Wow, it's been almost half a year since I last posted. If it wasn't already apparent, I have an annoying habit of letting work and my own laziness interfere with my extra-curriculars. I used to be online all the time, but these days I'm rarely at my computer. My bagua practice tapered off a bit back in September, thanks to an extended period of time in which I worked a lot of overtime, which is a shame, since it seemed to be progressing pretty well at the time. I've tried to keep up with it over the last several months, but it's been intermittent at best. And, of course, I obviously practice more than I post on here. Perhaps I should figure out the "mobile posting" settings for this blog setup, so I can add posts from my phone while I'm at work with nothing else to do.
Happily, this return to my journal coincides with a renewed effort in my bagua practice. I've been trying to steadily increase my level of conditioning in recent weeks, that way I can more easily jump back into practice. On a side note, I've also been spending some time doing tai chi, mostly for stress-reduction purposes (I need to stop reading about politics).
So, I have something resembling a game plan for structuring the time I spend with my bagua practice every day. I'm implementing it in a small scale, which I'll gradually increase, but my initial mid-term goal is to eventually spend about three hours per day on bagua practice. Spend a few minutes doing standing postures, one hour on strike training, one hour for forms work and one hour of circle-turning. That's a tall order at the moment, since I'm out of shape in general and have not yet gotten to the point where I'm working with the bagua for extended periods of time. My bagua practice today lasted from about 10am to 1pm, though there were significant periods of rest interspersed throughout. But, as always, it's a work in progress.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Kicking it up a notch
So, following some kind advice from a YSB guru in Colorado, I spent today trying out a reformatted form of my standard workout.
Suggestions for standing: 5 min. per side, total of 20 min., new posture
What I managed: Lion representative posture -- 5 min. per side (continuous) for a total of 10 min.
Verdict: Amazed I could actually do that. Shooting for 20 next time. Must learn more standing postures.
Suggestions for striking: Line-drill (1-step method) a strike (ex. "rising sweeping strike") for 8 min. (rather than counting repetitions), rest, drill a second strike 8 min., rest, etc. for 5 different strikes.
What I managed: Line-drilling the rising sweeping strike (in my tiny living room, no less!) for 8 min. Rest...yeah.
Verdict: My endurance really needs work. That aside, it was a good experiment. Must learn some new strikes.
Suggestions for circle-turning: convince myself I have to turn for 40 min. + 5 min. warm-up and cool-down.
What I managed: 40 min. New record. And boy do my arms feel weird. They're not quite sore, exactly. They feel kinda like coiled steel springs.
Verdict: I can do this. Holy crap.
Suggestions for forms practice: do the forms slowly, but still fast enough that the feet/hands, step/strike arrive simultaneously.
What I managed: None yet today. Still resting up from the above workout. Still on the list, however.
The end result is that, thanks to this advice, I've done a much more strenuous (and yet much more rewarding) training session than any thus far. And while I'm still coming up a bit short, I have an immediate goal to strive for, and some direction for future training. All in all, I am very optimistic, and I'm having a good deal of fun. Whether my body will agree with me when I have to wake up for work tonight is another story.
Additionally, I downloaded an interval timer app for my android. I rather like it. The ability to create a custom workout of any length and of numerous sessions is incredibly useful. It is also a good external motivator. As Jim in TN remarked a while back, interval timers are "merciless".
Let's just see if I can do this again tomorrow.
Suggestions for standing: 5 min. per side, total of 20 min., new posture
What I managed: Lion representative posture -- 5 min. per side (continuous) for a total of 10 min.
Verdict: Amazed I could actually do that. Shooting for 20 next time. Must learn more standing postures.
Suggestions for striking: Line-drill (1-step method) a strike (ex. "rising sweeping strike") for 8 min. (rather than counting repetitions), rest, drill a second strike 8 min., rest, etc. for 5 different strikes.
What I managed: Line-drilling the rising sweeping strike (in my tiny living room, no less!) for 8 min. Rest...yeah.
Verdict: My endurance really needs work. That aside, it was a good experiment. Must learn some new strikes.
Suggestions for circle-turning: convince myself I have to turn for 40 min. + 5 min. warm-up and cool-down.
