from the ribs down -- particularly in the hips and lower back, and they're really, really helpful (though difficult to do because they're so easy and somewhat uncomfortable) for helping fix tension in those areas. I'm a big fan of the practice... I just wish I could find/make time (will?) to do more of it.

Here's the basic rundown of Yin Yoga if you've never heard of it. First of all, this "Yin" is Yin like Yin and Yang, not like Yin Fu. The basic idea is that a few carefully chosen poses are selected, primarily for their ability to affect connective tissue in the "yin areas" of the body, practiced according to three basic rules (that need attention to prevent injury), and are held for what seem to be ridiculously dangerous amounts of time. The theory is that this gives the body time to stop resisting the stretches and allows the connective tissue (tendons, ligaments, fascia, dura, etc) to be directly affected. Furthermore, the theory is that the qi meridian systems of the body are also directly affected (removing blockages and stimulating flow, for instances).

The rules are simple enough:

1. Find your appropriate position, which means making sure that you've chosen yin-suitable postures, that you've entered into them correctly, and that you've appropriately found "your edge," discussed briefly below, and not exceeded that;
2. Breathe deeply and relax, focusing the attention inward to the tissues being affected;
3. Wait.

"Your edge" in Yin Yoga means finding the place in the posture for which your body starts to feel some affect but is not being taxed. There are particular cues that you can read up on or become educated on (if you take a class in it... good idea if you've never done it or don't have a helper) that will tell you if you've gone too far in most poses. The best rule of thumb, though, is to remember that it's "YIN" Yoga, and therefore the proper position is usually where your body will go without having to put in any extra effort. That means you don't pull yourself into poses, you let yourself fall into them (Yin... check). Gravity (Yin) is the main operator once you're in position. You should be mostly "comfortable" in these poses (though I wouldn't describe it that way), apparently.

"Wait" in Yin Yoga means that you hold the pose until the natural resistances of the body and mind stop. That means that you're going to be there for a while, maybe two or three minutes, maybe twenty in a more advanced practice (I've never exceeded about six, actually, but I'm not serious). It also means that in a class or a single practice session, you can't expect to do too much and should probably plan out what you intend to do with specific goals in mind ahead of time. The natural resistances of the body are some forms of tension or discomfort that the body will relax through. Those of the mind are boredom, thinking it's futile or stupid, a wandering mind (off the given task and affected tissue), and that sort of thing. Pushing through these boundaries has to be done with some caution, though! Specifically, you want to learn to distinguish between a tension that you can let go of and a signal (or cry!) from your body to let go and back off. Your body's signals have to be respected here or injuries will result, but at the same time the resisting tension in the body has to be perservered through, so some listening skill (to your own body now) has to be present to do this practice safely and well.

How can it enhance Yin Style practice (or any other martial art, for that matter)? It first of all helps cure chronic stiffness and pain and seems to naturally stimulate the flow of blood and qi in the body, removing blockages and the like. It should also increase flexibility, mental focus, internal awareness, and meditative capacity while serving as a form of meditation in and of itself. It can help you learn about your body and get to know it. It can put you back together when training makes you sore or gives you lasting muscular or connective-tissue-based injuries. As long as it's done safely, the only danger I see in this practice compromising progress in a martial art is the amount of time it takes, though it's very easy to train this right before bed and greatly enhance the quality of sleep that you get.

For those of you that follow what I say about trigger points or know about them on your own merits, I'm starting to suspect after taking a Yin Yoga class today with my wife that practicing the stretches in this style of yoga might work to deactivate trigger points in perhaps a heretofore uninvestigated way. Stretching, it's well known, can cause trigger points to get worse, not better, and frequently does just that. Spray and stretch, however, is a technique to treat trigger points that uses stretching (after an administering of cold to the area) that has a good deal of efficacy. I strongly suspect that yin yoga, given the time frames in which the poses are held can have a similar effect on trigger points and the muscles that contain them (if done safely in a responsible, intelligent manner that honors and respects the body doing them!). I don't know, but if I ever go into that line of work, I will probably make it one of my research tasks to find out. Maybe I'll even get a second Ph.D.... (yeah right... those SUCK to get).

You might consider it, anyway. The website linked to above, I'm told, is one of the best, containing much of the information of the book Yinsights, which is probably the best book on the subject. I'm going to keep at it; that's for sure.

What and Why Training Journals

One of the training tools that I've been experimenting with since sometime in May (and holding kind of close to my chest) is what I would call a "what and why" training journal. I'm not as good at keeping it as I should be, but that's partially because I have a tendency to become a little o.c.d. with journaling my training. Still, I think it is a very valuable tool to increase ability in an art that requires a large amount of attention to detail.

The point of the training journal is simple and explained clearly by its name: "what and why." Essentially, I try to write down what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. The basic ideas on the what and why are twofold, though. First, I keep tabs on what training I'm actually doing, sometimes writing it down before I do it to give myself a commitment to fulfill. Secondly, I keep tabs on what I'm doing when I'm training so I can pay attention to the requirements of the techniques along with He Jinbao's suggestion that we "should never train the same thing in the same way twice." In other words, I try to make things more palpable for myself in terms of what I'm doing and how I'm doing it so that I can refine my training more efficiently. Particularly I might make short notes about what kinds of things seemed to work and what kinds didn't.

The why part of the journal is also self-explanatory: I'm answering the question "why am I doing this?" There are two sides to that, though. First, there is what training goals or needs it is satisfying. For instance, for a while I felt very weak in my shocking strikes (and even wrote about it on here, I think). I gave them a low grade, so to speak, in terms of where I felt like I was with them versus where I thought I should be with them. Thus, part of the why for my shocking strike improvement effort was "to improve the quality of my shocking strikes, primarily in terms of output of power consistent with what I know about the shocking force." The other part of why is equally important: applications. These moves are martial. Why am I doing them? Obviously to improve my fighting skill, and so part of my why journaling is detailing what in uses I know or imagine these techniques could be employed. I believe this aspect is very important to coming up with useful drills, combinations, etc., as well as developing the technique appropriately. Even if all I care about is health development in my martial arts training, the inherent health development is wrapped up in the proper execution of the martial arts techniques. Thus, if I don't know how to use them, I probably cannot do them to full effectiveness and thus miss some of that health development. If I want to learn to fight, then focusing on this aspect of training is of obviously high importance, so I find this to be one of the most valuable aspects of the journaling process.

Another thing that journaling does to really enhance your training is it teaches you to think about things in terms of how you would write them down: in other words, you have to critically analyze and carefully pay attention to what you're doing in order to get everything you want out of them.

Maybe this won't work for everyone, but a "what and why" training journal has really helped me deepen my practice. I'm glad I shared.

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.