tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53973005962213945472024-02-23T18:01:53.656-08:00Internal Arts PracticeStone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-39485732228059842712017-08-21T18:40:00.001-07:002017-08-26T16:16:10.292-07:00Make war the Roman way.<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "open sans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 14px;">Last week, I shared a video by Master Chim (linked below) about ineffective martial arts techniques and no matter whether you like, hate or don't know who Master Chim is, he raised some valid points about the way that martial arts are taught in modern times. He asked good questions about the techniques being taught such as the double handed wrist grab or lapel grab and why students are taught ineffective, time consuming and often silly responses to situations that almost never happen and it got me thinking.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "open sans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 14px;">It's true that too many schools teach these techniques but I think it's also true that most students and even more teachers know that these techniques are pointless because it's VERY unlikely that a student would ever see these set ups being used in real life. So why learn them?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "open sans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 14px;">I think the answers from teachers would be that "It helps the student get used to being grabbed" and while that is a nice sentiment, how does it really help students if they are learning things that they will never actually use? Why not focus the student from the beginning on attacks that actually will happen such as a haymaker, shove, front kick, etc?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "open sans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I was lucky enough to spend a long time </span></span><span style="font-family: "open sans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">as a bouncer at several different clubs and country bars and I have to say, the fights I saw never started with someone grabbing another person by the lapel or taking both of their hands to grab a single wrist of their opponent. Fights usually start in a couple different ways and it's rare that they start with any of the attacks that students learn in most martial arts schools. To further explain this, we have to understand that the majority of people who pick fights on "Da streetz" or in a bar aren't trained martial artists and often will use incredibly simple attacks simply because they are natural and the person doesn't know any better. So why would we as teachers show anything but these in the beginning? Why show students techniques that we know they aren't likely to face instead of the attacks we KNOW are most likely to happen?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "open sans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 14px;">I think it comes down to filling up time and keeping the students interested. Traditional martial arts are very simple, that's why they are effective, so there is a limited number of things to fill up time during a students contract, leading the teacher to create situations just to keep the students engaged. Most students don't want to hear that they should put in a thousand more reps on a basic technique and instead complain that they aren't learning more and teachers weakly give in to those complaints instead of teaching their students discipline and single mindedness during training.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "open sans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 14px;">You may be saying "That doesn't seem like such a big deal" without considering how wild some of these elaborations become. Have we not wondered where people get ideas about secret dim mak techniques, qi projection, Lin Kong Jin and how they become so popular? The simple answer is that those "practices" come when teachers want to keep their students entertained and paying tuition so they expound on mystical ideas that devoted students lap up because of the mystery. Here are a couple examples, hope you laugh your brain out at how ridiculous these are</span></span></div>
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OK, so the last one I had to choose because of the music, gets me every time. Please understand that these are both men who found fame in the past because they, some damn way, convinced students that their methods were effective and worth investing money, and most importantly, time into.</div>
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Great, so now that I have gone on a rant, let me tie this back into the title of the article and my feelings on martial arts. I was listening to Dan Carlin's 'Hardcore History' podcast and he mentioned making war the Roman way and it perfectly fit my beliefs about self defense and how martial arts have been used throughout history. He summed it up with a perfectly short statement of how the Romans would fight other groups who didn't play by the normal rules of Roman war and that was 'Bellum Romanum" or total war. No stone left un-thrown, no house left standing, no resistance left to rise up again. Individual fights would often take the same path as anything else would allow your enemy to get revenge down the road.</div>
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We look at traditional martial arts from a modern perspective, thinking that olden times must be SOMEWHAT like today in that most people aren't likely to experience life or death situations multiple times in their lives. We view the past through our comfortable, plush lens and forget that several hundred years ago when our arts were developing, the world was a savage and downright scary place to live and you had to be ready to fight or run at a seconds notice. The martial arts of the time were a response to that in that they taught how to fight and kill as quickly as possible, with no extra movements or fancy poses. They trained to go from neutral to overdrive in a second because that was the only thing that kept them alive. Gong Fu masters, along with masters of other Asian arts, where often brutal fighters and when I say brutal, I mean truly brutal in a way that few people today can imagine. This isn't a reflection of their character but a needed response to the times. We forget that fighters actually died regularly and while not every teacher engaged in Kumite style death matches, if they weren't prepared, someone who was could come and take everything anytime they wanted. This led to a very high level of preparedness among real masters.</div>
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The last large scale use of this mentality was by Indonesian Silat fighters during World War 2 against the Japanese occupation. Silat fighters didn't line up in rows and columns against the technologically superior Japanese military, instead they fought un-orthodox battles against the Japanese and it often looked like a hurricane of blades went through Japanese patrols. This method of total war was so frightening and damaging to the Japanese that they were eventually driven out of Indonesia. </div>
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So how does all this talk of war relate to how modern martial artists should prepare? Well, it's simple. You need to prepare for a situation where you must go all out to defend yourself against an opponent that won't stop if you stomp their toes or apply a wristlock against them. You have to prepare for fights that aren't one on one. In those instances, striking a fearsome Kung Fu pose or using the delayed death touch won't stop the bad guys from applying an instant death touch via stomp or stab </div>
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It's a hard pill to swallow that all of our training will be properly expressed in a second or two of strikes but that is reality. We don't get long, drawn out battles where we can suddenly turn the tables once the bad guy has stopped to gloat or the orchestra changes their music (my Kung Fu fights have professional music playing to keep the suspense up, I'm sure yours are the same way). We have to respond with full force once we know that we can't walk away. I think most people know that point, the point where things have gone very badly and there is no saying "I'm sorry, here is my wallet". Some people will respond with "But that's illegal" but it's simply not when you can truly show that you tried to walk away but your life was threatened. Another example could be the recent attacks in Europe. During the stabbing attacks in London, no one would say that responding with full force was inappropriate, and since those situations are the most serious and life threatening, why not train for those and know that you don't always have to go wild if your brother in law gets drunk at a family Thanksgiving? (Related side rant that relates here) It always amazes me when teachers say their arts are too deadly to use for sparring as it's an admission that they aren't in control and don't chose the way they fight. If you can't chose your level of intensity, you aren't in control. </div>
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The long and short of this article is that I don't teach my female students to try and joint lock someone my size. I don't teach them to 'put their dukes up' when we talk about fighting. We don't even discuss the old trope of "Stomp their foot and you can run away" as I've seen that not work a few times and more tellingly, most people don't use it because it's naturally not very effective with today's boots and cushioned shoes being something that everyone wears. If one of my female students asked me "What do I do if someone grabs my neck?" my response is never some convoluted and precise pairing of shouting 'HELP' and twisting his pinkie to release his grip. I teach what works and if a man my size grabs one of my female students by the neck, the only proper response (legal as well) is not to tie up her hands with grabs and locks but simply to use both of her free hands to strike and demolish the attacker by hitting the eyes and throat, a justified total war approach when her life is actually threatened. Don't take this as me being overly macho or trying to turn my students into modern Berserkers but instead see that the only logical response to a smaller, weaker person being grabbed by the throat by a much larger and stronger attacker is to fight with everything they have to make sure they go home safely at night.</div>
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Silly techniques combined with a false sense of nobility that many Westerners use to whitewash the history of their arts in an attempt to avoid having to 'Put up or shut up' have made traditional martial arts look weak in our modern world. False nobility is a shield against being called out for making insane claims of skill, ie "I'm a scholar boxer" or "That's not how gentlemen act" and I believe have also contributed to the rise of worthless martial tactics, as the teacher creating them hasn't had enough or any fight experience to draw on when setting up training scenarios. </div>
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Look at what is taught in your school. Are the techniques realistic to actual fights? Do you emphasize training against rear bear hugs instead of rear naked chokes? Why train it when only a strong and experienced wrestler or thrower would even attempt throwing from a rear bear hug and you aren't likely to get into a bar brawl with them? Why train against lapel grabs when it's almost a certainty that the bad guy will start with a shove or wild overhand punch? If you aren't convinced completely when you answer this, are you sure that you are learning the right techniques you will need?</div>
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I'm just asking for you to look at your art and ask if there are any worthless techniques that can be put aside in favor of more likely needed defenses. We have to make the world see the relevance of traditional martial arts again before our reputation is totally gone. </div>
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Train hard and be great.</div>
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Here is the Master Chim video I mentioned earlier. Whether you agree with him or not, he raises good questions.</div>
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Jesse Conley is the owner and instructor at Stone Tiger Martial Arts,</div>
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located in Vancouver, WA.</div>
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For questions or more information, please email to stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com</div>
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or visit us on Facebook at</div>
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https://www.facebook.com/StoneTigerXingyi/<br />
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Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-75986760443562417032017-08-12T11:40:00.001-07:002017-08-12T11:40:17.146-07:00Is your teacher a fraud?<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Is your teacher a fraud?</span></i></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj27u5U_8fMBq1Q0zZX5Ih12fVv1juZRzHEWjdqqwL9Up1xVvk19xxq1Skd_LllGzQg3BiUN9bbgLxIaSLruVjz0Bvay-Nnp2zwMqBootkXGdU3v5jmkiPMXR-9DfgbX5yapmUgIOpznzPo/s1600/Teller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj27u5U_8fMBq1Q0zZX5Ih12fVv1juZRzHEWjdqqwL9Up1xVvk19xxq1Skd_LllGzQg3BiUN9bbgLxIaSLruVjz0Bvay-Nnp2zwMqBootkXGdU3v5jmkiPMXR-9DfgbX5yapmUgIOpznzPo/s320/Teller.jpg" width="320" /></a>Many people believe that Gong Fu is dying and nothing can be done to stop it.</div>
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Not me. </div>
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I'm a solid optimist when it comes to Gong Fu's future and I will explain why in a later article. Right now, I want to address what I think is a real threat to Gong Fu and what is holding it back from regaining the respect it had in the past.</div>
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If you guessed from the title that I am going to talk about fake teachers, then you are 100% correct, give yourself a pat on the back!</div>
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Every good student should care about and respect their teacher, plain and simple. But each student has a responsibility to ask if their teacher is being completely honest or not, as a matter of simple due diligence. While new students are probably overwhelmed with the new culture they are exposed to, when they are adjusted, they should start asking if what they are learning is real and worth the effort they are about to put in over the years.</div>
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I've been training since 1999 and teaching since I came back from China in 2004. I've been around the block a couple times and combined with years as a salesman, I have a pretty solid BS detector. There are key things I look for and you can look for too that should indicate further questioning is in order.</div>
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Now, I'm going to start with something that is pretty common knowledge and that I've even written about in the past. It still needs to be said for full honesty. I had a completely fake teacher in the past that suckered me in like no one's business and after that situation exploded, I found myself trying to piece my sense of self back together. I traveled all over the country, trying to learn bits and pieces of the art I loved so I could somehow salvage the "style" I had put years of training into. No joke, I spent a couple years trying to rebuild an art I had never truly learned and my refusal to just cast the trash aside was completely due to my ego at the time. </div>
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This is important mostly because as I tried to glue the pieces together, I had a lot of the same thoughts and impulses that I see well know frauds acting on today. It kinda gives me a queasy feeling to write that but it's true. Luckily, I met my Shifu, recognized his skill and made the right decision to throw all the previous stuff in the trash, to start over under him. I may have thought in the past that I gave up years of training but in reality, I wasn't actually training an art, I was just prancing around and making sure to tell people I did Gong Fu. </div>
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The first thing we have to understand is that fake teachers operate solely from their need for recognition and a burning desire to be unique. Since they aren't willing to put in the time under an actual teacher to learn an established art, we can also assume they are taking the easy road but just making up whatever seems cool. These things are important because they tell you what kind of person we are talking about and in the end, are you willing to fork over your money, safety and most importantly, your limited time on this planet under someone who has no issue lying right to your face?</div>
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I thought not.</div>
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Ok, so here we go!</div>
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1. <b style="font-style: italic;">They don't have any pictures or video with their teacher- </b>Fake teachers can't prove they learned from anyone.<b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>Guys/gals, this should be the first thing you look for when you start 'fact checking' your teacher. In this day and age, video recorders, phones and even basic cameras are literally EVERYWHERE! They have been super common for the last 15 years or so, at least in the West and since most fake teachers are younger, this applies directly to them. If the teacher truly spent years with a master, are we really supposed to believe that no pictures were ever taken? No videos to use as supplemental notes? Nothing???? Come on now!</div>
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2. <i><b>The teachers' teacher is no where to be found- </b></i> This ties into the first reason obviously. There is a potential that SOMEHOW, there was never a camera or video recorder available (No matter how unlikely that is) so a great way to check a teacher's validity is to just go meet and talk with their master. My students can do it anytime they like and verify anything I have told them with my teacher (my Shifu is a completely amazing open book). But when the fake teacher is asked about this, they either resort to saying "He died" or "He is extremely private". And yes, many Chinese masters are private but they aren't hiding in caves or in attics somewhere. My Shiye is private, I had to get a personal introduction from my teacher to train with him but he never hides that he trains Bagua to outsiders. My teacher's old training ground is DIRECTLY in front of an apartment/office building, 15 feet from the front door. This is a great example that even private teachers still operate in public, they just don't make a big fuss about it. Why can't anyone talk to the fake teachers Shifu? I think we all know the answer. </div>
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3. <i><b>Their art is always expanding- </b></i> <i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i>This one may be a little too subtle for some people but I think most can grasp it. It's a simple fact that old school Gong Fu styles are finite. They don't have 500 forms plus another 1000 weapons forms and even in the case of super old styles like Tan Tui, it's extremely rare to find a teacher who knows all of them. Most people simple can't memorize and train a huge number of forms In time, you will also find that a huge emphasis on learning new, exotic forms is a cover for not learning an art deeply. It's easy to memorize a dance but extremely difficult to embody deep mechanics. Beware of the teacher who somehow has oodles of forms that no one else has ever heard of or if they push forms that have no application in the main style.</div>
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4. <i><b>Other teachers don't recognize them or what they are doing-</b></i> The martial arts community isn't as big as many people think and especially inside specific styles, the list of recognized and legitimate teachers isn't massive. The movements within most styles are fairly similar as well. Let's take Xingyi for example. Within Xingyi, the elements and animals are fairly similar between established styles with only smaller variants decided by the personal taste of each teacher. Like Hu Xing, or Tiger shape. Across all the styles, Tiger is recognizable and has similar applications and intent. If someone comes along and is doing a Tiger that has NOTHING in common with what the legitimate community recognizes, that is a very good indicator that something is amiss. I know it rubs some the wrong way but logically, it's more likely than not that if the whole community doesn't recognize what the teacher is doing, it's completely new or fabricated by someone who doesn't understand the original concept.</div>
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5. <b><i>They exclusively quote commercially published manuals-</i></b> This one is a dead giveaway of a teacher who doesn't come from a martial family. I give Sun Lu Tang lots of credit and respect although you don't see me or other teachers not in his lineage using his manual to back up our practices. You may perhaps see it quoted as a secondary source but if the teacher isn't quoting his own teacher or using his/her own style manual to go by first, it indicates that there was never that guide to start with. If someone asks me for backup references for a practice I use, I can go back and find material written by my teacher, grand teacher or great grandteacher, I don't need to use a manual that I bought at Barnes and Noble to prove my practice. A common retort is "My family doesn't have a manual" but this is also somewhat suspicious as it was common practice for a style manual to be written and passed down to help younger generations. This last example isn't bulletproof though, sometimes the manual legitimately is missing or destroyed.</div>
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6. <b style="font-style: italic;">They are the only ambassador from their style- </b>This point raises eyebrows especially when combined with no evidence of a teacher and here is the simple reason. You can't learn a martial art by yourself! You can't learn combat just by waving your hands in the air without a partner to test movements against. It's simply impossible to build reactions, timing and proper distance in the chaotic environment of fighting without another living body to work against. A variant of this is when a teacher claims that it was just him and his teacher, no one else. It's extremely unlikely that they fell into a Mr. Miyagi situation where the teacher only had one student his whole life and never had any other classmates to train against. </div>
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7. <b style="font-style: italic;">If they go to the home country of their art, they have no one to visit- </b>This is another dead giveaway of something fishy. Let's take Chinese Gong Fu for example. The older teachers in China are very worried at how the younger generation of Chinese aren't interested in training anymore. They love their arts and want them to be passed on so when a foreigner comes to visit, they are more than likely going to be very curious and at least meet with them. On top of this, traditional Gong Fu is often taught in a family atmosphere, and the members treat each other as extended family. It could be considered extremely rude if a foreign student of the art showed up and no one made the effort to visit them and make sure they were taken care of, not to mention train with them, possibly the whole reason the foreign student came. Chinese martial artists take bonds in the family very seriously and wouldn't allow a member to just float around without introducing themselves.</div>