What I managed: 40 min. New record. And boy do my arms feel weird. They're not quite sore, exactly. They feel kinda like coiled steel springs.
Verdict: I can do this. Holy crap.
Suggestions for forms practice: do the forms slowly, but still fast enough that the feet/hands, step/strike arrive simultaneously.
What I managed: None yet today. Still resting up from the above workout. Still on the list, however.
The end result is that, thanks to this advice, I've done a much more strenuous (and yet much more rewarding) training session than any thus far. And while I'm still coming up a bit short, I have an immediate goal to strive for, and some direction for future training. All in all, I am very optimistic, and I'm having a good deal of fun. Whether my body will agree with me when I have to wake up for work tonight is another story.
Additionally, I downloaded an interval timer app for my android. I rather like it. The ability to create a custom workout of any length and of numerous sessions is incredibly useful. It is also a good external motivator. As Jim in TN remarked a while back, interval timers are "merciless".
Let's just see if I can do this again tomorrow.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
On-the-job training
Since it's been some time since my last post, this one will cover several topics. I wish I'd take the time to write down my thoughts when I have them, since it's not easy to remember everything I've done and thought in the last month or so. It would be easier if I took the trouble to figure out how to update this thing from my phone while sitting bored at work, since that's typically when I am most thoughtful about martial arts (when I can least do anything about it).
First order of business: upon looking over my previous posts from the last near year I realized that one thing may not be fully clear for anyone who is actually reading through these. This is the fact that, while when I began this journal I was still working on the dragon system of Yin style bagua, I have for the last several months been working fully with the lion system. There are two main reasons for this: first, because according to He Jinbao the lion system is typically taught first due to the fact that it's practices are most efficient for developing the body, and second, because most of the people in the world who are doing Yin style bagua are doing lion, meaning that if I want to interact with other YSB practitioners and be able to get some decent feedback from experienced people I should be practicing what they're practicing. So, lion it is.
One brief note, explaining the title of this post, is my happy epiphany that there are quite a few opportunities for me to train while I'm at work. Since my job generally involves me sitting around bored for hours on end it seems that would be a foregone conclusion. And, for when I'm not alone at work, I've discovered that there is just enough room in the bathroom to accomodate stationary striking drills. On a good night, I can get in about half a dozen sets of strikes before I ever even get home to do my "real" training. This is good, as it spreads out my training a bit, so that when I train after work I have the time and energy to devote to more things, having gotten a lot of the striking drills out of the way. Normally, I'd have to prioritize more, either by doing all things superficially, one thing intensively or a few things somewhat seriously. This arrangement makes such prioritizing less necessary.
As far as the strike training itself goes, I am noticing progress. Though I'm not always training every day, sorry to say, I am doing it much more consistently than in the past, and that has shown a significant payoff. In my recent experience, I can defnitely attest to the fact that doing a little bit each day is much better than training incredibly hard one day only to take the next week off. This is true if for no better reason than (to inject some psychology into this) the fact that in this particular comparison, say, ten days of light training equals ten nights of post-training sleep, versus only one. Sleep is vitally important for allowing the brain some downtime to go back over the new neural pathways that you blazed throughout the day and solidify them. So, again, every day that you do even a little bit of training, even if it's miniscule, is still preferable to a day of nothing.
Anyway, tangent aside, the strike training is going well. In terms of strike training, I've been working exclusively with the rising sweeping strike, mostly stationary up until recently. I am much more confident in my ability to correctly execute this strike according to the requirements. Last time I posted, I figure that within a given set of strikes I could do about 70-80% of them with a feeling of full-body, connected power and stability. Now, it's more like 90-95%. Bearing in mind all the while that I am most likely making many, many mistakes, which could only be corrected by He Jinbao or many of the people who have been doing this for several years, I still think I'm on the right track. The strikes feel comfortable and easy, but solid and full of strength, making full use of the waist. I imagine that I'm getting close to the point where my progress will slow until I can get correction and feedback. For now, though, I'm continuing to develop the rising sweeping strike as best I can. I've begun training the strike in some of the other methods. There are few convenient places to do the 1-step drill, so I don't do it often. I enjoy doing the 2-step method, since it is vigorous, slightly more interesting than the stationary drills, and can easily be done with minimal space. The 3-step method at this point is a bit advanced for me, I think, and I will hold off on it a bit until I've put more time into the 2-step. In the stationary drills, now that I've become more confident and consistent in the quality of the strikes, I've begun paying more attention to "internalizing" the power, turning the large, gross physical movements into something smaller and more subtle. I can see that in demonstrating the strike in the videos, He Jinbao exaggerates the movements a bit.
