Learning: we start knowing nothing. we learn something, and try to apply it. We learn more. Sometimes we discover that our earlier attempts at understanding were correct. Sometimes we discover that they were incorrect. I guess that this is the Scientific Method.

I am not, by nature, a passive person. Meditation, and the TCIMA, have been extremely beneficial for me in terms of my general tendency to Not Take Things Lying Down.

So: in Traditional Chinese Internal Martial Arts, there’s this principle about pressing the tongue against the palate. I’ve speculated about it on previous occasions, based upon my experience of living in the region where some of these arts originated, or were developed.

Something else just struck me, and perhaps you could let me know what you think. Let’s consider three different ideas:

1. An ingrained habit of breathing with the tip of the tongue pressed against the palate.
2. High-stress, high-risk situations.
3. Hyperventilation.

Comments are welcomed…

Quoting Formosa Neijia for the second time in a week, I heartily agree with these comments, especially regarding DVDs/VCDs. I collect all sorts of bagua videos, and am now stocking up on yiquan/da cheng quan material as well. It certainly helps me learn, and to understand these arts in more depth.

I always find it really difficult to learn during class. It’s just my learning style, but I often find that I get overwhelmed with new material, and by the time i go home I’m just confused. I’m just not able to watch someone do a move, and then repeat it. If I can watch my teacher, or someone from the same family, performing the moves on video at home, that’s even better. Best of all is when I have the video available while I’m training solo. Then, when I get confused, I can watch a move over and over, repeating it myself until I’m really sure that I’ve got both the move and the intention correct. That’s difficult to do in class. This way, when I do meet my teacher again, I’ve got something material that he can give feedback on, rather than vague recollections from the previous session.

One of the problems I’ve had learning bagua with Sun Ru Xian is this lack of revision material to help me in-between classes. As a result, I haven’t been progressing much, which I feel is a bit dispiriting - certainly for me, and perhaps for him as well…

However, help is finally at hand! I recently bought a Mac Mini to use for work at home. Sun Ru Xian is a student of Liu Jing Ru, and is teaching me Master Liu’s forms. So, I’m using VLC to rip the content from some of Master Liu’s VCDs and convert it into MP4. I’m then using iMovie to edit it, making clips of each individual palm from the Ba Mu Zhang and Ba Da Zhang, which I then export as mp4v files. I can load these onto my iPod Touch and bingo, I’ve got the material to refer to when I do solo practice - which, after my prolonged martial arts depression, I’m getting fired up to start again…

I went to both lessons this weekend, Saturday and Sunday afternoons. A lot of the people who were there last weekend weren’t there this time. However, there were a lot of new faces, many of them Westerners. Actually, htere was a German couple, fairly young, and a Russian couple in, I would guess, their forties. None of them speak English, as far as I can tell. The German guy speaks Chinese; the Russians had brought another Russian, who didn’t take part in the class but just acted as an interpreter for them. Cacophony! As soon as Master Yao said anything, the German guy would start translating for the girl, and the Russian would translate for his friends! It was incredibly disorienting at first, but I eventually got used to it.

We worked on a mumber of moves - a chop, a palm strke, and various other moves - all in the same way: slowly while standing, slowly while stepping, slow-slow-fast while stepping. Very cool. I could feel my hips opening up, my pelvis swinging, and my back lengthening - excellent benefits! I teamed up with one of the Chinese students to practice power exercises; he’s better than me but not by much - enough to give me confidence that I can improve! He can pretty much consistently uproot me and throw me; I can do it to him about half the time. One the other hand, I can use full-body power and keep walking forward even when he’s pulling me back; he can’t do it to me so well. Heh.

Anyway, more and more. I realise that I really like yiquan. I really look forward to class! Master Yao takes a real interest in everyone, coming around to us individually and asking how we’re getting on, asking whether we have any questions sending us flying against the wall - just what you’d expect from a great teacher

I had a ’spirited discussion’ recently with a friend who also studies bagua. He’s being trained by his shifu in what I suppose we may call the “traditional IMA” manner: keep practising your techniques, and the ability to apply the art in a fight will develop naturally.

I know and respect his shifu, who’s very widely known, and highly regarded - but I still can’t bring myself to believe this, not any more. I feel a bit conflicted, actually, precisely because this teacher is so well known, and I know that he can fight very effectively - and yet I know for a fact that many of his disciples can’t. At all. This is why I’m training more and more in yiquan. I love bagua, and I respect my teachers deeply. I will keep training in it. However, I want to train in an IMA that will give me practical training, and so far the yiquan schools are the only ones to do that.

Like I say, I’ve felt a bit guilty about this - but well, what else to do? Anyway, I’ve just read this article on Formosa Neijia about why he’s training in Brazilian Ju-Jitsu Judo - and I think he’s completely right. I wrote some time ago, I think, about an episode that happened just after I arrived in Beijing - I saw two men dragging a woman into a deserted side-street late at night and start beating her up. I felt I had to intervene. It ended well - but if it had turned nasty, I’m not confident that that all of my training in forms would have been of any practical use whatsoever. that was a turning point for me. I’m sorry if I’m being disrespectful, or non-traditional, but now my requirement is: show me that it works, and show me how to use it.

Back in May, I visited Pingyao in Shanxi province. In the Qing Dynasty period, Pingyao was a centre of private banking, so there was a lot of cash, gold & silver coming and going - which of course needed to be guarded. The compounds of two caravan guard companies are still open as museums, with another martial art museum as well. Interestingly, there seemed to be a very strong emphasis on xingyi and bagua.

I thought I had accidentally deleted all of my pictures of these museums, but I’ve managed to find them again; I’ll gradually post some of them as I have time.

Newer Posts »