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This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but these are some of the things that set off alarm bells for me and other teachers. This is also not an underhanded dig at any one teacher. I think if we look at the most well known frauds, like Jake Mace or Ashida Kim, we will see that they share many if not all of these markers in common. </div>
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So to all the students out there, please take the time and effort to critically examine your teacher and ask if any of these apply. It doesn't mean they are frauds if one or two apply but it should raise concerns and more questions. </div>
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Train hard and be awesome but most of all, be honest with yourself and your potential students.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Jesse Conley is the owner and instructor at Stone Tiger Martial Arts,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
located in Vancouver, WA.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
For questions or more information, please email to stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
or visit us on Facebook at</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
https://www.facebook.com/StoneTigerXingyi/</div>
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Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-67375103692265426792017-07-03T17:46:00.001-07:002017-07-03T17:46:49.690-07:00The myth of the "Classical Mess"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRKg0Yu_4Sf5mjkUg8chw87b6FKGLXNDQ_GiVmLEVS4a9tBTVEAgxAKIoOWO2JI9E1Ytkw7Hs9Y4TaaSYFjmxyXO3MWpYllqVZAXXcT8-pdDac106shvTsLO6sSgoiOBRTxwuSwpV5We6/s1600/bruce-lee-1248293.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="852" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRKg0Yu_4Sf5mjkUg8chw87b6FKGLXNDQ_GiVmLEVS4a9tBTVEAgxAKIoOWO2JI9E1Ytkw7Hs9Y4TaaSYFjmxyXO3MWpYllqVZAXXcT8-pdDac106shvTsLO6sSgoiOBRTxwuSwpV5We6/s320/bruce-lee-1248293.jpg" width="240" /></a>Earlier today I saw a friend post about training and it mentioned 'non-classical gong fu' and just like many of you, I was kind of confused what that meant. If that term doesn't ring any bells for you, let me share where it originated from. <br />
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Referencing new gong fu against old or 'classical' gong fu started with Bruce Lee before his untimely death. He used the term to denote his art from what he saw were the issues of the older styles of Gong Fu.<br />
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Bruce believed that the older styles, for example, fought from fixed stances or were stiff compared to his new art and didn't hesitate to make the comparison at any chance.<br />
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Now, when I was looking into what "non-classical gong fu" meant, I found this picture and it only deepened my questions. Which styles fight from fixed stances? Which styles believe stiffness is better than fast and fluid movements? Are there really schools out there who truly believe that you are supposed to fight the exact way you practice a form? In the end, is there any truth to Bruce's claim about 'classical' gong fu or was it a clever way to promote his art?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDtEzVXEF2yEPTNwm3G3ymKI8bBJBcB0DS_PquHavj7Lyut_yB3moOuOdf3PY1TX2YkDa0eBVSssJAZCay59j6H1p_vSJ9JGm2O6b7Yr-VbJTu0_08r0xQRaBELO717hVdWRYTRpTl6_4D/s1600/Pu+Bu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDtEzVXEF2yEPTNwm3G3ymKI8bBJBcB0DS_PquHavj7Lyut_yB3moOuOdf3PY1TX2YkDa0eBVSssJAZCay59j6H1p_vSJ9JGm2O6b7Yr-VbJTu0_08r0xQRaBELO717hVdWRYTRpTl6_4D/s200/Pu+Bu.jpg" width="133" /></a>Let's start with the first claim about stances. I've had the honor of training with excellent teachers in many styles and I've never once found a instructor who claims you have to fight from a gong bu/bow stance or a cat stance. I've never once heard a teacher advocating that the second a fight begins, drop into a twisted stance and wait for the opponent to attack. Each of the teachers I have trained with have ALWAYS viewed stances not as a start of end of fighting but as a transition between movements. Let's use a Pu Bu stance, pictured here. Have any of you ever met a real, legit teacher who has a strong free fighting record that teaches to start your attack from here? Neither have I. This stance is used for exercise and in application can be found in throws similar to a 'Fireman's Carry' from wrestling, albeit not at this depth or stretch. What is pictured here is a full depth stance used to help with strength and stretching, it's not representative of a combat stance, if there was such a thing.<br />
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Bow stances are another super common stance, but again, I've never met a teacher who told me to jump forward into one the second I felt threatened. Although I have had teachers who compare it to a strong shove or a double leg takedown position. You see, stances are meant to increase leg strength in martial artists so they don't find themselves to weak to push through areas that they might collapse without the extra training. Let's use the Bow stance example again. It's important because if I was going to transition through a bow stance while doing a high version of a double leg, there is a chance my opponent could counter while 'sprawling' and drop all his weight onto my shoulders. Without the added front leg strength, it's very possible that could collapse my movement, see?<br />
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Let's move onto the idea that the fact there styles existing is paralyzing to the arts. Again, I don't see evidence of this in real legit teachers or anyone who has truly studied martial arts history. Arts were constantly created and modified, even while Bruce was alive. Let's use the art of Bagua for this example. One teacher, Dong Hai Chuan, essentially created 8 different arts for his students, each different than his own. As soon as those students started to share, the arts changed again with the introduction of Gao and Sun style Bagua, to name a limited few. There was no animosity between the styles, which should exist if people truly were mentally paralyzed by their style. Dong Hai Chuan would have been furious (if he was paralyzed by his style) that Sun Lu Tang or Gao Yi Sheng created their own versions of his art but no such anger is recorded anywhere. The art of Xingyi also has a long history of changing and growing without any issues as well. These art's are also incredibly fluid and responsive to change, another mark against the claim that the arts never evolved or grow. <br />
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The last and potentially most damning of the claims made is that the 'routines and stunts' trained will lead nowhere. This might be true if there were teachers claiming that forms are literally interpretations of how fights play out but again, there are VERY few teachers who claim this and most of those can't actually prove they have ever been in a fight with their art. All of the teachers that I have trained with have told me that forms are meant to develop fluid, connected power as well as train cardio for example, along with other great benefits. The fight knowledge that comes from forms is the ideas for combinations given and the concept of how to link different moves while moving through complicated angles. The biggest problem that can be found with Bruce's claim that the 'routines' are a problem is how after he started to become famous, he traveled back to his teacher, Ip Man, and offered to buy him an apartment in exchange for teaching him the 3rd Wing Chun form and allowing him to film it as well. Why would a man who claims to dislike 'routines' be willing to pay for a training video of a form he never learned? This claim is found in Ip Man's book on the Wooden Dummy set, another 'routine' with a ton of value that that still found in some JKD schools today. <br />
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So, many of you are wondering why Bruce made these claims. Let me take a stab at it by reminding you to check the martial arts movies coming out at the time. The martial movie genre at the time used all 3 of these stereotypes consistently and Western audiences wouldn't have had any other frame of reference to how real martial artists moved or how their art is trained, and I believe Bruce knew that as well. I just came back from China again and while I was there, I didn't see any fixed stances or stiff movements, even from teachers who were teaching before Bruce made his claim. Also, we can see the claim of stances and stiffness wasn't made before Bruce and each claim afterwards has just been mirroring what he said without providing any proof. <br />
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Let me share a video of my teacher as an example of how good teachers demonstrate fluidity without once referencing starting from a fixed stance or reliance on strict interpretations of form.<br />
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To show that this isn't a singular example, here are some other great videos that demonstrate real traditional teachers teaching combatives</div>
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These videos show teachers from different styles showing fluidity and the ability to react to an opponent without using fixed starting stances. They show ideas pulled from forms on how to enter and strike and also how to counter those entries and I don't see anything related to a strict form interpreting mentality or any sort of constraint. </div>
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My belief is that declaring that an art is 'Non-classical' is sharing that the art doesn't have any of the wonderful and unique characteristics present in true Gong Fu. These methods are what inform each styles preferred way of attacking but aren't limiting in any way. I've never met a good teacher who says "You can't punch that way, that way is from our arch rivals school and it's a sin!" The teachers I know say "Here is the art, use it however you have to so you are safe and make it home at night" and I generally believe that most teachers say the same.</div>
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The last objection some might raise is that the special Shen Fa or body method of each style is limiting which I also don't find to be true. Each Shen Fa method is designed to amplify a certain way of moving, not in any way to restrict a martial artists ability to move as needed. Xinyidao for example prefers to fight extremely close in and I've seen it used in bar fights with great effect. This in no way means they lack the ability to reach out and touch an opponent from farther out, in fact, they are skilled in that range as well. They just prefer closer in because they have developed a really powerful method of generating power from extremely close ranges. How could preferring to use your strengths be considered limiting? </div>
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I hope each of you thinks about the claim that Bruce made and really ask yourself if your teacher has ever told you to adopt a pre-fight stance like in the movies. Have you ever seen videos of real street fights where two skilled fighters square off with one of them moving into a crane style position and the other dropping into a twisted snake style stance like the old Wuxia movies? I haven't and I've been a bouncer for years. On reflection, I think you will come to the same conclusion that I have, that the claim of a 'classical mess' isn't really founded on a true representation of 'classical' martial arts.</div>
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Jesse Conley is the owner and instructor at Stone Tiger Martial Arts,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
located in Vancouver, WA.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
For questions or more information, please email to stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
or visit us on Facebook at</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
https://www.facebook.com/StoneTigerXingyi/</div>
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<br />Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-73699948381910349672017-06-11T11:43:00.002-07:002017-07-03T17:46:37.018-07:00Do martial arts really help with confidence?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Everyone knows the old movie trope. Boy/girl has a severe lack of confidence and gets bullied for not being cool. Boy/Girl meets a wizened master of some esoteric form of martial arts and one 3 minute training montage later, they are confident and just skilled enough to beat the bullies while landing their secret love interest. As a side note, I'm still a little miffed at my teacher because he made me walk the circle for years. It would have been so much easier to do the training montage and get it over with the first time we met, I even had the music for my montage picked out.<br />
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My personal rant aside, we see people all the time talk about how the martial arts builds confidence. McDojo's use that phrase as parent-bait to get their children signed up but I've never heard them explain HOW martial arts builds confidence. Not knowing how martial arts builds confidence and thinking confidence will just show up someday is a risky gamble and not very likely to pay off. This is proven by the hordes of gangly, black-belt-in-3-years paper tigers churned out by schools who lured them in with promises of confidence but spits them back out with a certificate and zero real world courage. It's truly sad to see these kids come into the bar where I bounce at, they are bursting with pride at being a black belt but when they get rowdy a slap in the mouth and a good stare has actually brought a couple of them to tears. <br />
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So what is confidence and how does training increase it? I say increase it because confidence and poise are internal characteristics and external training can only help bring it out, it can't create confidence from thin air. That is the first thing to remember about it in my opinion. You must understand that YOU create the confidence in yourself, it can't be given or bought no matter how hard you wish for it.<br />
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So with this understanding, let's explore how training can help build confidence. <br />
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The reason all of us started training was to become more physically capable and more in control of our own bodies, regardless of whether or not you want to use that for fighting, and that right there is really where the confidence is nurtured. Confidence is the belief in your capabilities or the self assurance that comes from understanding your own abilities. So we see that it's not the punches or kicks that build the confidence but the student being able to apply those strikes or kicks that can be the spark for building confidence. <br />
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So how do we help the people around us build confidence through training?<br />
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Easy! After students get the choreography/technique right, they should be pushed into application as much as possible. We don't have to try and turn everyone who walks through the door into killers but helping the students to understand just how amazing they can be through applying the art to whatever their goals are will undoubtedly build the confidence of every student. <br />
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For example, say an elderly woman wants to learn Taiji for health. She can build confidence in herself and her art by training and being shown how much her balance and stability improves. She will feel some of her aches and pains vanish through training and be certain that she is moving towards her goals. That right there is her confidence building.<br />
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Another perfect example is one of my students, Portia. She and her husband have been training for a little over a year and when they started, I gave them a taste of old school training. They spent 6 months just working on circle walking and the Single Palm change from Gao Bagua. Both of them train very hard and are really dedicated but about 2 months ago, Portia started sharing her frustration that she didn't feel she was any more capable to defend herself than when she started. This led to me walking her through what she had been doing for the past year and how she had unknowingly learned to generate way more power than she understood. She wound up actually knocking me to the mat a couple times that day (she is less than half my size). The sudden realization that her training hadn't just been empty dancing in circles has sparked a huge turn for her. She is much more confident in herself and what she is working on and she is more dedicated to training that before. Hopefully she realizes that the more she trains, the more competent she will become and as long as she is aware of that, her confidence will always grow.<br />
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This leads to the question, 'Is it the punches and kicks that build confidence or is it a different, internal change that comes because the person feels better about themselves?'<br />
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I wanted to get another opinion on this from a friend so I reached out to Sifu Erik Oliva for his thoughts-<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGTnVzV0AJ0pGF1-o0i3wIrAs3YMLhxHUOP1pyqibOqTCnetN7P-mzFno6sT99EBiTXN0ZAbZABGPN79F5x-Fn7AsLtPxrMP6NMt7nqYKkxJmWWT6I9gEI41IY5KzN1YTvFaDCqAHokwP/s1600/Erik+Oliva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGTnVzV0AJ0pGF1-o0i3wIrAs3YMLhxHUOP1pyqibOqTCnetN7P-mzFno6sT99EBiTXN0ZAbZABGPN79F5x-Fn7AsLtPxrMP6NMt7nqYKkxJmWWT6I9gEI41IY5KzN1YTvFaDCqAHokwP/s1600/Erik+Oliva.jpg" /></a>"<b><i>A common idea in learning anything, especially a martial art, is one of failure. How many times has</i></b><br />
<b><i> a new student of a martial art thought about quitting? How many times have you thought about giving up when the going gets tough?</i></b><br />
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<b><i>Historically in America, martial arts paved the way for the quiet introvert to develop a platform of emotional stability. We have heard the term “confidence building” used endlessly in the martial arts and are led to the idea that practicing a way of fighting will somehow refine one’s mind for the better. So, what is it in a martial art that actually builds character?</i></b><br />
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<b><i>Let us look at the phrase “Planning to fail.” In the martial arts school, one prepares themselves on a journey of re-education. In learning routines and self defense applications, overcoming the inner voices of failure are ever present, and a scary one. In that, confidence is developed by persevering through difficulty in re-learning motor and coordination skills. Be it for health or self defense, a feeling of accomplishment overcomes a practitioner when they have performed according to the instructions given.</i></b><br />
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<b><i>It is through this hard work, and the perseverance of overcoming emotions like aggression, overwhelming feelings of loss of control, fear and confusion which lead one to realize a state of confidence. The various practices within the martial arts through physical conditioning, form memorization and sparring offer a platform in which a practitioner can develop their mental and emotional integrity."</i></b><br />
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<b><i>Peace and Blessing,</i></b><br />
<b><i>Erik Oliva / 林爱伟</i></b><br />
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That is very well said and I really appreciate Sifu Oliva for his help with this. Let me wrap this up with this thought to take away. If someone doesn't understand HOW their training works, can they ever truly develop to their highest potential? I say no and I think the students graduating from McDojo's bear witness to that, in more than one way. I would suggest that every teacher takes the time to reflect on their classes and see if they are truly explaining these topics to their students and helping them achieve their goals.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Jesse Conley is the owner and head instructor at Stone Tiger Martial Arts</div>
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in Vancouver, WA.</div>
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He teaches Gao Bagua, Xingyi, Taiji and Ma Tongbei</div>
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For more information, please feel free to email</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
or check out our Facebook page!</div>
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https://www.facebook.com/StoneTigerXingyi/</div>
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<br />Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-5373506886625596382017-06-08T21:08:00.003-07:002017-06-12T09:47:39.251-07:00If you aren't obsessed, you don't have Gong Fu!Are you obsessed with your art? To paraphrase Arnold, do you 'Sleep faster' so you can get up earlier and get back to your art? What do you give up in your everyday life to reach a higher level of skill? What are you willing to suffer through to learn more?<br />
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I get it, those sound like overly dramatic questions but when you get down to it, those are some real ways that people have changed their lives in order to reach skill levels that most won't achieve. For this article, I would love to share some stories of how martial artists that many of you know live their lives in order to focus on Gong Fu.<br />
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Let's start with my good friend and Xinyidao/Ma Tongbei teacher, Sifu Sudan Jeffers. He is a truly great friend and I thought of him first because he shapes his life around his training. It's truly amazing to watch him go about his day, every little thing is centered around Gong Fu. When he comes into town, he always stays with my family and I and every time, it's a shock to my system and makes me realize that as much as I train now, I can always do more. From the time we get up until I go to sleep, he is practicing and teaching. His messages and emails are 90% from Gong Fu students and family and when we are going to sleep, he is just starting his evening practice. He calls it "Cracking the Scrolls" and I've learned a ton from seeing him do it. He will sit up late at night, watching video he took of his teachers and uncles in China and writing letters to martial family all over the world, just looking for any nuance or detail he can glean. They are all videos he took or was the practice partner for, don't ever get the idea he is just learning off video, he actually watches videos that he took before over and over again to remind himself of his teachers words and how he moves. It's truly incredible. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiOL4HpAwJFnHsVO74FDWOcePXcJCgqAVtCTKunaY-n2scMk08DdPhRjy5SlHHaNcbDy5Uqlnm2KKAVFxRCDZdGBxCp5ddPddwLo1qhyphenhyphenXMzLRd6y15BwiVSTyDEFTJFn7Z0xtT6AxTEEnE/s1600/Byron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiOL4HpAwJFnHsVO74FDWOcePXcJCgqAVtCTKunaY-n2scMk08DdPhRjy5SlHHaNcbDy5Uqlnm2KKAVFxRCDZdGBxCp5ddPddwLo1qhyphenhyphenXMzLRd6y15BwiVSTyDEFTJFn7Z0xtT6AxTEEnE/s320/Byron.jpg" width="320" /></a>Another friend, Byron Jacobs is very well known but many might not know what he has gone <br />