Circle-turning is another point that often comes up. When I'm at work and need something to occupy my mind, I often use my phone to get online and read the excellent blog of Jim in TN, whose experiences and insights have proven invaluable if for no other reason than to keep me motivated. In his blog, Jim places a good deal of emphasis on circle-turning, something that is generally scarce in my own pseudo-daily practice. In trying to find ways to optimize my turning, I've considered several strategies, most of which show up at one time or another in Jim's blog. Initially, he would keep track of the number of revolutions he made while on the circle, though in time he more or less abandoned that approach as somewhat arbitrary. Arguably, the best thing you can do when endeavoring to walk the circle is simply to do it until your legs are sore and your arms feel like they're about to fall off, without considering such arbitrary benchmarks as minutes and revolutions. The important things are to 1) maintain the proper focused mindset and 2) ensure that all of the body's various structural requirements are being met at all times throughout the practice. On the other hand, in thinking about this last night, I wondered if there might not be some value to the revolution-counting, at least at an initial stage. Though perhaps an ultimately sub-optimal strategy for long-term practice, in my meager experience I've found that the counting is useful, both for keeping my mind occupied and for measuring progress. If my mind is kept from getting bored, I've noticed, it has less time to complain about how tired and uncomfortable it is. And while the need for clearly delineated progress strikes me as a very "Western" mentality, akin to the need for belt ranks in many forms of martial arts, the fact is that I find great enjoyment in the visible, steady and solid (if incremental) accretion of skill. Maybe that's why psychology was so much fun for me. So I'll try out the revolution-counting, at least until my endurance for circle-turning has gone up and I'm more comfortable with doing it daily and often.
There remains very little else to say today, except that I'm really enjoying this art gradually unfold for me. As always, I might be doing it a bit faster, harder or more diligently, but the enjoyment is there all the same.
First order of business: upon looking over my previous posts from the last near year I realized that one thing may not be fully clear for anyone who is actually reading through these. This is the fact that, while when I began this journal I was still working on the dragon system of Yin style bagua, I have for the last several months been working fully with the lion system. There are two main reasons for this: first, because according to He Jinbao the lion system is typically taught first due to the fact that it's practices are most efficient for developing the body, and second, because most of the people in the world who are doing Yin style bagua are doing lion, meaning that if I want to interact with other YSB practitioners and be able to get some decent feedback from experienced people I should be practicing what they're practicing. So, lion it is.
One brief note, explaining the title of this post, is my happy epiphany that there are quite a few opportunities for me to train while I'm at work. Since my job generally involves me sitting around bored for hours on end it seems that would be a foregone conclusion. And, for when I'm not alone at work, I've discovered that there is just enough room in the bathroom to accomodate stationary striking drills. On a good night, I can get in about half a dozen sets of strikes before I ever even get home to do my "real" training. This is good, as it spreads out my training a bit, so that when I train after work I have the time and energy to devote to more things, having gotten a lot of the striking drills out of the way. Normally, I'd have to prioritize more, either by doing all things superficially, one thing intensively or a few things somewhat seriously. This arrangement makes such prioritizing less necessary.
As far as the strike training itself goes, I am noticing progress. Though I'm not always training every day, sorry to say, I am doing it much more consistently than in the past, and that has shown a significant payoff. In my recent experience, I can defnitely attest to the fact that doing a little bit each day is much better than training incredibly hard one day only to take the next week off. This is true if for no better reason than (to inject some psychology into this) the fact that in this particular comparison, say, ten days of light training equals ten nights of post-training sleep, versus only one. Sleep is vitally important for allowing the brain some downtime to go back over the new neural pathways that you blazed throughout the day and solidify them. So, again, every day that you do even a little bit of training, even if it's miniscule, is still preferable to a day of nothing.
