Thanks to the inspiring example of another practitioner of Yin style, set forth in his own blog, I've decided that my efforts at training have been underwhelming. The point repeatedly driven home by He Jin-bao in the seminars, as well as the blog's author, is that one must suffer in training to get good. This means going outside of one's comfort zone. As for myself, the amount of striking drills I've been doing seems to be pretty good, though inconsistent. I've only done stationary striking so far, and I'm wondering if I should be practicing the various stepping/striking methods concurrently with the stationary practice or if, going by the progressive nature of the practices, I should wait until I've completed my goals for the stationary drills before moving on. For the moment, I think I'll continue my focus on getting those 10,000 strikes done.
In reading this other fellow's blog, one thing becomes immediately obvious: he spends more time walking the circle than any other practice, sometimes spending more than two hours at a time on it. It is equally apparent (to me) that I've been seriously neglecting this area. Anyway, after reading some of this fellow's exploits I was inspired to up the ante in my own practice, particularly in regard to circle-walking.
It's easy to get both bored and tired walking the circle. It's not easy, so don't ever let anyone tell you that it's not good training. Anyone who has to ask how it could possibly be a good workout or ever be useful for training for combat has obviously never tried it for any length of time. It's as much an exercise in mental focus as it is in physical endurance. You have to command your brain to stay on task and you have to will your body to continue past the point of discomfort until you are physically unable to hold your arms up anymore. Of course, circle-walking can be used for meditational purposes as well as training, though you would use a higher stance and not focus on physical development.
I have never spent a long amount of time circle-walking continuously. Previously, I might have gone for about 15 minutes, tops. Last night, however, I went for 30 minutes, turning while holding the Dragon posture, mid-level stance, changing direction every 50 revolutions, for about 350 revolutions. This was in addition to the 350 stationary drills of the Inside Pushing strike that I did. So by the end of it, my legs, back, shoulders and arms were aching. But it feels really good having done it.
My basic outline for future practice, based on the four pillars of Yin style bagua practice, is as follows:
I. Standing - I need to practice the standing postures more often, each posture for at least one minute on each side. I'll probably start doing the Lion posture, since it's the most demanding and therefore the best for physical development. If He Jin-bao were here to give me advice, he'd probably tell me to stop messing around with the Dragon stuff and just start doing Lion, since that's what he starts everyone on to maximize their physical development.
II. Striking - I need to complete my goal of 10,000 reps of the Inside Pushing Strike, preferably by the 15th. If I go longer than that then I'll be erasing any progress I made a month before. After I finish this I'll either continue doing the Inside Pushing strike with the one-step drills, move on to the Straight Pushing strike, or go back to doing the Rising Sweeping strike from the Lion system.
III. Forms - I'm not going to get into these at the moment. Since the forms are nothing more than the various basic strikes strung together in sequence, performed while moving, I want to get a solid basis in the strikes and their stepping patterns before I attempt any forms.
IV. Circle-walking - I intend to maintain this practice, doing it every day when I can, increasing the time spent doing it until I get to the initial goal of 1 hour per day. Apparently, at the yearly seminars, He Jin-bao is fond of making people spend 60-75 minutes just walking the circle with the Lion posture, changing direction as little as possible. If I can't manage at least that much on my own, then there's probably little point in going to the seminars, aside from getting corrections. Circle-walking can be tedious at times, but overall I definitely do feel better after having done it. I have more energy (despite being physically worn-out) and I feel more fluid in all of my movements, even if it's just walking down the street.
We'll see how well I can manage this.
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