through to gain Gong Fu. He lived at a school when he was younger, bathed out of buckets so he wouldn't have to leave. When he found his teacher, he uprooted from South Africa to China to study with him, now living there full time just to be closer to the source of his art. He is so focused on traditional Gong Fu that he is helping to reshape the Wushu scene in China to bring it back to it's traditional roots instead of the fancy dance that it's become. That is truly obsession and it begs the question, would you do that for your art or teacher?<br />
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I'd like to invite a couple other teachers to tell a short part of their story to help illustrate this point.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg67sTfbftIByBGd7FkIIdbtP2lGL5wcmi3URpMNx2GflC8-ox9VPvSIiawAKTSOZq3CcwoXxoPDrCQYA7opc1fNnPpRA1VbM6TV2E3dUt2Fli28Gq2q8jcgc8YAEp5Y30A1E0PjhP0Osrj/s1600/Neil+Ripski.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg67sTfbftIByBGd7FkIIdbtP2lGL5wcmi3URpMNx2GflC8-ox9VPvSIiawAKTSOZq3CcwoXxoPDrCQYA7opc1fNnPpRA1VbM6TV2E3dUt2Fli28Gq2q8jcgc8YAEp5Y30A1E0PjhP0Osrj/s320/Neil+Ripski.jpg" width="320" /></a>Here is Sifu Neil Ripski on his experience- <br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have always thought that you could be rich in money or rich in time. It seemed to me that every moment I needed to spend making money at some job only brought me the bare minimum to live, made me miserable and constantly annoyed me that I had too little time to train. I tried to train at work but when I was manufacturing brackets for automotive running boards I kept getting weird looks and “talked to” about my odd behavior. How I moved around the shop, why I would keep bending things to shape with my hands instead of with the tools and so on. When the shop closed it was a blessing in disguise for me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Monomaniacal behavior seems to be the path on which many people in the martial arts make their most progress. I used to skip classes at school to go out and train forms and such. Over the past twenty years of my training I have been working very hard to make my livelihood integrate with my training and although I have had to make serious compromises in my life about money and what most would consider being “successful” I have never been happier than being able to spend more time on research and practice than on chasing cash. </span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-96eb3d78-7457-4883-4b3c-f09258ff8006"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It started with learning how to integrate training into everyday life, how I would open doors, stand when brushing my teeth and so on but it became all-encompassing over time as I realized that I could train subtle skills throughout my day. Making people on the street pass on my right or left helps with body positioning and controlling anothers unconscious movement. The ten years I spent in the mountains of British Columbia allowed me to help farm, chop wood and carry water to the animals. Living close to the land like the “masters of old” let me see more of what hardship is. Stopping working for other people has let me spend even more time on my training. Backpacking through Asia for months, crossing hands with people, training and observing with everyone I could and spending time in temples in meditation is what I always dreamed of as a kid. It has been worth it and the trip is certainly not over. </span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-96eb3d78-7457-4883-4b3c-f09258ff8006"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Martial arts are a metaphor for life and looking directly at reality and who we really are and how we fit into it. Becoming obsessed with martial arts is like becoming obsessed with trying to understand reality. It requires constant unending effort in order to work unraveling the most difficult of questions. Testing is the magic of martial arts practice. You cannot simply say you “are fully in the present moment” without being tested on it! There is very little lying one can do when the answer is simply you get hit or you don’t. Fear is the future, looking forward and dreading what is to come it is not real. A punch is only real when it is actually coming at you; to be anticipatory is to not be in the present moment and usually ends badly. Without constant obsessive work on the arts themselves they will never reveal anything but kicking and punching, the smallest benefits training can give you. </span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-96eb3d78-7457-4883-4b3c-f09258ff8006">I was very lucky to also have another teacher, Sifu Adam Mizner tell me about his life as well. Here are his words.</span><br />
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In the early years, rather than work to make a living and thus have little time to train my art, I practiced homelessness, training all day and sleeping in parks surviving off just a few pieces of fruit a day or the meal a friend would give me, I did this as a choice so as to allow me to spend all morning in meditation and practicing qigong and all afternoon and evening practicing kung fu. Later I did a similar thing living just under a mosquito net in the mountain forests of Thailand, bathing in waterfall and practicing all day and late into the night. I knew a local girl who would drop off some food for me each morning on a certain rock and I would go about my practice in solitude. Though I live and practice at a more leisurely pace these days, those years molded me and built foundational skills that serve me today. <br />
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Both of the Sifu's who were gracious enough to share their stories with me have an extreme level of focus and dedication to learning their art and it's truly rare to find people who train like this anymore. It's also one of the big reasons each of them has built such a large and devoted following, in my honest opinion. <br />
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Does this sound like the path you want to follow but are you confused as to how to start building your life around training so you don't burn out and instead become truly obsessed with your art? Let me share some of the things that did a lot to help me reach this level of obsession.<br />
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These things may sound silly, but they are recommended by many different business and life coaches and has helped millions of people around the world. First, start by writing down exactly what your goals for the martial arts are. It doesn't matter how over the top or far flung they are, just start writing. Do this in the morning as well as evening before you go to bed. You will find your goals change over time and what you really hope to accomplish will come to the surface. This is an everyday thing but it's vital, trust me when I tell you that this will focus you like few other things will and you will find your attention goes more towards your practice and reaching your goals than you did before.<br />
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The second thing I would suggest is filling up your day through scheduling. Oftentimes people don't realize how much time throughout the day is wasted with trivial things or things that aren't vital to their goals. Say you ride the bus to work and back everyday. What are you doing when you are waiting for the bus or while it's in transit? Are you studying your style manuals or class notes? Are you re-writing your notes in different ways? This is powerful because it makes you become creative with your understanding which in turns leads to new ideas for training. What do you listen to while you are cooking or showering/bathing? Are you listening to motivational talks or lectures about anatomy or training? When you are obsessed, you will be. When you schedule out your entire day, from waking up to going to sleep, you will see a hundred different opportunities to add more time to your training or researching. Over the course of the first few months, these two ideas together will bring about MASSIVE changes in your daily routines.<br />
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There are many different ways to shift your focus and create obsession but I would like to turn this over to a business coach and friend who has given me a ton of advice when I was re-structuring my daily life to focus on Gong Fu more. If that sounds strange to you, that you might need advice on how to train more, you are in for a shock. You have to build your routine and become acclimated to it otherwise you won't ever stick with it. Here is a great video he did on becoming obsessed.<br />
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Here is a follow up video whee he actually brings up a question I asked him (I'm the guy in the Northeast/Northwest). I asked him how to focus even harder on one thing without losing the ability to function with my other business or family.<br />
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The world needs more people who are obsessed with their chosen path in life. I think you can be one of them if you set your mind to it.<br />
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Jesse Conley teaches Gao Bagua, Xingyi, Taiji and Ma Tongbei in Vancouver, WA<br />
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at Stone Tiger Martial Arts<br />
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for any questions, please feel free to email him at Stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com<br />
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or check out the Facebook page here<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/StoneTigerXingyi/<br />
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Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-80474212336811501502017-06-04T12:40:00.001-07:002017-06-04T13:15:15.968-07:00Having lineage doesn't mean you can fight!Holy cow! I had a lot of awesome feedback on that article on lineage but my teachers and friends that I consulted all gave me the same prediction...... "You are going to have a lot of people misunderstand the article and try and argue about how lineage doesn't mean you can fight". And they were all exactly right. It didn't matter that Byron specifically addressed it in his comment, people still had to build a strawman just to have something to argue about.<br />
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So let's say it again here, just in case anyone missed it. Lineage is very important but it doesn't mean you can fight at all. Sun Lu Tang may have created an amazing martial art style but his daughter isn't know for beating people up, does that make sense?<br />
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Let me sum up the last blog in a different fashion, maybe this will resonate with people better, Lineage is proof of an unbroken line of teachers. These teacher each bring their own ideas and influences and that is how styles evolve and break off into different branches over time. To claim a lineage is to claim to have direct, un-hindered access to the sum knowledge of a select group of people. That's it, nothing more. For example, I claim the lineage of Gao Baguazhang that comes through Bi Tianzuo and his student Yang Yusen. That means my understanding of Gao Bagua is what was handed down from Gao Yisheng and Han Muxia to Wu Mengxia and Bi Motang. They taught Bi Tianzuo and he in turn taught Yang Yusen. To me, being part of this chain of amazing martial artists is a massive honor and I truly cherish being part of this group but in no way do I make the claim that I can fight as well as they do. It simply means I have been handed the tools that these great men have proven in real life are effective. <br />
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Lineage CAN however be influential in the skill that students have at fighting, though. Don't misunderstand and think they aren't connected at all. In some ways, lineage greatly increases the chances that a student will be a skilled fighter but in no way is a guarantee.<br />
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The way this works is that teachers who receive excellent combat training from their teachers (lineage) are more able to pass on what works and what doesn't to their students, whereas the teachers with no lineage first have to log massive hours of sparring and actual fighting to find out what works and doesn't work from their art. If a teacher creates an art but can't prove they have pressure tested it should be a red flag for most potential students. <br />
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That may be too ethereal for some so let's break it down a different way. Having lineage means you have access to more tools than someone who just learns off video or creates their own style. For example, many people know the Gao Bagua palm changes but it's VERY rare that someone knows all the Hou Tian or the Animals. These are techniques/tools that lineage Gao people have access to that give them more options during a confrontation. If they train hard and are able to use them on the fly is another matter entirely but they do start with a distinct advantage. The tool analogy is good, I was having a conversation with Sifu Jason VanWinkle from Wei Yong Martial Arts about this post and he made the analogy of working on cars. <br />
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Most people start with basic tools like hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, etc. (Hands, feet, head, elbows, etc). People without lineage or who are creating their own art have to teach themselves to be proficient with the basic tools, what is used for which task, proper usage of the tools or what will damage the tools. People with lineage have a leg up here as they already have a teacher who can give them the quick run-down on these ideas. Lets use a martial example here. Say a non lineage person is learning how to punch from watching others. He has to figure out how to throw the punch from his core, where his elbows should be, the right way to hold his hand and how to line up his wrist. We have seen LOTS of examples where teachers who don't have a lineage are demonstrating and they are doing some wacky things. This is a result of the teacher having an idea but not testing it first to see if it's true. (Side note, this applies to that Taiji vs. MMA fight that just happened. The teacher had an idea and didn't test it to see if it was true and got beat up for it.). People with lineage should have a teacher that teaches them the proper mechanics from the beginning so they are already ahead of the curve in this respect.<br />
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While the non lineage person is still struggling to figure out the basics on their own, the lineage person SHOULD be moving past that point. They should be learning more intermediate or advanced concepts, things that will take many years for the person who is making up their own art to even start to comprehend. This is akin to the lineage student having access to more advanced tools like electric drills and table saws where as the non lineage guy is trying to figure out if a screwdriver would work attached to the head of a hammer. That may sound absurd but we all know there are a few teachers out there trying to pass off a screw-hammer as a viable tool. LOL<br />
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Teachers with no lineage don't have the luxury of having the tools handed to them with instruction, they have to personally use each move/tool hundreds of times after they create it in real life to honestly say that they KNOW it works. Each concept and idea has to be rigorously tested in real fights to know if it is functional. And let's be honest here, 99.99% of the time teachers who create their own arts aren't using their arts with any regularity so how can they promise their students that the art works well enough to ensure their safety?<br />
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I think this presents a fairly solid argument that having lineage does give you a leg up and should by all means indicate you have a better ability to fight. Whether someone follows through with that or not is another issue and truly not related to lineage, it's more related to if they have the heart for it or just want to rest on their laurels. <br />
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I invited Shifu Matthew Staley, a martial cousin in Gao Bagua, to add his thoughts to this.<br />
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f86cff6b-7487-7a8c-16dd-eac670c3678e"></span><br /></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #eeeeee; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Conley Shifu said, lineage gives you access to better, more refined tools. This is a double edged sword though. I originally started my martial career in Pai Lum, a system with a very obscure lineage once you get past the Grandmaster Daniel K Pai, but in its prime produced a lot of rough neck fighters. In my early 20's I transitioned to my internal master and gained a lot of depth with a classical lineage. That being said, because of the time frame I spent under my internal master we didn't spend a lot of time on application or fighting. This was because I had a very good rough background in Pai Lum so I was comfortable bridging and throwing hands. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #eeeeee; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Both my internal and external masters were good at fighting and I received a lot of insight from them both, but we still threw hands frequently although less so in my internal training. The risk with lineage is you assume that because you belong to this tradition you have gained the abilities of your ancestors, which is blatantly untrue. Those known for fighting prowess were thugs and roughnecks to some degree, they were unafraid to cross arms. Modern people capitalize on that and believe because they are from a lineage of fighters that they too are a fighter. You get out of the training what you put in, if you don't ever play drills with someone actively trying to hit you, with no sense of reality or active engagement it doesn't matter how great your lineage is. If your lineage is good those drills can get more and more refined assuming your teacher kept the effort up. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #eeeeee; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Case in point I had a senior student that talked about how superior internal was over every other art, but refused to train application or fighting because he was afraid to be hurt. He still assumed he'd be amazing because he trained the internal arts. He had access to a good lineage but never put the effort in. Meanwhile some of my younger siblings in Pai could have murdered him with because they focused on fighting a lot and were not afraid to mix it up. In the end lineage can and will make you better especially if you view it as something you have to uphold and live up to. If you just want to ride it's coattails into history you are no better than any other hack or charlatan teaching no touch knockouts.</span></div>
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I think it's perfectly clear now how people with real lineage view the concept of lineage. No real person who has a lineage is claiming to be the worlds deadliest fighter or that their art is superior to any others. In fact, lineage holders are extremely cautious with their claims to greatness because if they are lying, their family bears the brunt of the shame. </div>
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I would like to leave you with one final thought that I have seen is very true over the years and if you pay attention, will more than likely become apparent to you as well. The people who make the case that people with lineage are automatically claiming to be fighters are more often than not people without lineage. Often it's a strawman argument, created by people who don't have any martial family as a way of lashing out against others when they find themselves backed into a corner and frequently from the same people who complain about how lineage people are mean when they criticize fake teachers for making up their arts. I believe if you consider it, you will see the connections clearly. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Jesse Conley is an instructor who owns Stone Tiger Martial Arts</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">in Vancouver, WA. He teaches traditional Chinese Kung fu, focusing on </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Gao Bagua, Xingyi and Taiji, with Ma Tongbei also offered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">For more information, please check out our website https://sites.google.com/site/pdxkungfu/home</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">or email him at stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com</span></div>
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<br />Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-30471238242811628652017-05-25T12:38:00.000-07:002017-05-25T12:45:53.121-07:00What's your 'Why'?<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"If you don't find your Why, you won't ever find your How"</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>-Grant Cardone</i></b></span></div>
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Why do you train? What is it that compels you to spend 10-15 hours a week, at least, waving your hands around, getting all sweaty and performing the same move 10,000 times? I mean, that's a lot of damn work, so do you have a real reason WHY you do it? </div>
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Instead of just asking a ton of empty questions and expecting you to answer, let me share my story and how my 'Why' has changed over time. If any of it mirrors your experiences, great! If not, maybe it will help you figure out your own, personal 'Why'.</div>
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I started martial arts in 1999 after I got back from the Junior Wrestling Nationals. I trained under some good and some bad teachers until 2007 when I got hurt at work. When I say I got hurt, I mean I REALLY got hurt. I took a fall off a roof and went through some glass patio furniture before going splat on the patio. Long story short, I mangled my body with that one and it took literally years to rehab from all of it. At the end of it, I hadn't started training again but was at the lowest point of my life. I lost my marriage, my kids and wound up couch surfing because my spirit as well as my body was broken. A total and complete mess. The reason why I trained at the time I got hurt wasn't enough to carry me through an injury, a sure sign that I was focused on the wrong things.</div>
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I was in constant pain but for some reason, I never thought to push past the pain and start training again until 2009. I had told people for years about the health benefits of the arts but since I was lacking my reason for pushing myself, my Why, I didn't have the guts to start all over again.</div>