Anyway, tangent aside, the strike training is going well. In terms of strike training, I've been working exclusively with the rising sweeping strike, mostly stationary up until recently. I am much more confident in my ability to correctly execute this strike according to the requirements. Last time I posted, I figure that within a given set of strikes I could do about 70-80% of them with a feeling of full-body, connected power and stability. Now, it's more like 90-95%. Bearing in mind all the while that I am most likely making many, many mistakes, which could only be corrected by He Jinbao or many of the people who have been doing this for several years, I still think I'm on the right track. The strikes feel comfortable and easy, but solid and full of strength, making full use of the waist. I imagine that I'm getting close to the point where my progress will slow until I can get correction and feedback. For now, though, I'm continuing to develop the rising sweeping strike as best I can. I've begun training the strike in some of the other methods. There are few convenient places to do the 1-step drill, so I don't do it often. I enjoy doing the 2-step method, since it is vigorous, slightly more interesting than the stationary drills, and can easily be done with minimal space. The 3-step method at this point is a bit advanced for me, I think, and I will hold off on it a bit until I've put more time into the 2-step. In the stationary drills, now that I've become more confident and consistent in the quality of the strikes, I've begun paying more attention to "internalizing" the power, turning the large, gross physical movements into something smaller and more subtle. I can see that in demonstrating the strike in the videos, He Jinbao exaggerates the movements a bit.
Circle-turning is another point that often comes up. When I'm at work and need something to occupy my mind, I often use my phone to get online and read the excellent blog of Jim in TN, whose experiences and insights have proven invaluable if for no other reason than to keep me motivated. In his blog, Jim places a good deal of emphasis on circle-turning, something that is generally scarce in my own pseudo-daily practice. In trying to find ways to optimize my turning, I've considered several strategies, most of which show up at one time or another in Jim's blog. Initially, he would keep track of the number of revolutions he made while on the circle, though in time he more or less abandoned that approach as somewhat arbitrary. Arguably, the best thing you can do when endeavoring to walk the circle is simply to do it until your legs are sore and your arms feel like they're about to fall off, without considering such arbitrary benchmarks as minutes and revolutions. The important things are to 1) maintain the proper focused mindset and 2) ensure that all of the body's various structural requirements are being met at all times throughout the practice. On the other hand, in thinking about this last night, I wondered if there might not be some value to the revolution-counting, at least at an initial stage. Though perhaps an ultimately sub-optimal strategy for long-term practice, in my meager experience I've found that the counting is useful, both for keeping my mind occupied and for measuring progress. If my mind is kept from getting bored, I've noticed, it has less time to complain about how tired and uncomfortable it is. And while the need for clearly delineated progress strikes me as a very "Western" mentality, akin to the need for belt ranks in many forms of martial arts, the fact is that I find great enjoyment in the visible, steady and solid (if incremental) accretion of skill. Maybe that's why psychology was so much fun for me. So I'll try out the revolution-counting, at least until my endurance for circle-turning has gone up and I'm more comfortable with doing it daily and often.
There remains very little else to say today, except that I'm really enjoying this art gradually unfold for me. As always, I might be doing it a bit faster, harder or more diligently, but the enjoyment is there all the same.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Little by little
So while circle-turning today I managed to hit the 30-minute mark for the first time. I feel very pleased with myself. Not too bad, considering I was still a bit sore from yesterday's workout.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Yang Rising
Today has been an excellent training day, by virtually every measure I have. I ascribe most of it to the break in the weather, which as afforded me some much-needed sunlight, which means more energy, more power, and more motivation. Training in the last month has been mostly hit-or-miss, owing initially to a nasty cold and some unwanted shoulder tension, followed by a long stretch of inexplicable depression. Despite all that, there has been training, however sporadic, which until now has not translated into an equal amount of blogging. Much has been learned, however.