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One day, I was feeling particularly miserable and was trying to stretch on the floor when I started to remember my old training and how good I felt afterwards. I hopped up and started to just move through full ranges of motion with some Qigong and while it wasn't comfortable at first, afterwards I felt totally loose and slept like a baby. I had found my Why for the time, to stay out of pain.</div>
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This works great until you realize that a limited reason like pain relief doesn't give much reason to advance or learn new material, you just repeat what made you feel good over and over.</div>
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Over time, I started to miss the strength I had in the past, so I started pushing myself even more. This was about the time I found Gao Bagua and it was a perfect vehicle to build my strength back up. Gao practice, combined with my desire to get stronger, started to change my why of pain relief to a why for strength and control of my life. </div>
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Now that why is very powerful. It has an open ended goal of growing in strength, meaning there is no real end in sight. Once you become stronger, you will ALWAYS want to increase that strength even more. It was a perfect way to push past the doldrums of sedentary life and was a thrill to watch my power come back more and more each week.</div>
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Let's take a step back here and look at how the reasons changed and this changed how I approached training. First I just started by wanting to be comfortable, so my training was basically stretching and breathing. Like I mentioned earlier though, just wanting to be comfortable is a quick way to become lazy and not progress in training, the goal is attainable even after a few practices. When my why morphed into becoming stronger, it started to get me back on the old path where I was constantly pushing myself to improve, the feeling of becoming stronger is incredibly addictive and a great motivator to get up every day and train. </div>
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You will notice that I haven't listed self defense as a reason why, unlike a lot of people that come into martial arts. I didn't think about it much at the time but I am very glad I didn't use that reasoning. Running to a school to learn how to fight an enemy that may or may not show up someday is purely motivated by fear and I have rarely seen people who start with that motivation last, unless their reason why changes. The self defense reasoning is rooted in fear and unless the student grows, that fear either starts to turn into paranoia (there are a few martial arts out there that train to this level, where it starts to affect normal interactions, ie Silat) or the students becomes comfortable with their body, the fear fading over time and the student looses their reason to show up to class.</div>
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Back to my story now. Years passed and I became deeply in love with Gao Bagua. When I say deeply in love, I honestly mean obsessed. It's actually a joke for a few of my students, they give me a hard time when I haven't watched a movie in months or have no idea what is going on in the world (I look at them and think they are just as strange for caring about something other than Gong Fu, BTW). Here is an example to illustrate how single minded I have become. Last night at class, a married couple that trains with me were sharing a story about how she was working on solid sticking connection while they were sitting at a stoplight. I gave her a high five for taking every spare minute to train and they both exploded with laughter. Apparently, when he was protesting about her fighting in the car, her response was "Jesse would give me a high five for extra training". Apparently I have become so focused that people can now predict my responses to their stories. <br />
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My why started changing again as my passion for my art grew. I still want to get stronger but I started to realize that the path there meant I had to really dive into the mechanics of Bagua and develop traits I hadn't focused on before. Interestingly, at this time, I started to back away from a lot of online martial arts forums on the advice of good friends and teachers because I couldn't see why I was typing online instead of walking in circles. This is a result of my why becoming more focused and I'm started to weed out non essential things that weren't helping me train.</div>
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I also felt for a time that my why was learning all the material that my teacher has to share. This is a good goal but can't be singular. It's very easy to get lazy and just try to memorize a bunch of techniques just so you can say you 'Completed' the art. If your motivation is to just gain information and not embody it, it's very easy to go down the road of a form collector or style collector. Just bear that in mind.</div>
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Fast forward to now. I've gained a place in my Gao family with a lineage name and my teacher told my training brother and I that he considered us his tudi when we went to China this winter. I have been able to use the dedication and body skills I learned in Gao to re-open my studies of Xingyi as well. I use my arts every weekend as a bouncer at a roadhouse and I have really amazing students that I can share what I learn with. But still, none of these are the reason I still train. If you think about it, none of them are forever reasons to devote my life to something. Each one of those reasons can or will fail someday so I can't base my life around them. </div>
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So what's my why? It's hard to put into words now. I've been all over the spectrum, from liking the aggression of the arts to healing myself and becoming stronger. My why was learning the whole art, it was becoming a tudi and even owning a school again. But once I got to those points, I realized that they weren't enough of a reason to give the rest of my life to an art that most of the world will never know about. </div>
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My why has changed so much over the years that sometimes, when I'm sitting outside at the end of the day thinking about life, I can't verbalize my why anymore. I've just started to realize that it's who I am now and that is the most powerful 'Why' anyone can ever find and it's a sure sign that when I'm training or teaching, I'm being my most authentic self and no small coincidence, I am also at my happiest. Many people may say that is their Why but they won't admit to having their reasoning change over time. Every teacher has met a ton of people who claim that although they have never trained before, they just KNOW they are going to be black belts in the future. I have never met a person who started like this and actually stuck to it, without changing their why. In other words, unless you have explored every other reason why you train, you can't be sure that it's truly who you are.</div>
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Don't take this article as my boasting, I don't mean it that way. This topic is rarely brought up in martial arts and truly explored so I needed to write about it but felt hypocritical for just castigating others so I chose to share part of my story to put some of my own skin in the game.</div>
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What is your 'Why'? What has it been in the past? Have you spent time thinking about why you do this? I can promise you that if you don't figure out what your deep motivation is, your journey in martial arts will end faster than you realize. </div>
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Here is a great video talking about finding your own why. Simon wrote a book about it and I highly recommend it to others. I would love for anyone who enjoyed this article to share their 'Why' as well. The next article will be a follow up of this and the previous article and be focused on how to create obsession with your art to push you to the highest levels of skill. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Jesse Conley is the owner of Stone Tiger Martial Arts in Vancouver, WA</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">For more information, questions or to visit the school and take a class, please email</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com</span></div>
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Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-19122411389210534702017-05-19T19:55:00.003-07:002017-05-25T12:45:36.596-07:00You're a Gong Fu man, huh?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtD1kgXeg97Dh84rnz7fq2qNZJe3lp-k77T-Ed46kBkj0s1e0hcmP4UazC6ha2KR38psDL1daDMtsvtNqlC2pPgdv4vMlcaXZgkeIyFVzCKIFN_qZ-XbouY6Py2KZKJW8MdwVFOMvlOwK1/s1600/Training.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtD1kgXeg97Dh84rnz7fq2qNZJe3lp-k77T-Ed46kBkj0s1e0hcmP4UazC6ha2KR38psDL1daDMtsvtNqlC2pPgdv4vMlcaXZgkeIyFVzCKIFN_qZ-XbouY6Py2KZKJW8MdwVFOMvlOwK1/s400/Training.jpg" width="237" /></a>My mother recently told me about a situation that really disturbed her and made her worry about the future. <br />
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My parents went for a walk on the Kalama, WA riverfront, it's a beautiful stroll and has lots of great places to relax and enjoy the view. It was a beautiful spring eventing and as they walked they passed a playground the city spent taxpayers money to build and only saw one family there, ONE FAMILY! A beautiful evening and only one family came outside to play.<br />
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Later that night, on their way home, they stopped by the new Ilani casino in La Center to see what the fuss was about (They don't gamble but wanted to see what just moved into their town). It's a reservation casino so there was the usual fanfare and everyone in town has been bombarded with advertising about the grand opening. <br />
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What they saw truly disturbed my mother and anyone who knows her understands that it takes A LOT to bother her deeply. She had a very rough life growing up, served in the military and worst of all, raised my brother and I for 19 years each Anyone who knows me or my brother knows that she deserves combat pay and some medals for that, maybe even her own holiday. <br />
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What they saw was a huge building crammed full of people, all taken in by the spell that casinos strive to cast, a timeless zone filled with lights, colors and sounds all mixed with alcohol specifically designed to keep gamblers going until they are spent. When I was younger, I worked as a casino guard and even saw players pass out at the Pai Gow table after marathon stints. They seriously just fell from their chairs and had to get taken by ambulance to get checked out since they were incoherent after such a long time focused on gambling.<br />
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My parents saw huge lines of parents waiting for the ATM, then running straight to the tables or slots and sitting there, mesmerized. These people were so entranced that they even brought their children to check out the new casino. These children were sitting at restaurant tables or in strollers, plugged into whatever mobile device their parents shoved into their hands so the parents could gamble without those pesky kids getting in the way.<br />
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When we were talking about what they saw, we started on a discussion of how the next big issue in society may come from parents choosing which social class their children belong to. The parents who take their children to the park on a spring evening stand a good chance to read with their children and encourage them to study for themselves. These parents are more likely to emphasize physical health with their children and undoubtedly spend more focused, quality time with their children than the parents that only pacify their kids with entertainment.<br />
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I was relaying this to some martial arts friends and I had a realization. This problem isn't just about kids going to the park or being online, it's VERY evident in a similar manner with people who call themselves 'martial artists'.<br />
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Think about it for a second. Spending some time online or with entertainment these days is normal but how much time are you giving to mindless enjoyment and how much to training? When do you train? And please, don't give me the whole "I train all day every day". Most of the time that is just an excuse for people to get out of the hard parts of training. They think that picking the coffee pot up with proper shoulder alignment is training instead of just how they should always move. So how much do you ACTUALLY train each day? Have you ever actually written down how many circles you walk or how many lines of the elements you do? How many times do you practice Pi Chuan each day? And I mean how many times EXACTLY? Do you keep a training log where you detail your practices and keep track of your progress, the same as any other serious athlete?<br />
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That is only one aspect to this. What do you do when you aren't training? What do you do when you are watching TV or cooking or cleaning to add to your sets and reps for the day? I like the term sets and reps, I know a lot of traditional martial artists may not jive with that but before I was a Gong Fu guy, I was a wrestler and lifter and that is how I learned to measure training progress. It just stuck over time. <br />
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Some people may think that I am using those questions to set up an "I'm better than you" argument but that couldn't be father from the truth. I want to ask these questions of everyone to get them to think exactly how they spend their time. Time management experts have long said that we really don't know how much of our day that we waste with idleness and often, their best advice is to find all the times throughout the day that you aren't truly doing anything but just being idle. So my question to you all is, what are you doing with all the time you are wasting by accident? Again, this is not to castigate anyone but to get you to ask YOURSELF, are you truly as dedicated as you would like to be?<br />
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This is a question I had to ask myself a year or so ago and I realized I wasn't training nearly enough to really call myself a Gong Fu man. I was putting in the time teaching and certainly did a good hour or so of training on top of that everyday but I had allowed myself to play to the certainly true but still bitch ass excuse of my injuries acting up. I let myself slip into the delusion that since I was crippled in the past, that I couldn't push myself to my full limits or I would be too sore to teach my group properly. I know, it sounds silly when I write it out but I think everyone here has given themselves similar excuses in the past. So I made some drastic changes that I know most other people might find some use in and wanted to share them here.<br />
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When I get up in the morning, I start doing a light practice that is focused on waking me up, getting lots of oxygen going and just waking up my nervous system. It's usually stretching and some Qigong and a little Taiji. The stretching is focused on getting my body open after 8 hours of sleep, it adds a huge boost to my morning. This sounds common sense but how many of you actually do it everyday or at least five out of seven days consistently?<br />
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When I still worked a day job, I would take my 15 minute breaks and go do some light Tian Gan. Just enough to make me breath a little heavy and get my blood going but not enough to come back in soaking wet. Lunch time was taken to start some light circle walking or elements, again I was limited to not being sweaty when I came back in. I ate at my desk after lunch while I was working to free up that time. Last break was the same as the first but I pushed myself a little bit harder to really loosen up for practice right after work.<br />
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I own a school literally next door to my old job so the first thing I did was clock out and go straight next door. I got into deeper stretching to work out any stiffness from earlier training and then got down to a solid hour or so until students showed up. I taught my classes immediately after and then headed home after that to shower and eat with the family. <br />
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Again, I don't say this to brag but on an average day, I was up to around 3 hours of training and teaching whereas a lot of people wouldn't have started yet. It's not because I'm amazing, it's because I searched out every minute I could that was could be used for training.<br />
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When I got home though, that was when the creative time management was needed to squeeze in more time. If you are cooking a meal for your family, what are you doing while water is boiling or things are in the oven? I had to guard the stove against baby invasions so I started doing post stance in the doorway to the kitchen. My reasoning is that I take up most of the doorway and if my 3 year old could push past me, it was a sign I needed a better root. LOL<br />
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After dinner, we usually let the babies watch a bit of television before we read to them (I know, I started this by bashing parents for plugging their kids in, the irony isn't lost on me). Usually not much more than 30 minutes, but guess what can be done in 30 minutes of child free time? That's right, a bunch of reps of something!<br />
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After reading is time for more training, mostly a cool down and completely relaxing workout to just chill out and prep for bed, again, mostly Qigong and breathing or meditation.<br />
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Please understand, this wasn't always how it is, this is what my training has morphed into since I came back from China recently and spoke to a couple people about what I felt was lacking in my training. Since then, I quit my job so I had to re-program some of my days training but I didn't think most people would relate to that, so I left in the part about my day job as something people can relate to.<br />
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Again, please don't take this as me boasting, I am sharing what works for me. I am, however, always interested in what other people do to squeeze more training time in or how you structure your days to maximize the amount of time you are able to train each day. Please feel free to share your methods, I'm sure many people could learn from your ideas!<br />
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<i><b>If you like this line of thinking but are stuck with how to make these changes in your life, here is a good thought that might help. I think one of the best ways to fix things if you don't like the answer you give yourself is this. Find your 'Why'. Find your reason for training and when you hone in on it, you will find ways to squeeze in more training when you get laser sharp on your reasons for training. My next blog post will be about how to find that 'Why' and how to become obsessed with making martial arts part of your everyday life!</b></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Jesse Conley is an internal arts instructor in Vancouver, WA with Stone Tiger Martial Arts. For any questions about classes or training, please feel free to send an email to stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com and one of us will get back to you as quickly as possible.</span></div>
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<br />Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-48498600439061120172017-04-13T11:25:00.000-07:002017-05-25T12:46:04.488-07:00Lineage Snobs!!!<div class="gmail_extra" dir="auto" style="background-color: white;">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">We all know a guy like this. He spends his day on the internet telling and re-telling stories about how his martial ancestors were the toughest fighters in the world. We hear a bunch of stories about the ancestors and they all seem to imply or outright assert that their awesomeness gives the lineage snob the right to talk trash about other arts. These guys are universally despised and, as a general rule, suck at martial arts. Too much time on the keyboard and not enough training. But what if we understood that, while those guys suck, the need for lineage is real and can provide fantastic yardstick to gauge a school or martial artist?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">There are going to be 2 basic responses to that statement. The first usually comes from people who have created their own arts or know that their teachers weren't totally legit. Their response goes something like, "All you do is talk about lineage! Why are you judging me?? Bruce Lee said to follow your own path!!" Etc. The other response is "I told you so!!!" and is almost as obnoxious as the first. This response usually comes from the lineage snobs I mentioned before and, remember, we all hate those guys. But both of those people are wrong and both know it deep down inside.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Lineage in martial arts has existed for a thousand years for very good reasons. It's a solid gauge of the effectiveness of the art itself and also proof that there is a complete method for teaching and transmitting the art. Effectiveness in usage and proof that the method can produce a strong next generation are vital, obviously and those are two really powerful reasons to care about lineage and they are also more laid back than a lot of people realize. Let's use medical care as a simile here. If you had a terrible disease and you had to pick a doctor for </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">treatment, would you care where that doctor's education came from? If your options were a Harvard graduate who has done extensive post-grad education in an effort to be on the forefront of medicine, or someone who took some courses at the community college and then spent some time surfing WebMD, which would you pick? More than likely, you would pick the doctor most prepared and able to save your life. He would know the latest treatments and the best medicines to use. A doctor that provides a cure for disease is in some ways similar to a martial arts teacher who provides a way for you to protect yourself and your family - you want to choose the best, either way (well, if you have any common sense that is).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Why is the Harvard doctor the wiser choice? It has to do with his knowledge, the work he put in to gain that knowledge, and his ability to apply that knowledge to saving your life. To obtain that piece of paper on his wall, doctors who graduate from Harvard have to complete years of incredibly intense education, a program that is so tough that only 3.3% of applicants are even accepted. Graduates go through long, sleepless nights where they work alone or with their classmates trying to understand important ideas and learn how to apply them. They make massive sacrifices, both in time and money, and understand that they will be responsible for other lives as a result of earning their degree. This makes the guy that took a few classes at community college and surfed WebMD look like a ridiculous choice. His education is directed by what disease catches his eye, not a master instructor who has spent years honing his ability to communicate important ideas and practices. Because of this lack of focused instruction he is often unable to help at all, he just doesn't have the basic tools needed to begin. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Let's use another example from the internal martial arts to see if we can clarify even further. Everyone who has read any sort of IMA text knows about the Kua, right? The Kua is also called the inguinal crease, the section of the torso between the lower abdomen and the thigh. All IMA teachers talk about the Kua but the self-taught teachers don't know that they show their lack of knowledge as they do. Teachers without a good lineage will talk about how it's the source of power in Gong Fu but can't explain how or why it works, or even what muscles are involved in using the Kua. Meanwhile, properly taught teachers can explain exactly how the kua works and why. They know that the muscles that run through the Kua tie directly to the lower spine and pelvis, providing a strong path for force generated from the core to travel to the ground and back. They can also provide a plethora of smaller exercises to develop this area and can easily explain the concept without using a slew of esoteric terms that the student doesn't understand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">I could go on and on with different examples of how lineage provides a great indicator of the quality of both the art and the teacher but, instead, I would like to provide some thoughts or ideas from other teachers. Here is what Byron Jacobs has to share, Byron is the top tudi for Master Di Guoyong in Beijing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><b><i>"The name of any style of martial art is in fact referring to a lineage. That art cannot exist or be transmitted in any way without a lineage. If someone is saying that their art is, for example, Xingyi, but has no link from the teaching line to an official lineage, and I mean officially, then it simply should not be called Xingyi. the name is referring to a system and set of principles someone or some line has created and handed down. It literally refers to a lineage. Xingyi is what came from Li Luoneng and if it didn't come through him and his descendants, how can someone be sure that it is Xingyi apart from external appearances? To assume that it is Xingyi without the link to the lineage is insulting, and deliberately misleading to people. Of course, one needs to remember not all people in a lineage are the same level of skill, or as deep or good teachers, so lineage isn't an automatic way to get skill just like not all doctors with a degree are the same level of expertise or as good. That takes practice, study, and I hate to say it, a degree of natural ability, both physically and mentally." </i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">That is a fantastic quote and should cause everyone reading it to think long and hard about where they stand or how they are presenting themselves. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">I would like to close with a quote from Voltaire that shows how people with a good lineage view this entire discussion. "Cherish those who seek the truth, beware of those who find it." A martial artist from a solid lineage knows where they stand. We know our place in our families and are willing to humble ourselves in front of another human to learn and develop ourselves more. We show respect to the ancestors because they have illuminated the path for us and have left us guidance to reach the same peaks they did. The person who creates their own style or isn't honest about their art is claiming to have found a final truth. They declare to the world "I don't need a teacher, I already know all there is to know. In fact, I know so much that I can wing it from here" Their methods and thinking are a dead end for any that follow them. Consider that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>Jesse Conley is an Internal Martial Arts teacher in Vancouver, WA. His school is called Stone Tiger Martial Arts and you can reach him with any questions about classes, this blog or questions in general at stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com </b></i></span></div>
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Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-66557191738587639662016-08-24T07:58:00.002-07:002017-05-25T12:46:51.817-07:00Learn Taiji to increase your striking power!<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">
I know, I know, that sounds silly since most Tai Chi classes are aimed towards your grandmother not fighters. Tai Chi first began as a potent martial art but 90% of Tai Chi practitioners today couldn't punch their way out of a wet paper bag. So what is missing that originally made Tai Chi a brutal combat art?<a data-mce-href="http://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/article-2098643-11A65347000005DC-873_468x347.jpg" href="http://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/article-2098643-11A65347000005DC-873_468x347.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-611"><img alt="article-2098643-11A65347000005DC-873_468x347" class="size-medium wp-image-611 alignright" data-mce-src="http://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/article-2098643-11A65347000005DC-873_468x347-300x222.jpg" height="222" src="https://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/article-2098643-11A65347000005DC-873_468x347-300x222.jpg" style="float: right; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 1em; max-width: 100%;" width="300" /></a></div>
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Well, it's not relaxation because that's all the most Tai Chi people talk about these days and they don't have the skills that the older generation had and it's also not moving slow because that has become almost a competition between modern Tai Chi people of who can move the slowest and the slowest movers aren't turning into the best fighters.</div>
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So what is it and how can you bring it into your training?</div>
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The answer is the complete opposite of what people naturally think of when they think about striking harder. It has nothing to do with adding more flex to your muscles but instead, it's about coiling the body like a spring and relying on your connective tissues like the fascia, tendons, ligaments and aponeuroses to store energy by wrapping and twisting them and allowing them to snap back with a massive amount of force.</div>
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This sounds strange to a lot of people but if we start looking into the function of these connective tissues, we see they possess very interesting qualities. When 'aponeuroses' is looked up in Wikipedia, this is what we see under their function "Like <a data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendon" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendon" title="Tendon">tendons</a>, aponeuroses attached to pennate muscles can be stretched by the forces of muscular contraction, absorbing energy like a spring and returning it when they recoil to unloaded conditions". The tendon systems are very similar, for a really fascinating read c<a data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendon" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendon" target="_blank">lick here</a>.</div>
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The article I referenced there also mentions how tendons can grow or atrophy depending on usage. In the so-called 'Internal' martial arts, there is a massive emphasis on stretching and twisting the connective tissues (by stretching I don't mean to the extent that damage is caused but stretching in the same way yoga or other movement arts would). Just like bones and muscles, the connective tissues can and will develop rather quickly, some estimates placing the remodeling stage at <a data-mce-href="https://www.quora.com/Do-tendons-and-ligaments-joints-get-stronger-with-weight-training" href="https://www.quora.com/Do-tendons-and-ligaments-joints-get-stronger-with-weight-training">10-12 weeks</a>. <a data-mce-href="http://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/xing-yi-quan.jpg" href="http://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/xing-yi-quan.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-616"><img alt="xing-yi-quan" class="size-medium wp-image-616 alignright" data-mce-src="http://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/xing-yi-quan-212x300.jpg" height="300" src="https://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/xing-yi-quan-212x300.jpg" style="float: right; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 1em; max-width: 100%;" width="212" /></a></div>
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The image to the right is an example of great posture for stretching and developing connective tissue and comes from a sister art to Tai Chi, a style called Xingyi. Notice how the head is lifted, the back is straight and the shoulders down and forward. This type of posture is excellent for stretching all the tissues of the back and developing them.</div>
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When we start to understand what is being developed and how the mechanics work, we start to get a very clear picture of exactly WHY the postures are explained the way they are. Flattening the lower back makes perfect sense when we see that the aponeuroses in the lower back engages in the posture and transmits the force from the lower body to the upper very efficiently, similar to how a transmission works in a car, sending power from the engine to the wheels.</div>
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<a data-mce-href="http://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Wu-Meng-Xia.jpg" href="http://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Wu-Meng-Xia.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-617"><img alt="Wu Meng Xia" class="size-full wp-image-617 alignleft" data-mce-src="http://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Wu-Meng-Xia.jpg" height="114" src="https://warriorclassapparel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Wu-Meng-Xia.jpg" style="float: left; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 0px; max-width: 100%;" width="100" /></a></div>
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With this understanding, it's very easy to see how to start working with this concept. You start by relaxing, twisting and stretching until your body feels like a giant rubber band stretched to it's limits then allow the soft tissues to unwind with their natural explosive snapping power. The easiest example is to reach your right hand across to the left side, sink into the left hip and stretch and twist without losing your structure. Then once you get the feeling of a giant rubber band stretching across your back, from left hip to right hand, release the stretch and you will whip out of that position and unwind very quickly and with power. You will be amazed how little effort is required to create a large amount of force and the more you train this way, the faster and more explosive you will become without having to rely on large muscle groups to power your movements.</div>
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For more information on training these methods or to stay up to date o n the latest news and articles, follow us on Facebook <a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/StoneTigerXingyi/" href="https://www.facebook.com/StoneTigerXingyi/" target="_blank">HERE</a> or feel free to email us with questions at stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com</div>
Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-79413627042922742582013-11-10T18:27:00.001-08:002016-08-24T08:04:52.627-07:00Releasing power by Mr. Bi Tianzuo"The research of Bagua Zhang's power releasing<br />
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Bi Tianzuo<br />
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March 7 2012 in BeiJing<br />
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<br />
We know in martial art, good or bad of any technique should be judged<br />
by the result of the attack. That mostly depends on how much of the<br />
force releasing. How to get the maximum force out, depends on the<br />
method of releasing and knowing where to pay attention to (while<br />
emitting the force).<br />
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In physic: F=ma, it's the power equals mass times acceleration. In<br />
most cases people gain power from the acceleration, to get more power,<br />
then need more speed, need more speed in turn need more acceleration.<br />
Which results usually people need to bring the fist back, then punch<br />
out with acceleration. But this has its limits in the applications.<br />
For example at the clinching, you wouldn't have much chance to bring<br />
your fist back, once you did, you opponent's attack would arrive. So<br />
how to release the power effectively will be a question.<br />
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Bagua zhang also be called Chan Zhang(winding or sticking palm), so<br />
the more (you and your opponent) sticking or clinching together, the<br />
easier to use its advantage. This because you can use the character of<br />
Bagua Zhang power releasing.<br />
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We mentioned F=ma, in Bagua Zhang the mass(m) get more attention,<br />
bigger the mass, more power will be get. So one need to active the<br />
most of body mass to generate power. Generally the average body weight<br />
of people be greater than 50 kg, if one can use most of that weight<br />
and get the power to the hand, the power will be much greater than by<br />
just using the hand or arm alone( with the same acceleration). Then<br />
the question is how to get the most of the body weight behind the<br />
attacking hand? Generally speaking, power start from the leg, through<br />
the waist to the hand, then landed on the weak parts of the opponent's<br />
body, like the rib or the chest etc. you can put your hands directly<br />
on your opponent's body without any clearance, then push the power<br />
from the feet, body should be a solid structure without any loose, to<br />
transfer the power to the hand without any lose, then land the power<br />
on your opponent's body. The penetrating power is very strong, even<br />
with pads, it still can hurt the internal organs without obvious<br />
wounds. If the power releasing is hard enough, it will even break the<br />
ribs. By using this method, you won't need to bring back the hand( to<br />
wind up), but release the power directly. So it will seems very fast<br />
to your opponent, also it can be one attack after another to make him<br />
doesn't have chance to fight back. Like the Kai palm, Peng palm, Dun<br />
palm etc. in Bagua Zhang,they all use the Knocking as the last strike.<br />
We know this kind of movements not be seen very often in our daily<br />
life, people get used to move by individual part of the body, like<br />
using the hand to pick up an object, using the foot to kick the ball<br />
etc. But rarely see a person move by the whole body, one part move<br />
with whole body move. So in order to release this kind of power, one<br />
has to train to get the habit to move this way. Also has to stick to<br />
the basic requirements for the body postures of internal martial art.<br />
It's to pull up the head and neck, sink the shoulders and elbows,<br />
hollow the chest and round up the back,tight up the anus and stick out<br />
the belly, sink the Qi to Dantian, to make the body a solid piece<br />
during the strike. But have to be solid instead of rigid, have to get<br />
the 6 harmonies for the technique. This is the key to this kind of<br />
strike of Bagua, so a lot of attentions have to be paid. In this Bagua<br />
system, the "pre heaven" and "post heaven" as two parts of the system<br />
have been intentionally arranged. The reason of needing a long time of<br />
Pre heaven training is laying on this. There are 10 movements in total<br />
for the pre heaven, they are: Single palm change, 4 animal shaped<br />
changes, 4 body changes plus 5 dragons wave tails. The core practice<br />
of this is to walk the Deng and Tang steps correctly, all the<br />
movements involve the Deng Tang steps. It will build a foundation for<br />
the power releasing and the 64 palms, 8 sticky palms of the post<br />
heaven by training this 10 movements thoroughly. The Bagua Zhang is a<br />
complete martial art system, the design of the system is rather<br />
scientific and logic, it is worth to be reserved and further<br />
developed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
There's another power releasing method in Bagua called whipping power.<br />
It's in like Jie palm,Tiao Palm,Diao palm etc. In Jie palm, The fist<br />
instead of palm is used. In Tiao and Diao palm, the palm is used.<br />
These changes coordinate to different striking methods. The reason of<br />
why the palm is usually used in Bagua is, by using the palm, one can<br />
avoid to use the fist as a connecting point, the power can be released<br />
directly through the hand heel. Without going through the wrist, it<br />
will reduce the power lose, be more stable and easier to emit. But the<br />
Jie palm is a side way whipping, so the palm is not being used.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
For the so called whipping power, the arm and hand need to be relaxed<br />
to maximum, should be as soft as noodles, and then whip out. The<br />
principle of this striking method is to change the energy into force.<br />
We know the relationship between the (elastic energy ) and Work is<br />
W=Eep2-Eep1, the difference of the elastic potential energy changes<br />
into Work. When we practice the Jie palm, if using the right fist, we<br />
need to turn the body left to compress the body to get the elastic<br />
potential energy. Then quickly relax the body and turn right to whip<br />
out the right fist. In order to get bigger elastic potential energy,<br />
one has to compress the body tightly; the left side of the body<br />
doesn't turn much, but use power to press the right part of the body<br />
to your left. The harder the pressing, the bigger the elastic<br />
potential energy can be get. By releasing the part of the elastic<br />
potential energy, the W(work) can be achieved. Then how to get bigger<br />
striking force? We know Work equals Force(F) times distance<br />
traveled(S). W=FS, so the force F=W/S. In order to get bigger striking<br />
force, if the work was the same, shorter the distance traveled, bigger<br />
the force can be generated. So when practicing the Jie palm, pushing<br />
the leg and turning the body, use the whole body mass to get the power<br />
to the hand, whip the fist, the striking distance cannot be too long,<br />
otherwise the force will get reduced.<br />
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<br />
<br />
Tiao palm has some differences with Jie palm, It gets potential energy<br />
by raising up the hand. Ep=mgh, Ep is the potential energy, m is the<br />
mass, g is the acceleration duo to gravity, h is the height. Under the<br />
same other factors, the higher the hand to be raised, the more Ep will<br />
be get. But the hand can't to be raised too high, it's because if the<br />
hand be raised too high then the shoulder will be raised, then the<br />
basic structure will be broken. It needs to keep sinking the shoulders<br />
and elbows, during the strike, don't raise the shoulders, need to sink<br />
the elbow and stand up the head. Using the left palm strike as an<br />
example, first turn your body to left, and use the right arm to<br />
support your opponent's left arm, then turn the body to right<br />
slightly, throw the left hand heel downward to smash your opponent's<br />
chest. During the smashing down, the hand has to be hold back ( at the<br />
hitting point), don't let it go too far. There is a difference in<br />
height between the position of the hand(h2) to the opponent's<br />
chest(h1), the energy released is Ep=mg(h2-h1), it turns to Work,<br />
W=FS. Then the force to get is F=W/S. So the S( distance) can't be too<br />
long, if It is too long, the Force will get smaller. There's very<br />
limited perceptual in daily life. Only by long time and repeated<br />
exercises, one can understand and use it at will."<br />
<br />
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For more information about classes in the Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR areas, please contact us at stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com or visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/stonetigermartialartsStone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-30702829217679666602013-05-21T11:40:00.002-07:002017-05-25T12:46:19.528-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Is your Kung fu Authentic?</i></b></span></div>
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Authentic: <span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">true to one's own personality, spirit, or character, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features </span><span class="vi" style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><an <em>authentic</em> reproduction of a colonial farmhouse>, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">made to be or look just like an original</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div>
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So is your Kung Fu authentic? I know many people will say "Absolutely" then proceed straight to telling me or other people that our version isn't, but that really proves one of the points of this post. No one can claim to have the only authentic martial arts of their lineage or style. Authentic by definition is not the same across the board. Every person can have authentic Kung Fu as long as they understand that they will never copy their masters exactly, but do their best anyways, using their own unique personality and understanding to create the copy. There are so many people who talk about traditional and orthodox Kung Fu, but they don't understand that there can be no such thing by simple definition of those words. The arts change a little bit every generation, no matter what people want to believe. We can look at a myriad of martial arts, but lets use the ones that I know best, Xingyi and Bagua. Neither of these arts are exactly the same as they were when created, most notably Bagua, which has undergone MASSIVE changes since its creation. It doesn't matter which lineage you follow, we all know that the arts are different from when they first appeared. So can anyone claim to have "orthodox" Bagua? Nope, no one can. By simple definition it is impossible. We can share in the traditions of our teachers and practice their movements, but can we ever express them the same as they do? When we look at people as the sum of their experiences and factor in different body types, abilities, health, etc........It only proves that it is impossible. I have a great teacher, but I will never match his movements completely and as much as you hate to hear it, you can't match your teacher exactly either. It's impossible. So how can you have 'traditional' or 'orthodox' Kung Fu when you can't copy one generation prior to you?</div>