First, I have had first-hand experience in why excess tension is undesirable in the internal martial arts, such as bagua. In bagua, at least in the lion system, power is generated through the waist and is expressed in the hands, as opposed to being generated solely by muscle power in the arm itself. When I was dealing with the large knot of tense muscle taking up residence in the vicinity of my scapula I noticed a severe degredation of that expression of power. By now I've gotten the whole "power generated by the waist" thing pretty much down, though not perfect, and the strikes I was executing with my right arm felt very solid, and I could clearly feel the wave of kinetic energy flowing in a mostly unbroken path from waist to palm. In the left arm, however, I noticed just as clearly that the power was not going any farther than my shoulder--just a dead stop. So, much of my focus earlier this month was getting rid of that knot of tension, through a combination of massage, hot showers and qigong (dissolving method). This is a problem that has come up before in my bagua practice, and hopefully I'll figure out how to nip it in the bud before the next time. This will likely involve periodic conscious relaxation (as I get tense easily if I'm not aware of what my body is doing) and taiji. I also really ought to look into the qigong massage materials I have.
So, back to today. As I said, it's been a good training day. I've been focusing at least half of my practice time on standing for development, and thus far today I've exceeded my previous record for total time spent standing. Turning was more difficult. I was very determined to go as long as I could, powering through the complaints of my arm muscles, and turned for what felt like an age, though as I discovered it ended up being only 15 minutes. The problem of my weak arms is becoming less problematic, thanks to the standing. Now, the main issue is my weak will, which is still easily distracted.
As far as striking drills, I didn't really set any records today. I can do a couple thousand in a day if I push myself, but I haven't really been focusing on strikes recently, being more in favor of the developmental exercises. Regardless, I did put in several hundred stationary reps of the rising sweeping strike, and moved on from there to test out some of the more advanced drills. I have to say, for some reason I really seem to enjoy the two-step or "box-stepping" drills. Maybe just because it's slightly new, or less tedious than the stationary drills, or perhaps just because it feels more like how bagua is supposed to feel, when you're striking and also moving. Whatever the case may be, there will be many more of those in the future.
Also spent some time feeling out the Lion's sweeping strike "Moving with the Force" form. I'd played around with this a little bit a couple years ago, but coming back to it with a fresh eye is making me see how awkward and ungainly I still am with it. This will take some time, but with this, at least, I am patient. I never really intended to seriously delve into the forms without first getting a solid grounding in the strikes and their various drilling methods.
One last observation I can make at this point is that even though I have done little training that could be considered strenuous, let alone "intensive," there has been some brief progress, I've noticed. It does seem to be the case that a little bit of practice done on a daily basis is more productive than one intense session every other week. But then again, most people probably already knew this.
As one final note, I did recently manage to procure two new Yin style bagua dvd's: the "seizing & grasping applications" dvd and the "kicking and footwork" dvd. Not sure I'm ready to get into most of this stuff, but any glimpse of Yin style bagua in action is well worth the viewing, and is sure to give my mind plenty of interesting new things to work through. Still need to get my hands on the full set of Lion system dvd's, as well as the new circle-turning dvd. I'm looking forward to the upcoming straight sword dvd as well, though I'm not in any position to be attempting that. Unfortunately, that's not likely to stop me.
First, I have had first-hand experience in why excess tension is undesirable in the internal martial arts, such as bagua. In bagua, at least in the lion system, power is generated through the waist and is expressed in the hands, as opposed to being generated solely by muscle power in the arm itself. When I was dealing with the large knot of tense muscle taking up residence in the vicinity of my scapula I noticed a severe degredation of that expression of power. By now I've gotten the whole "power generated by the waist" thing pretty much down, though not perfect, and the strikes I was executing with my right arm felt very solid, and I could clearly feel the wave of kinetic energy flowing in a mostly unbroken path from waist to palm. In the left arm, however, I noticed just as clearly that the power was not going any farther than my shoulder--just a dead stop. So, much of my focus earlier this month was getting rid of that knot of tension, through a combination of massage, hot showers and qigong (dissolving method). This is a problem that has come up before in my bagua practice, and hopefully I'll figure out how to nip it in the bud before the next time. This will likely involve periodic conscious relaxation (as I get tense easily if I'm not aware of what my body is doing) and taiji. I also really ought to look into the qigong massage materials I have.