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Now I don't mean this to cut anyone down, it is just a simple fact. But what each of us CAN do is authentically try to re-create what our teachers are doing. But this requires each of us to understand that since we are vastly different from our teachers in many ways, that it cannot ever be done perfectly. I think the old masters knew this, that is why they stress the core ideas and functions of their arts more than making sure the "signature" they left in the art stays there forever. Dong Hai Chuan didn't demand that his students never change the styles of Bagua he helped create (not getting into alternate origins again, just going to use the commonly accepted founder), in fact he watched as his art changed before his eyes and never once said "Stop". I believe that is because his intent was not to create little clones of himself, but to show the diversity of his art, that it can be practiced correctly in many different ways. But it is important to note that each of his students practiced and taught their arts in an authentic way, in that they were authentic to themselves AND their teacher. Each of them took his art and combined it with another art they had mastered and they were very successful doing it. </div>
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Now before anyone gets the idea that I am suggesting tossing our teachers material, don't get ahead of yourself. What I am saying with that example is that great martial artists have always been authentic to themselves as much as they are authentically re-creating their teacher's art. They aren't polar opposites at all. We can do our best to honestly pass down the arts we have received without changing a thing but also do that in a way that is authentic to ourselves. We can used different explanations to show why practices are important or use other knowledge that we gain to tie practices together or better understand them. For example I was explaining how our style of Bagua practices stepping, and I jokingly used a reference to the old cartoons where you see a wolf in a Zoot suit strolling down the street (Mostly because I just watched that cartoon with my children that morning). After everyone had a good laugh, I pointed out that even though it is a cartoon, his weight is back, his hips are opening and allowing a long stride that is also relaxed. Of course that isn't a perfect example, but every one of my students will remember it, simply because it was different but explained a traditional idea. What started out as a joke wound up being a 'somewhat' good example of my teacher's methods, but it is something he probably never would have said. I'm sure most of you can think of a time that you have explained something totally different than your teacher might have, but still taught the core idea correctly. <br />
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Part of this blog is to make the point that we all have to stop using the terms 'authentic', 'traditional', and 'orthodox' as clubs to beat other martial artists over the head with. It is easy to see that none of use are truly traditional since our arts could almost be unrecognizable to the original founders (there is absolutely NO way to know if you move the same as the first generation). Not one person can honestly say or truly prove that their method is the same as the original if their art is more than 50 or 60 years old. Just can't be done. But what we can do is show that we are trying to create an authentic copy of what they were doing. But in admitting that you are doing that, you lose the ability to insult other practitioners, since you have to admit that your art is different than the original. That will be hard for a lot of people I think. But the other point of this is to point out that the success stories of the past can help us move into the future and let our arts spread. It is very easy to see that as a general rule, schools who claim to be 'the most orthodox' are also the schools who are dying out the fastest. This isn't an insult to the teacher's abilities at all, but more a commentary on the fact that students are attracted to authenticity in people more than claims of being 'better than others'. Let's take a look at a well known teacher that I have used in examples before.<br />
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Novell Bell is a martial artist based out of New York City who learned Bagua, Xingyi and Tai Chi from great teachers and shares what he learned, but with his own unique flavor. A lot of people try to cut him down for different reasons, but the pure fact is that he has become MUCH more successful and reached MANY more students than most of us ever will. I personally would chalk that up to the fact that he is 100% authentic to himself as he shares his teacher's knowledge. He teaches the same palm changes and forms as his teacher, but in a different manner, one that reflects who he is as a person and allows him to really teach from the heart. This is very important to spreading martial arts, one of the most important factors in my opinion. The greatest compliment that I have ever gotten was that several of my students decided to stick with the arts I teach because I was so passionate when I teach that they WANTED to stick around. But I will freely admit I am not the best practitioner or teacher in the world. I know of several friends, past and present, who are better teachers than I am but since they refuse to be authentic to themselves have never really been able to gain traction when starting their school. </div>
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Motivational speakers, business advisers and life coaches across the globe have always said one of the most important factors to success and personal happiness is being authentic to yourself in every aspect of your life. Kung Fu seems to be one of the rare places where people are told to 'change how you think and be like someone else'. Maybe this is why so many schools are failing, because all of the martial arts we have today came from people being authentic, and were improved by people being authentic. So why now should we NOT be authentic? My teacher once told us to "be good copy machines of the art". But he has never once told us to "be good copies of me, my teacher or my grand-teachers". Can you imagine if there were 10,000 copies of Wu Mengxia running around? The skill would be great, but there would be non-stop brawling! Wu Mengxia was a great martial artist, but he had somewhat of a short fuse for silly people. The end point is that if you open your eyes and look, the greatest success we can have as martial artists is to take what our teachers share of their skill and pass it on while we are being true to who we are. Give it a shot, I think you will love how your school grows because of it. </div>
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Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-61081913128464626212013-05-05T10:01:00.000-07:002016-08-24T08:05:15.750-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
An Open Letter to the Older Generation</div>
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Many people know that I am a regular contributor to several online forums and I have made it a goal of mine to reach out and make contact with as many great teachers as possible. I have been doing this for my own personal progress as a teacher, so I can better learn how to teach and pass on the arts that I have learned. So I spend a lot of time watching people and their words (when I'm not arguing with random people). All this watching has started to come together lately and I have been noticing several problems, one of which I would like to explain and see if I can offer a solution.</div>
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I will be the first to point out that most of the trolls and mouth-breathers who make life hard on forums are young people, my generation. But we are also the group that as a whole gets along the easiest despite our style or geographical differences. I have made many good friends on those forums and I can say that it is very common to meet a young teacher who thinks his style is the best hands down, but is completely willing to accept that others feel the same about their style. We can share points and training methods, provide honest opinions on where progress should be made in each others arts, and walk away completely happy and not the least bit insulted. With the older generation, that would be unthinkable! There are many great teachers and good people from the older generation that I have met, but more often than not, they are the most set in their ways and VERY quick to dismiss new ideas or thoughts that don't meet their standards. They are also very fast to say that a younger person won't ever understand unless they obey the word of the older martial artist. There is a mindset of 'I have been there and if you don't do what I say, regardless of your style, you are an idiot and it's not worth talking to you'. Often times this leads to a blind refusal to acknowledge that there are MANY different ways to skin the same cat (to use an odd reference). This mindset also very quickly leads to the older practitioner REFUSING to hear that their art isn't perfect or that something might be missing. Now please, don't take this as me being rude to older martial artists, NOT AT ALL! But as I will show, this is leading to a serious issue that will only end badly for all of us if we can't bridge the gap between generations. </div>
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So yes, I made the point that old people are stubborn. That isn't really news to anyone is it? But the new generation of teachers seems to be working on a different wavelength and the two aren't compatible at all. Let me explain. I know lots of great older teachers like I mentioned. They all have one thing in common, they were lucky enough to train under a great teacher in person, a true master of Kung Fu that could teach as well as apply their art. The arts were passed in a very traditional method. But that is the main problem facing my group. There aren't as many teachers available to pass on their arts with the same quality and skill as when YOU were first learning. We all know that the number of good teachers is dropping, so how can the younger group learn? Most of us have families that we can't uproot and drag across the country for martial arts training on the off chance that the Master they have heard about is the real deal. For many, it seems like a dead end as far as learning real martial arts, regardless of style. But that is where our young, bull-headed thinking comes into play. We aren't deterred by that. We have gone out of our way to use new technology and social networking to find teachers across the world to try and learn from. Many older teachers think that online training is worthless, and I will be the first to say that it is very limited. But it is truly better than nothing. It lets many people who have no local teachers start to explore and learn, and the greater number of people we can expose to the traditional arts, the greater chance we have of finding more people who will carry the banner in the future, right? It also lets the current generation of masters really influence the next generation with ideas that we haven't been exposed to and most likely won't be. Now I am not saying at all that someone can learn everything from a computer screen. That simply can't be done. But in the absence of a qualified teacher, what is the alternative? My generation is also much more open to different ideas or concepts from different styles being introduced and tried as an experiment. If many of my friends have issues in training, they are very open and honest about it and many have cleared their training hurdles with help and advice from people of the same generation, not the older one. </div>
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So we see that there are two distinct groups operating here, the older teachers who have been training in the same art for a long time with one teacher, and the younger teachers trying to make their way without that benefit so easily accessible. The older group CLEARLY has the knowledge and skill that the younger group desires, so why are there so few connections between them? I think I can answer that. Since the new group is trying to learn and share in ways that have never been done before out of necessity, they have little in common with the standard bearers for the old arts. When a younger person shares a video of their practice or asks for help, it is rare that the older teachers jump right in and try to help. More often they say that "You can't learn online, so stop trying". People of the same age range are usually the ones to provide the most support and offer the most help. This is the problem. As the newer teachers are progressing, they are seeing and feeling little support from older players and this leads to a lack of bonding and often respect for them. Why would I listen to a teacher who dismissed me when I was younger and needed help, but after years is more open to me and my practice? In a way, the older group is ensuring that their knowledge won't spread like it could simply because they aren't open to new ideas on training or at least introducing the arts. I am not saying that established teachers have to change everything for the younger group. But we have to understand that times are changing and we don't live in the same world you grew up and practiced in. There has to be a continuation of development. This will require a lot of hard work from younger people and a lot of patience and flexibility from older people. But please remember this the next time you dismiss a younger teacher who is struggling to learn...............If you don't reach out a hand and try to help him, can you honestly blame him for not knowing or developing? The arts are firmly in YOUR hands right now. The future of Kung Fu is yours. But if you don't find ways to influence younger people, you will take all your knowledge with you and your arts will suffer because it wasn't passed on. Remember that one day, the young whipper-snappers will be in your position and will hold the future in their hands. If you don't do your best to influence and help them, it won't be their fault if the arts are lacking. It will be yours. </div>
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Please don't take this as a condemnation of anyone. I only want to make a simple point about interactions between teachers of different generations and how to improve the existing situation. I mean no disrespect to anyone. But a strong point has to be made, so I hope I tread the line well. I would appreciate any feedback you are willing to share.</div>
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Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-10318228402524064392013-05-04T22:37:00.001-07:002016-08-24T08:05:31.812-07:00Here is a video my teacher made when all of his students came together in Denver for our yearly training session. We all make time once a year to get together as a group and train as a family! Here my teacher, Yang Laoshi, is explaining the basics of Internal Power and how we train it, I hope you all enjoy!<br />
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Introduction to Internal StrengthStone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-65880018326089574632013-04-21T11:27:00.000-07:002016-08-24T08:05:45.333-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">An Alternative History of Baguazhang</span></b></div>
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I already know a lot of people, as soon as they read the title of this article, will immediately give a condescending laugh and say something like "Idiot". Because who in their right mind would think that Bagua has other origins that what is commonly accepted? That Dong Hai Chuan came out of nowhere and somehow took a circle walking meditative art and turned it a fearsome combat art, does that sound about right? That is a great origins story, in line with a lot of the other great arts, a story that has lots of mystery, many people claiming exclusive rights to the truth and few verifiable facts. Now before I go any further, I REALLY want to stress that I am not insulting anyone else's history. I am also not going to state that anyone is totally wrong. What I am going to suggest here is that maybe there is more to the story that we previously thought and that there are well respected names and locations that we can easily find that tend to point towards a different version of history. So, again, I want to state that I will never take any credit away from Dong Hai Chuan or belittle his skills because even he said he didn't create the art. We have just given him credit since he never identified who he learned it from. </div>
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Ok! Now that I have covered my bases and made sure no one gets their feelings hurt by the suggestion that there is more to the story, lets dive in to what we know about the origins of Baguazhang.</div>
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First off, lets tell people who are not practitioners of Baguazhang what we are talking about. Baguazhang or Bagua for short is one of the 3 main Internal Martial Arts from China and arguably is the most complex and in depth of the three, which also includes Tai Chi and Xingyi. Bagua is easily identified by the basic exercise of Circle Walking, where practitioners move around a circle, generally facing towards the center. There are usually 8 or 9 different sets of movements to change direction, depending on the school you practice at and in-between changes the body is held in a static position. This exercise is where students train power and tendon development with combat applications being done later. For people who have never practiced Bagua before, the training I just described sounds silly, but when done correctly is physically exhausting in a short period of time since it is a practice that uses the whole body, leaving nothing un-trained. That is where the similarities end though, with each school using different movements, postures and each having unique practice requirements to be correct. </div>
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The founder of Bagua was named Dong Hai Chuan and sometime around 1864 he showed up in Beijing and got a job working at the Palace where he impressed a group of party guests with his skill at moving through the crowd and when they asked him to demonstrate his kung fu, he obliged and the rest is history. When he was asked where he learned his art from, he said, "A Hermit". We know that Dong Hai Chuan only taught 3 palms in the beginning and would create other palms to fit his students needs, since he was making each version unique to the student he was teaching. But why would it be called Ba Gua Zhang or Eight Trigram Palm if he only had 3 original palm movements? Just as an FYI, he originally only taught the Single Palm Change, the Double Palm Change and something called a Smooth Body Change. So instead of just asking leading questions and feeding you the answers, lets examine what we do know about Dong Hai Chuan and ask ourselves if the suggestion I am giving here isn't remotely possible. We know that Dong Hai Chuan traveled far and wide as a young man, but never really gave an account of his travels, but he was exposed to many martial arts teachers and styles. He was also illiterate, which puts serious doubt towards him being able to create an art as deeply rooted in Taoist religious practices as Bagua is. We also know that he only taught a few students who carried his art on, eight students who started their own lineages, and each was taught a vastly different art. Each of these eight students passed on extremely different practice methods so we know that they weren't taught a standardized training program. Also each of the eight lineages VERY quickly started expanding and adding different practices to train and focus on different areas. To many people this suggests that Dong Hai Chuan didn't teach a complete martial system to his students, but only showed them how to improve the art they started with. So each student would have to create and add exercises that fit their needs. </div>
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Most people know that to create a martial art requires a person to fill three distinct and specialized roles in order to create a well rounded and martially sound fighting system. They need to be a fighter, a technician and a teacher all in one. The fighter role is obvious, someone needs to prove the art is effective to draw in students and to promote the art's standing within the martial arts community. The technician role is required to fully understand the exercises, create new practices, learn every single detail and also connect these physical practices to esoteric ideas (Like the I Ching and Bagua). Technicians also must know how each exercise fits into the whole art and also how to train correctly to avoid injury and gain steady progress. The last role is the teacher, who is the one to pass the information on to many people and spread the art. The teacher is the public face for information about the art and must be a skilled communicator or the art won't spread very far. Each of these roles is a must in martial arts. Many people can only perform one role, say for example there are many great fighters who can't teach to save their lives. Or teachers who aren't the greatest fighters. This is totally normal, each role requires vastly different mindsets to be successful. Now I'm not saying that a person can't have some skill in each role, but its very difficult to be great at each, I am sure that is common knowledge. You might be asking what this has to do with Dong Hai Chuan, so lets apply these roles to him and lets see what seems logical. Dong Hai Chuan was a great fighter, that so commonly understood that I won't even address it here. But was he the best technician or teacher? Since we know he taught a bare bones art that his students had to add to immediately to suit their needs, we can safely assume that he might not have been the greatest technician, since that role would have left many exercises for each student. So the students wouldn't have needed to add things so quickly. Being illiterate he wouldn't have been able to connect the circle walking practice to deep, mystical ideas in Taoism either. We can also assume he wasn't the best teacher, since he only had success with master level martial artists as students and never was able to teach a large public group and sustain it, even with his amazing reputation. Again, this isn't being rude to Dong Hai Chuan, it is a logical look at what we know, ok? </div>
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But here is where it gets interesting and where new information comes into the picture that suggests where Bagua came from and what the art may have been intended to resemble by its founders. Again I am NOT claiming to have an exclusive on the truth and I'm not saying anyone else is wrong. There is a lineage of Bagua called Gao Bagua after its first public proponent named Gao Yisheng. Gao was originally a student of Song Changrong and Cheng Tinghua, but broke with them for an unknown reason. He then studied Xingyi with Li Cunyi and that influence is apparent in the martial art he left behind. But the really interesting part is that he claimed to have met a hermit from Guanghua Moutain name Song Yiren who taught him a linear version of Bagua. This type of claim isn't unusual since many Chinese martial artists claim to have learned from mythical or hidden characters to provide legitimacy to their art and in fact the name Song Yiren is the Chinese equivalent of saying "John Smith", it is a very vague and general name. It sounds like a strange name, but it would have fit perfectly for a monk who had given up his original name to shed ties to secular life. We see that there is perhaps some truth here because a different martial artist named Han Jinyong was studying Bagua with a different teacher under Dong Hai Chuan, but left to study with a monk from Guanghua Mt named Ying Xia. When Han Jinyong finished his training, he was so impressed with his teacher and art that he changed his name to Han Muxia which means 'Admires Xia'. This is no small compliment in Chinese culture, family names are very important and rarely are changed and would never be changed to support an imagined mythical source. When Han Muxia started publicly teaching, he quickly became famous for beating a Russian strongman who had been beating the local Chinese challengers. Han Muxia and Gao Yisheng never met each other, but each publicly taught very similar linear Bagua forms, and each learned from a different teacher. The fact that the linear forms are slightly different implies that there were several teachers on Guanghua Mt that taught linear Bagua, as each teacher would practice and share their own version. If Gao and Han had created the forms together, they would have been taught identically, right? Guanghua Mt also had several Taoist groups that used circle walking meditations if I understand correctly and if the name Song Yiren was a pseudonym, then that might be what Dong Hai Chuan meant when said he learned from a hermit and didn't identify him. Why would you tell people you learned martial arts from someone named 'Teacher John Smith"? There is one more piece of evidence that hammers home this idea. Both Gao Yisheng and Han Muxia were famous teachers and each had famous students. But they shared several well known students, most notably being Wu Mengxia and Bi Motang, both being famous for martial arts but also for personal character. Each of these students swore up and down that they believed their teachers had learned from separate teacher on Guanghua Mt and that there was no doubt in their mind of anything to the contrary. This is very important evidence since the word of a martial arts teacher was considered to be very important and would not have been given lightly.</div>
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So with all these facts put together, we can start to see that there is more to the creation story and history of Baguazhang than is commonly known. I truly hope I haven't offended anyone by this, but I felt it was a very important article to write since any good information about our common art of Bagua should be shared with everyone who is interested. </div>
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Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-19201851908185496472013-04-09T20:46:00.004-07:002016-08-24T08:06:02.349-07:00Our Basic Bagua Circle Walking Posture and Stepping<br />
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<br />Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-57570139786499124182013-03-31T15:01:00.000-07:002016-08-24T08:55:09.832-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Yang Laoshi talking about how to find correct posture in our Standing Postures</div>
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<br />Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-17515082104023307012013-03-31T14:58:00.000-07:002016-08-24T08:57:46.177-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Yang Laoshi taking about the correct structure in Gao Bagua and how we use kicks to advance.</div>
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<br />Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-19077455779846049182012-12-09T08:46:00.000-08:002016-08-24T08:58:52.343-07:00Evolution is Traditional<br />
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Ok, I already know that the title of this article has some of you crying and curling up in the corner in horror, and that's ok. But for the rest of you that get all the way through this because you have solid critical thinking skills, I think I can make a solid point for this idea. But I do what to make a disclaimer that I am NOT in any way insulting the traditional arts, just pointing out how things were always done, until recently that is. So put on your big boy thinking caps and lets dive into this!<br />
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The title of the article sums it up. Evolution and adaptation in the Chinese martial arts was the norm until this past century. Then a combination of factors conspired to freeze the Chinese martial arts in place, but as many of you who are familiar with Taoist thought would know, change is the way of nature. Standing still and never growing or changing is against the Tao. There are many great examples of this idea, but for a solid starting point lets ask............Why are there so many styles of the same martial art? Look at my art of Xingyi. The historically verified founder is Ji Ji Ke, right? So originally we had one unique style of martial arts that began in the 17th century. But today, how many different branches and styles of Xingyi are there? Off the top of my head there are- Sun, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Dai, Wudang............need I go on? All of these branches sprang up within 300 years or so, pretty clearly showing that evolving arts were normal and accepted in old China, so why not now?<br />
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Another amazing example is Bagua. Dong Hai Chuan created his art according to popular legend from a wide variety of arts that he knew before mixed with Taoist walking techniques. Is that not evolution, or changing from one thing to something else? To complicate matters more, he taught his art eight different ways to eight different disciples. He wasn't a master of Shuai Chiao, but he changed Cheng Tinghua's original style and mixed it with the Bagua he was teaching at the time, and look how well that turned out! By today's standards, if you aren't personally a master of a style, many traditional teachers would be horrified and personally insulted if you offered ideas for shaping that art, even if they were ideas that came from a style you had mastered. See what I mean? How was it ok in Old China to do this, but not now? Even more change came when when Gao style bagua was created by Gao Yi Sheng and he added the 64 linear palms to Bagua. I haven't ever heard that his teacher Cheng Ting Hua was upset because of that. That probably comes back to the issue of "If you know and understand an art, you have the right to change it" Don't get me wrong though, I am not saying the traditional arts need to be radically changed, but I will explain that later. (Didn't want to give anyone a heart attack) How many different styles of Bagua are there today? Look at how much the original art has changed and been added to in 150 years! How can anyone say that change wasn't natural for the Chinese masters? Sun Lu Tang had no issues at all taking what he knew and creating his own Tai Chi style based off of his Bagua and Xingyi, and even those two original arts that come down from Sun are unique and different than many other branches. So it can be said he created one art and altered two others. Here is one last example in Praying Mantis. According to the limited lore surrounding Praying Mantis that I know, it was derived from 18 different martial arts by a man named Wang Lang. One of the popular myths is that his art came from his meeting with 17 other masters when they were invited to Shaolin to IMPROVE THE SHAOLIN ARTS! If you don't believe me, check Wikipedia. It is an accepted myth that Shaolin needed help improving their arts then, but why not now? It seems very strange to me when I listen to people getting offended by thoughts of change and then hearing them proudly talk about the origins of their art which prove that other arts were changed in the creation process. In any case, there is no way that Wang Lang was old enough to have mastered 18 different martial arts by the time he created Praying Mantis. If we go with the common understanding that it takes 5 years to learn all of the physical material in a style (not master it) and multiply that by 18, Wang Lang would have finished learning all the arts when he was 90 if he started the day he was born. I just thought that was a funny idea when I realized it. <br />
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In my limited understanding, the halt of progress that we see in CMA started mostly when the arts came to America. I'm not sure why that is, but for some reason the teachers refuse to accept the idea that arts must grow and change over time. We see in old China that the masters didn't believe that there was an ultimate art, since they would take what they knew and change it. And two generations later, someone would add to it or change it again. This has been the standard practice in CMA since it first began. Again I would like to say that I am not in any way insulting traditional arts, but the stubborn refusal or modern teachers to change anything, including their way of thinking about the world, simply means that their arts will be gone within a generation or two. One argument against this article would be that those men who created the original arts were genius. I can easily accept that, but people didn't stop being smart 50 years ago! There are many brilliant minds that practice martial arts today. I personally have two doctors, a pharmacist, a toxicologist and several police officers in my student group. They are very smart and driven people and their clear understanding of how the body works (The doctors, not the police) have really helped me understand WHY our practices work, looking at it from a western understanding. This is getting to the point I am trying to make.<br />
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The Chinese masters had a FUNCTIONAL understanding of their arts, and a very good understanding at that. But they couldn't explain the exact processes involved or just what happened in the body when these practices were used. That is not an insult in any way, I'm just saying that no one view of things is ever totally accurate. Here is a great example. Many of us practice Iron Palm and the other practices for various body parts to harden the bones. The Chinese masters knew this worked and laid out training programs to achieve it. But what they didn't know is that the process of hardening happened in a specific way. When we start to create low amounts of stress on a body part through continued impact, the body cells called osteoblasts are released. They create a type of collagen in the stressed area and then turn that collagen into bone. There is another type of cell called osteoclasts that are responsible for removing dead bone cells. The mechanism of bone hardening comes when more osteoblasts are released than osteoclasts, see? The bones will constantly be growing. This offers a different view of traditional Iron Palm in that the stimulation of osteoblasts requires a low grade of stress up front, striking the bag harder in the beginning doesn't cause more osteoblasts, it would increase the removal of dead bone since harder strikes in the beginning do more damage to bone then anything. I hope I haven't lost anyone. But to get the bones hardening, use lighter strikes for the first few months THEN start hitting a bit harder. This is an example of what I hope to accomplish here. To show that the old masters were in fact correct, but also to use modern understanding to refine and fully understand what we do. See? That wasn't such a horrible point, was it? Reconciling Eastern functional knowledge with Western understanding would be a great way that our arts can change, since we saw in my example that a better understanding will change details of how we practice.<br />
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Over time this full understanding of how the body works and grows will naturally lead to our arts evolving and growing, but that is a wonderful thing. Many teachers now incorporate Yoga into their training programs since it helps the body move better. That is an evolution in and of itself, and I think a good one at that. I am not attacking anyone's view of martial arts here, just illustrating history and pointing out that if we want to call ourselves traditional martial artists, we should take a look back in time and see that our martial ancestors had no problem with change and growth. As those changes lasted a few generations, they became what we call traditional. Remember, at one time, all our arts were considered mixed martial arts by the people witnessing their growth!<br />
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Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-59043113440955078122012-12-06T14:45:00.001-08:002016-08-24T08:59:02.361-07:00Americans are so lazy<br />
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"The reason Kung Fu isn't growing in the US anymore is because Americans are lazy". This is the mantra of most Traditional CMA teachers whose schools aren't growing. Its the easiest way to explain the stagnation of CMA, right? Nope, its not. Lets go over some facts and look at why these schools aren't growing at the rate they should be.<br />
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First (and most importantly), Americans aren't lazy at all. In fact many studies have shown that Americans work more and take fewer holidays than most other countries in the world. Americans are also fanatical when they find a thing they are passionate about, we tend to over do whatever our focus is. We spend more on participating in sports and building parks and playing fields than any other country as well. Our children start playing sports competitively at a younger age than most nations, and a big chunk of school budgets are spent on sports teams. America has more gym's and personal trainers than most other countries as well. If you look at the average TKD or modern martial arts school in the US, their membership numbers are very high, usually 150-200 students that come at least once a week. When we look at all these factors, we see that Americans are very passionate about recreational activities, so that in and of itself proves that we aren't lazy as a group. The being more overweight fact actually strengthens this fact. If all Americans were in perfect shape, then much more money and time would be spent on recreation!<br />
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Secondly, the lazy comment is normally made by teachers with few students as their excuse for not growing. But why would anyone in their right mind want to train with an American teacher who insults other Americans?? Nobody would unless they were trying to find a group that gave them the feeling of mental superiority over others. As in 'I'm a Kung Fu person and we work harder than anyone else' That is actually a common thing since humans constantly try to differentiate themselves from others to prove their worth (ask a shrink if you don't believe me). The phrase "McDonald's Mentality" is used in a derogatory way as well describing the Western desire for quick results, or because they have a specific goal for training and many aren't interested in doing only what the teacher wishes. Again, who would pay money to be insulted? What does it say about a teacher who insults his own culture? This type of teacher usually doesn't understand that small gains that come quickly are the best way to motivate students to come to class more often and to practice harder at home. We should show new students simple exercises that are quickly beneficial to excite the student, not cut them down because they want results and aren't interested in following a plan that isn't clearly laid out for progress.<br />
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I think teachers who say this are usually the sole party responsible for their school's condition. We should take several things into consideration when talking about this to get a better understanding of why they are having trouble. The biggest hurdle for CMA teachers is that Chinese martial arts come from a culture steeped in Confucian ideals and Eastern philosophy and now we are trying to spread in a society that is based off of Western ideals which are the complete opposite. Its crazy to get upset because an American doesn't come in with the understanding that is needed for success in CMA. Many teachers think that as soon as a student walks through the door, they should just start obeying without question everything the teacher says, but that is contrary to the Western mindset. Americans love to ask "Why", and any teacher who wants to be successful in America would be wise to understand that and be prepared. I'm not saying that Eastern thinking is wrong by any stretch of the imagination, but I am saying that if you want to take people off the street and turn them into good students, you MUST understand how Americans think and introduce Eastern concepts slowly and in digestible amounts. Lets think for a second. If you were that new student and had no idea about CMA or the code of behavior required in a CMA school, you would be confused and maybe even uncomfortable if you are exposed to everything at once. Think about the Sun Toi or school altar. An American would have no idea why that was there, since Westerners don't have altars outside of church. Don't you think that might be something they are uncomfortable about at first? Or that maybe that is the reason some Americans tie religion and Kung Fu together and avoid it? There are lots of examples, but if you really want your school to grow, you will sit down and think about what new students have to be feeling or thinking when they come through your doors.<br />
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We should also be explaining things at first in a way that Americans can understand. A great example is "Qi". The notion of life energy is just now starting to take hold in the Western world and many prospective students would scoff at that idea still. But a VERY basic idea of "Qi" can be given by teaching the student that the meridians follow the same path as nerves, and that the old Chinese drawings of pressure points are in fact nerve centers. Even the dimmest student knows that energy runs along our nerves, so the idea of "Qi" suddenly becomes more palatable and easier to accept, right? Of course that isn't the full theory of energy work, but its an introduction that students can easily understand and the teacher can use that base to introduce more foreign terms and ideas about "Qi" without confusing the student. See how using terms and words that are directed at the students understanding can make harder concepts easier to understand? Stance work is another pill that is hard for Americans to swallow. Most won't understand the point of sitting in horse stance for long periods of time, and there is nothing wrong with that initial way of thinking. Its the teacher's job to show how stances build strength. One way to teach it is to push the student on the first lesson, and when they complain about sore muscles at the second lesson, give them a pat on the back for working so hard and point out that their legs are already getting stronger. Show them how great of an exercise stances are! That is one thing Americans understand, the need for exercise. So use that term! Or show them a student who has been only training a few months and demonstrate how strong his legs are now. Demonstrate how powerful it will make their kicks. Anything along these lines is better than a teacher ordering the student to keep doing it without any explanation of why they need it. <br />
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Again I would like to point out that I'm not challenging the old ways of doing things. But I am saying if you want to mold a person off the street into a dedicated student, you have to make the changes gradually, not full throttle. Introduce new ideas slowly at first and the understanding will start to snowball and become more complete very quickly. The reason that TKD schools have so many more students? Because they know how to teach to Americans. The same goes for modern martial art groups like the East-West schools, they understand how Americans think and start there. You might look down on their style (and I'm almost positive that if you think Americans are lazy that you think you are better than TKD) but their results speak for themselves and their schools are growing while yours isn't. I also think that teachers who say that are usually the least traveled. I have been lucky enough to travel to many different countries and what I have learned is that people are the same the world over. They want the same things and they are willing to work hard to get it. So stop insulting a whole culture just because you aren't happy with your school size, because after all, your school is the product of your efforts, not anyone else's. <br />
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<br />Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-56854767121062314762012-09-27T07:16:00.003-07:002016-08-24T08:59:12.891-07:00What is the truth?<br />
What is the Truth?<br />
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Like many people know, I get a deep, perverse pleasure in asking the question "Why?" In that one word is the stumbling block for most belief systems and methods of practice. I know it's not mature of me, but sometimes I can't help myself when someone starts to talk about something that is outlandish or not based in reality. I also understand that my love of that question can make me come across very poorly to some people, especially those who I question. I come across very brash and judgemental, but most of the time I just don't care enough to explain what I mean on a deep level (I know that sounds terrible) But maybe I can shed some light on my personal views and the reasons for them here.<br />
I would like to start by sharing a little about my martial journey that I haven't shared before. Several years ago I felt totally lost and had no idea where to go as far as the direction of my training. I have been lucky enough to meet and train with several amazing masters of Xingyi, but not one of them shared the same beliefs on training or what Xingyi was actually for. Each master held a different origin story to be true, each one believed that the art evolved differently, and each saw a different goal for high level practitioners. So while I was lucky to train with them, this left me deeply confused at the same time. Where did Xingyi come from? What was its original purpose? What is high level? So after a lot of soul searching and coming very close to quitting due to frustration, I decided to use the tools at my disposal and proven methods to see what I could learn about my favorite martial art. Since I'm not the most learned person I was left with simple yet irrefutable techniques. I decided to base my research off of the scientific method of hypothosis, experimentation and conclusion, the technique of "Occams' Razor" as well as a method from our legal system, namely "Its not what you know, its what you can prove" Now obviously that is a quote from a movie, but its sums up very well how we as Westerners fuction and understand things. And that is the only way I will ever understand things, no one can honestly say that they completely think and understand another culture without having lived in it for many years, so I would have to make do.<br />
So having said this, nothing I say in this article is meant to insult or degrade anyone's personal beliefs, but I am simply putting out the plain facts about Xingyi that can be proven easily. I will speak in general terms, but please don't take that as an attack, its not meant to be. But really, if writing about my research bothers people, they are forgetting a great quote from Aristotle "The mark of a great mind is being able to entertain an idea without accepting it" So I hope that I get the chance to share this with many great minds in the hopes of starting a positive discussion.<br />