So, back to today. As I said, it's been a good training day. I've been focusing at least half of my practice time on standing for development, and thus far today I've exceeded my previous record for total time spent standing. Turning was more difficult. I was very determined to go as long as I could, powering through the complaints of my arm muscles, and turned for what felt like an age, though as I discovered it ended up being only 15 minutes. The problem of my weak arms is becoming less problematic, thanks to the standing. Now, the main issue is my weak will, which is still easily distracted.
As far as striking drills, I didn't really set any records today. I can do a couple thousand in a day if I push myself, but I haven't really been focusing on strikes recently, being more in favor of the developmental exercises. Regardless, I did put in several hundred stationary reps of the rising sweeping strike, and moved on from there to test out some of the more advanced drills. I have to say, for some reason I really seem to enjoy the two-step or "box-stepping" drills. Maybe just because it's slightly new, or less tedious than the stationary drills, or perhaps just because it feels more like how bagua is supposed to feel, when you're striking and also moving. Whatever the case may be, there will be many more of those in the future.
Also spent some time feeling out the Lion's sweeping strike "Moving with the Force" form. I'd played around with this a little bit a couple years ago, but coming back to it with a fresh eye is making me see how awkward and ungainly I still am with it. This will take some time, but with this, at least, I am patient. I never really intended to seriously delve into the forms without first getting a solid grounding in the strikes and their various drilling methods.
One last observation I can make at this point is that even though I have done little training that could be considered strenuous, let alone "intensive," there has been some brief progress, I've noticed. It does seem to be the case that a little bit of practice done on a daily basis is more productive than one intense session every other week. But then again, most people probably already knew this.
As one final note, I did recently manage to procure two new Yin style bagua dvd's: the "seizing & grasping applications" dvd and the "kicking and footwork" dvd. Not sure I'm ready to get into most of this stuff, but any glimpse of Yin style bagua in action is well worth the viewing, and is sure to give my mind plenty of interesting new things to work through. Still need to get my hands on the full set of Lion system dvd's, as well as the new circle-turning dvd. I'm looking forward to the upcoming straight sword dvd as well, though I'm not in any position to be attempting that. Unfortunately, that's not likely to stop me.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Interruptions
Training in the past week has unfortunately been somewhat sparse, owing to a trifecta of physical ailments: first massive leg cramp in over a year (thanks to dehydration), tension in my left shoulder muscles that feels like it's pinching a nerve, and a nasty cold (which probably contributed to the dehydration). I've gotten in a token amount of standing, striking and turning, but nothing substantial. I don't really have much strength at the moment, as it all seems to be focused inward on recuperation. I'm doing taiji more often, and I think that's helping. It may take a couple more days to fully get this out of my system, but I intend not to let this little speed bump alter my forward momentum. After so many years of failing to keep to the training regimen, I feel confident in my ability to keep it up now. It's like they say, "fall down seven times..."
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Not quite good enough
The week continues, and still I have an unbroken (if rather short) string of training days. That sounds kinda pathetic right now, especially, I'm sure, to any hardcore bagua people who might be reading that are used to multi-hour training sessions every day of the week and who have survived seminars and intensives with He Jinbao. Fair enough. I haven't really earned the right not to be pathetic yet.
As far as the training itself goes, there is definitely incremental progress. With every day of standing practice I end up being less easily fatigued while turning the circle. If I omitted the standing and the strikes, I might reasonably expect to make the 30min. mark. Amazing what a couple days of more-intense-than-usual training can do. Unfortunately, it's not quite enough, I don't think. I suspect that if I was going for a truly intense workout, I'd be a lot more sore than I am now. I have yet to test the upper limits of just how much I can do in a day without collapsing, but I am concerned about overtraining. If nothing else, it's a habit picked up from playing video game RPG's: defeat lots of little monsters until your experience level is high enough to comfortably fight the bigger monsters. I am fond of overkill, but it's a ponderous and subtle kind of overkill.
Perhaps in the near future, after maybe a week or two of continuing as I am now, I'll begin designating certain days as "focus" days, wherein I will devote significantly more time and effort to one of the bagua "pillars," such as doing the standing postures, or circle-turning.
On a random note, I've noticed that my left arm is noticeably weaker than my right. It's somewhat annoying.
As far as the training itself goes, there is definitely incremental progress. With every day of standing practice I end up being less easily fatigued while turning the circle. If I omitted the standing and the strikes, I might reasonably expect to make the 30min. mark. Amazing what a couple days of more-intense-than-usual training can do. Unfortunately, it's not quite enough, I don't think. I suspect that if I was going for a truly intense workout, I'd be a lot more sore than I am now. I have yet to test the upper limits of just how much I can do in a day without collapsing, but I am concerned about overtraining. If nothing else, it's a habit picked up from playing video game RPG's: defeat lots of little monsters until your experience level is high enough to comfortably fight the bigger monsters. I am fond of overkill, but it's a ponderous and subtle kind of overkill.
Perhaps in the near future, after maybe a week or two of continuing as I am now, I'll begin designating certain days as "focus" days, wherein I will devote significantly more time and effort to one of the bagua "pillars," such as doing the standing postures, or circle-turning.
On a random note, I've noticed that my left arm is noticeably weaker than my right. It's somewhat annoying.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Still going
It's funny how I can think so much about my training and then when it comes to writing about it...poof. Anyway, today's session went rather well. It was a light day for strikes (250) but still got in what is becoming the standard 10 minutes of standing, followed by 10 minutes of turning. The standing is getting harder, I suspect because I'm getting more focused and really pushing it, to the point where I actually sweat while doing it. I've never concentrated so much time and effort into standing in such a short amount of time, so it's nice to be able to see some slight progress there. As for turning, I think it's too early to tell if the practice of the last few days is helping, but it does seem as though it's a little less taxing than before.
I haven't really been doing much in the way of strikes lately. Part of that is deliberate. On previous occasions I would typically focus on strikes to the exclusion of everything else, but now I'm trying to stress the standing and turning as much as, if not more than, the strikes. I do pay attention to the mechanics of the strikes when I do them, though. I remember how awkward the rising sweeping strikes felt when I first started doing them about 2 years (or more, I forget) back. For a while I couldn't quite figure out how to do them, and tended to practice them using only a weak, lateral force from turning the waist. More recently, after viewing self-taken video of myself doing the strikes, viewing the strikes on the Lion dvd's, and getting some insight from the time I spent trying to work on the Dragon system, I found what I believe is the correct force, involving a coordination of the forces of the waist. It definitely feels very solid, and has a very satisfying snap to it. It'll take several thousand more of them before I'm likely to feel really comfortable and confident with them, but I'm not in any particular rush at the moment.
My training sessions thus far seem pretty meager, but I suppose that's just a testament to how generally weak I am, since even these meager workouts make me sore and sweaty. I also forgot to take into account the changes to my food intake and sleep needs since I began this atypical (for me) physical training regimen. Still, I feel pretty good. And every day that goes by wherein I meet or exceed my training goals makes me more confident and hopeful of being able to persevere and make this practice a habit.
I haven't really been doing much in the way of strikes lately. Part of that is deliberate. On previous occasions I would typically focus on strikes to the exclusion of everything else, but now I'm trying to stress the standing and turning as much as, if not more than, the strikes. I do pay attention to the mechanics of the strikes when I do them, though. I remember how awkward the rising sweeping strikes felt when I first started doing them about 2 years (or more, I forget) back. For a while I couldn't quite figure out how to do them, and tended to practice them using only a weak, lateral force from turning the waist. More recently, after viewing self-taken video of myself doing the strikes, viewing the strikes on the Lion dvd's, and getting some insight from the time I spent trying to work on the Dragon system, I found what I believe is the correct force, involving a coordination of the forces of the waist. It definitely feels very solid, and has a very satisfying snap to it. It'll take several thousand more of them before I'm likely to feel really comfortable and confident with them, but I'm not in any particular rush at the moment.
My training sessions thus far seem pretty meager, but I suppose that's just a testament to how generally weak I am, since even these meager workouts make me sore and sweaty. I also forgot to take into account the changes to my food intake and sleep needs since I began this atypical (for me) physical training regimen. Still, I feel pretty good. And every day that goes by wherein I meet or exceed my training goals makes me more confident and hopeful of being able to persevere and make this practice a habit.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Feeling hopeful...and tired
Had a good workout today, and it has me feeling pretty good about my chances of maintaining a regular training schedule. Overall, I did 10 minutes of standing in the Lion representative posture (whereas in earlier times I would only ever do 2, if any at all), 10 sets of 50 rising sweeping strikes, and managed to turn the circle for 15 minutes (as opposed to the 10 that I was originally shooting for). I seem to have struck a decent balance between the various exercises, whereby I'll stand for two minutes (one minute per side) and then do a set of strikes, followed by turning the circle for as long as I can manage. This varies things up and seems to relieve some of the tedium. I'd probably go into greater detail, but I'm actually really tired, so I think I'll just go to bed.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Training Restart (again)
Once again, it's been quite some time since I last was very motivated to do any training. It comes in waves. Suffice to say, it's all too easy to find excuses not to do it. But, the important thing is to keep picking yourself back up and keep on trying...or so I keep hearing. With any luck, and more than a little perseverence, I'll be able to keep the string of unbroken training days a lot longer this time around. I now have a job again, so I am simultaneously less depressed and flush with cash, with which I intend to get more bagua dvd's. In the meantime, I will continue practicing what I have. I don't even remember at this point what I was doing back in September, but it hardly matters.
My current plan is simple: train every day. Doesn't seem like much at the outset, but it would unquestionably be an improvement. Previously, I'd set certain vague numeric goals for my practice that were somewhat detached from anything concrete. I'd get into bad habits. Now, by focusing primarily on simply making sure I practice everyday, I'll get into the habit of doing so. And once that is achieved, I can simply continue to add more to my workload over time.
Starting out this time around, I've decided to take a suggestion from Jim in Knoxville: train for an hour every day, with ten minutes of standing, 20 of striking drills, and 30 of turning. It was about as much of a workout as I'd guessed, considering how generally out of shape I am. Stood for 10 minutes in Lion Representative, doing two minute intervals (one minute per side). Then for 20 minutes I tried to see how many sets of 50 Rising Sweeping strikes I could fit in, which came out to 6 (300 strikes). Unfortunately, by then my unsuspecting muscles had become worn out, and I only managed 15 minutes of turning (Lion) before throwing it in. End result: took over an hour due to rest breaks, and didn't quite finish anyway. But at least now I have a sort of baseline for myself; something to improve upon in the comings days and weeks.
After I've done this particular workout until it becomes easy, I'll start to add other things to it, such as other standing postures, other strikes, the 1-step, 2-step and 3-step striking drills, as well as some other stuff that isn't strictly bagua, like the (non-yin style) saber dvd's I have.
I've still got a long way to go, but I'm getting there.
My current plan is simple: train every day. Doesn't seem like much at the outset, but it would unquestionably be an improvement. Previously, I'd set certain vague numeric goals for my practice that were somewhat detached from anything concrete. I'd get into bad habits. Now, by focusing primarily on simply making sure I practice everyday, I'll get into the habit of doing so. And once that is achieved, I can simply continue to add more to my workload over time.
Starting out this time around, I've decided to take a suggestion from Jim in Knoxville: train for an hour every day, with ten minutes of standing, 20 of striking drills, and 30 of turning. It was about as much of a workout as I'd guessed, considering how generally out of shape I am. Stood for 10 minutes in Lion Representative, doing two minute intervals (one minute per side). Then for 20 minutes I tried to see how many sets of 50 Rising Sweeping strikes I could fit in, which came out to 6 (300 strikes). Unfortunately, by then my unsuspecting muscles had become worn out, and I only managed 15 minutes of turning (Lion) before throwing it in. End result: took over an hour due to rest breaks, and didn't quite finish anyway. But at least now I have a sort of baseline for myself; something to improve upon in the comings days and weeks.
After I've done this particular workout until it becomes easy, I'll start to add other things to it, such as other standing postures, other strikes, the 1-step, 2-step and 3-step striking drills, as well as some other stuff that isn't strictly bagua, like the (non-yin style) saber dvd's I have.
I've still got a long way to go, but I'm getting there.
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