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, lets speak honestly and bluntly. Xingyi is an amazing art with a world full of potential, but it's dying. There is no sugar coating it, it's simply true. I believe the reason for this is that Xingyi teachers are so far scattered and when we meet most of the time we can't agree on simple practices. How can we ever work as a whole to propegate our art? We can't. There must be a core of common knowledge and understanding for Xingyi practitioners so we can present a united front to the world. We all must work together in the future, the old method of the wandering teacher doesn't work on a global scale. Often times in the past it was only effective in a single province, not even across the whole of China, so how can it work across the world?<br />
Where to start? For me, that was easy. I wanted to learn the most logical and provable origins of Xingyi. Common myth is that General Yue Fei created Xingyi for his troops as well as creating Eagle Claw. This is a fun and romantic idea, but that is all that it is. There is sufficient proof that Yue Fei was a great general, but there is no written proof that he had anything to do with Xingyi. Remember, we are using a proof based system of understanding here, if its not recorded, we can't use it. I already know the arguements of some, that oral traditional is just as valid. No its not. We often play a childrens game in America that a group of children will sit in a line and the first child will whisper a story to the second, the second repeats it to the third, and so on. The fun part is when the last child stands up and repeats the story, it is drastically different than the original story told by the first! The same concept is true for adults, they are just able to hold onto a story for longer before it starts to change. So writing has to be the way to go, that way a group can read the same words at the same time.<br />
The first recorded Xingyi master was Ji Ji Ke, the spelling may differ from group to group, but we all know who I'm talking about. He was a famous spear master apparently and based his empty hand techniques off of the spear movements. This is very effective, since the practitioner would only have to learn one set of movements, not two. It also cuts down on the training time for proficiency, since half the number of techniques are learned. Many people claim that Xingyi was a battlefield art, but this isn't supported by historical records. I feel that the Chinese were amazing record keepers, and we still have many of their writings from ancient times, especially concerning wars and martial tactics. I personally believe that it wasn't begun as a battlefield art, but as a personal combat art. I very rarely see people acknowledge that personal combat and duels at that time were usually armed fights. Professional fighters roamed with their weapon of choice. This same practice was very common in Japan at the time, why is it so hard to believe Chinese martial artists would do the same? I see that Ji Ji Ke simplified spear techniques to their purest form which is the reason for the direct and linear nature of Xingyi, no wasted movement.<br />
The next question is "What was considered good Xingyi 200 years ago?" Often in the modern age, a person's speed or fancy movements are what elevate their skill in the public eye. Is that the same criteria that was used during the peak of Xingyi? Not at all. Xingyi skill level was determind by fighting or competing, a concept that is lost on most modern masters of Xingyi. They claim that their art is too deadly to spar with. Really? Navy Seals spar with their combat. Marine Force Recon uses training drills with live ammo. Army Rangers practice sentry elimination techniques on live opponents. Is your Pi Chuan really more deadly than anything the Seals, Force Recon or Rangers have? I doubt it. Usually this is the claim of a teacher who deep down knows that they aren't ready to fight or isn't used to the stress of combat, so they give reasons to avoid conflict. They are usually the first to start throwing personal insults in many situations. Sadly they continue to talk about their 'traditional' methods after they have declined a fight. This is completely the opposite of what was true in the golden age of CMA. You fought to win, to keep your school open, or the challenger chased you out of town. I am not advocating death matches or illegal fighting, but if we wish to tell people that we are masters of a fighting art, how can we run away from a fight? There are even ways to show skill without fighting such as sparring or application drills. Its easy to see if a teacher has a fighting heart through these. <br />
The hallmark of good Xingyi used to be effectiveness. We used simple techniques, few forms and very little of the "Qi Gong" work that is so prevalent today. I like the expression that Xingyi is "ugly but it works." Xingyi fighters were bodyguards and convoy escorts after only a couple years of training. For some reason today we think that Xingyi must be trained for 20 years to yield an effective fighter but this is a recent turn of beliefs, not supported by history. Where today many new students are taught in their first lesson about "Qi" and circulating it and how to refine their power, the older generations learned how to build strong legs and raw power. After all, how can you refine power without first having raw power to refine?<br />
Many teachers point back to Sun Lu Tang and his fantastic books on Xingyi and Tai Chi as the reason for the focus on energy work. But I would counter that those books were meant to be reference material for people who already knew a martial art or practiced Xingyi. While in his book he talks about lots of energy work, if you read the written accounts about Sun Lu Tang from his daughter, he personally practiced and taught his students much differently in the beginning. In one story she talks about how her father would go to visit his friends Bagua school and would constantly yell "Lower! Faster!" at the students who were walking the circle. This is completely counter to his books, so we have to logically assume that he taught hard work in the beginning then energy work later. I also know that some of you will question my using her words as proof, but written first hand accounts that are backed up with references of other people there at the time are allowed in our courtrooms, so they are allowed here. <br />
I feel that so many teachers have tried to skip the hard physical work of martial arts and move straight into energy work, that it has almost become taboo to talk about building a strong Kung Fu body in IMA circles. This is not a judgement of those teachers, like most humans they want the good stuff up front, the dessert before dinner. But if we keep that analogy, in Kung Fu if you don't eat dinner first you don't have the ability to taste or digest dessert after. Understand? If you don't have a strong, flexible body there is no way that you can really feel the energy flowing through it and learn how to control that energy. Think about the myth of the origins of Shaolin Kung Fu for another example of this idea. Monks who didn't have strong bodies were constantly sick and weak, including their meditation and energy work. If you ask most of the masters of the internal arts from China, they will tell you that their youth was spent training until they collapsed everyday, about how hard they trained. Do they ever brag about never breaking a sweat while training? Even masters from Chen village? No, they don't. So we can see that historically the Internal Arts were built off a solid foundation of hard work and training until the early part of the 20th century. If you aren't sure, look at the writings from before then. "Qi" and energy is mentioned, but not at the same rate or the same intensity as today. There is a clear difference.<br />
As for the 3rd question "What is High Level?", I really don't know the answer yet. I haven't reached that level, but I am smart enough and educated enough to know what isn't part of high level. Mystical words or ethereal topics weren't ever part of the study during the Golden Age of Xingyi, and they should be reserved for very high level practice now. My Bagua teacher has a great saying that I think should apply to Xingyi as well, "My Bagua isn't a key to get to heaven" I think that is totally true. If we try to take a combat art and devote it totally to spiritual development, we are losing sight of the original reason for the fighting art, and also at the same time not progressing down the spiritual path since Xingyi wasn't ever designed to help further that type of training. I think that high level might just be the ability to know our own bodies and having the skill to help others do the same, I'll let you know for sure when I get to that level. While I believe in the existence of "Qi" we won't address it here since it is an unproven topic. Each master has a different belief on what "Qi" is and how to train it, I think that means that we should not try to base our understanding and common ground on energy, but we should use the simple, basic training to find common ground. <br />
What I put here is just a light treatment of my past few years of study and practice. It is looking at what can be proven and shown, not based off student memories of their teachers. Any good student will say wonderful things about their teacher and how great their skill was, so we can't rely on that to further our understanding. I have looked at all the historical references that I can, talked to educated people and most importantly I have crossed hands with many people trying to learn. I have kept an open mind to being proven wrong since I knew I was lacking knowledge when I started looking. If I am wrong in any historical reference, please point me to the record that proves me wrong so I can retract my incorrect statement. Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-15456063957058288282012-07-16T19:50:00.000-07:002016-08-24T08:59:39.098-07:00Give your Kung Fu awayWhy you should teach for free..........<br />
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I would like to start this by sharing a late realization of mine and how I saw that I was standing by and doing nothing for a cause I really cared about. I have had many friends and girlfriends that have been the victim of abuse or violence. I was starting to think that it was me that was attracting them until I looked at the statistics and saw just how common these horrible things occur. Each time I saw the emotional and physical scars that violence had left, I nearly lost my mind in anger because this was someone I cared about, but I couldn't do anything to help them. The person who committed these acts was walking free, probably doing the same thing to another person, and I had to watch the aftermath or deal with the emotional barriers left. This has been a tender subject for me, I tend to be a very righteous and just person (even though I come across as crazy and a heretic sometimes). Even now I feel myself getting upset because I am thinking about my wife who was the victim of terrible violence by a coward...............he is free and laughing and I have to be careful how she and I wrestle and play so she doesn't break down into tears in fright. <br />
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And I know that 99% of all men share my anger towards abusers. But do we do anything about it? I have been thinking about how I want to change the world lately and I knew it had something to do with martial arts since that is what I know best and can teach easily. But as I looked at my school composition, I was horribly ashamed to realize something. I have a solid student base.............but NONE of them are people who have suffered abuse. Due to my views on training and how intense I like to practice, ALL of my students are police or military in background or are martial artists at heart. They are all people who are committed to training hard and eating bitter to become better martial artists and fighters. That is the school I have built out of my comfort zone, but I completely ignored the people who needed martial arts the most! I charge a large amount for private lessons and have lots of classes a week, but have I done anything lately that victims can likely participate in??? Sadly, no, I haven't. <br />
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As I thought about this, I remembered all the stock reasons I used to tell people how martial arts could improve their lives, through greater self confidence, better health, etc, etc. The same thing that I know most of the teachers who read this say to their new students. But have we looked at how much MORE important these things are for people who have been hurt? How important a shot of self esteem and confidence could be in changing their lives and letting them move on? That they might start to feel comfortable in their own skin again and be able to have normal relationships and relax in public?<br />
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I think the more you think about this topic you will agree with me. We need to offer self defense classes for free to women and teens. I am not talking about anything crazy or a lifetime commitment. But I would challenge all the teachers who care about their students and communities to offer at least one seminar in the next 3 months to the community free of charge. Call every church and social group you know and let them know what is happening. Talk to leaders of support groups and social workers. I think if you make 1 phone call a day sharing what is being offered, you will be amazed at the response you get. I felt so bad when I saw how I had let people in need down that I made a commitment that I will be doing this every month for 1 year, I already have my location and network lined up to share the details. If you are one of the amazing teachers out there who already do this, I give you my utmost respect and appreciation for your help. And if you can join me in this challenge, I won't be able to express how much I appreciate your support. I hope you chose to join me. Either way, please keep your family safe and share what you know with the people who need it most.Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-53972108224645056292012-07-01T16:42:00.000-07:002016-08-24T08:59:52.162-07:00My Fake TeacherA lot of martial artists would be ashamed if they found out that their teacher was fake and learned completely from videos. Well, not me! I chose to take it and be proud that I was caught by a scammer. You might ask why, and I think I have a great answer that might benefit new students as they look for a teacher. But first let me share my experience in depth and how many martial artists have reacted when they found out. <br />
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When I was 18 years old I was fresh out of high school, I finished wrestling and I wanted to try my hand at martial arts. It had always been a dream of mine and I loved watching the old Kung Fu movies on TV, so I did what any young man would do...I ran down to the first kung fu school I saw that advertised Shaolin Kung Fu! But when I first walked in I should have seen the truth. This school was extremely run down and hidden away in the basement of a tiny office building in a part of town that wasn't the nicest. But I saw all the weapons and training gear and I was hooked. I spoke to the "Sifu" and completely swallowed his line of BS without thinking. He told me so many amazing things about himself and his training at all of the martial arts temples in China, how famous his masters were, how many different styles he had mastered and all the famous people he knew from training. Now that I'm more mature, I would fall down laughing at the same story if I heard it today, but I was young and fresh off the farm, so I didn't know any better. He showed me a list of all the styles he knew, and they ranged from Muay Thai to all different styles of Kung Fu to secret family styles of Ninjutsu. He showed me demo tapes of the styles, and Xingyi immediately caught my eye. I had never heard of that style before, but I knew when I saw it that I wanted to master it. But Xingyi was a privately taught style, so I had to either pay for a year of private lessons up front or become a formal disciple right then to be taught my chosen style. Both were VERY expensive, the private lessons costing 2,000 a year and becoming a disciple was 5,000 dollars for a lifetime of training. I chose the private lessons and began to train.<br />
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At first the lessons were great. He taught me personally even though he rarely taught his group classes, he had mid-level students usually teach for him. I got all the attention I wanted and was almost force fed material and pushed very hard during training. I loved every minute of it. I would watch the other students in their classes and I felt so arrogant and proud that I was learning faster and training harder than them. I progressed quickly in Xingyi, partially because I trained so hard and had a background in combat arts from wrestling and partially because I was only learning forms and techniques and the standard to gain a level was very low. Only memorization was required, not any degree of skill. After 6 years I became a black belt in Xingyi and I tought I had learned so much! I had also gained rank in several other styles of Kung Fu as well, a red sash in Hung Gar and a blue sash in Northern Shaolin. I was the instructor of the demo team and taught other classes as well. Overall I was very happy with what I had learned. But as I started my family I began to examine everything in my life and several things started to bother me about my training. <br />
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A big problem for me was that I had never seen proof of any of my teachers claims about ANYTHING. Not a single picture taken overseas, not a single video or trophy from any of the tournaments he had won, never had any of his martial family come to visit. NOTHING. It started raising other questions as well. He would give out videos to refine what he had just taught, but they weren't of the teachers he claimed he learned from. In fact many times he would incorrectly identify WHO was on the tape. When I was younger I simply thought he was mixing names up, since he knew so many people and trained with so many great teachers. Then I started to compare his claims and the years he said they had happened. In 1982 he had already opened the school I was training in, but somehow managed to spend months at the Wudang Temple, practice with Jet Li and be a private student of Grandmaster Hatsumi, the leader of the Bujinkan (Ninja school), all while being a competitive Muay Thai fighter in Thailand. Now I wasn't a complete sucker, he didn't tell me all this at once, he told me these lies over years, never stopping to think if he had said something else that would conflict. But I have a fantastic memory and I was impressed by the stories, so I remembered them all. I watched his group students and saw that most of the time they would take a video tape of the level requirements and learn a WHOLE level off of them, with barely any instruction from a teacher. And there weren't just a couple students there, for many years he had between 80 and 100 students!!! We all bought into the myth and supported each other in it like cult members do. I was initially complimented when he asked me to teach his demo team, his reason being that I was a good teacher and always pushed for technical perfection. But the HUGE point he glossed over was that I had NEVER competed in a forms tournament! I had only visited a few, since I watched them and laughed because I felt they were just dance competitions. Remember I had been recently medically discharged from the Marines and a nationally competitive wrestler, so I knew what combat was like and it can't be seen at most tournaments. I began to see how my teacher would forget basics of each style, maybe not a movement, but the name or association. Sometimes he forgot the connections of the 5 basic movements of Xingyi and their corresponding element. And these are only some of the things that I saw that weren't right.<br />
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Eventually I posted some of his videos on Youtube and I was contacted by a local Northern Shaolin teacher who told me in polite but direct terms that my teacher was a fake. He offered to prove it if I came to meet him and he would work on my Northern Shaolin material and show me how it was supposed to be done. I accepted and was completely ashamed when he easily showed how I had been mislead. He showed my the videos that the forms had been stolen from, and it stung because I had seen those same videos in my teachers office but never watched them. This new teacher became a good friend and helped me to learn a lot of where I had gone wrong. As I looked online more and more, I found other videos of teachers that had gone to my old school and challenged my former teacher and his claims, and I watched my old master almost run in fear from the challengers. My new friend who was teaching me Northern Shaolin even went and spoke to my teacher behind closed doors when I was there and called him out. At the time I was so hurt and confused, I almost quit martial arts all together. But martial arts were such a massive part of my life that I couldn't walk away. So I resolved to find the right teachers to correct my Xingyi and never again be caught by a liar. I traveled to Wudang Mt in China to train, I thought that if I started in China I would be able to know what to look for in the States. When I came home I continued my search and was able to train with some of the best Internal teachers in the US since I was willing to travel however far for lessons. It took several years of hard work and LOTS of travel, but I finally got my horrible initial instruction corrected and I wound up ahead of where I would have been, since I was exposed to so much great teaching. But for all the knowledge I have gained, many teachers today recoil when they learn about it. I have had it thrown at me that I must be fake because my first teacher was. Or that I can't have any skill because of he had none. Other say I shouldn't teach because he had influenced my understanding and I could never correct what he taught me. Some teachers have told me to hide it since any bad perception is unacceptable. Many have offered creative ways of lying about my past so I can look better on paper. But in the end its just different ways to lie and I don't want to be like my teacher and build a career off lies.<br />
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Now comes the part where I share WHY I am proud of falling for lies but I would like to share first some of the warning signs in the hopes that this might prevent another student from being taken advantage of. First, ALWAYS research a teacher before you give them money. If they make a claim, learn if it is true or false immediately. If they claim to have trained with a famous teacher, write or call that teacher and ask if its true. There is nothing rude or wrong about checking these things and if a teacher is insulted or gets upset, that is another bad sign. If the teacher has a massive video collection and has a TV anywhere on the training floor, be careful! There shouldn't be a TV out there, any video review should be done at home or in his office. Watch how the teacher interacts with the students, if he is arrogant and aloof, it usually that means he is trying to prove something. But if he is calm and relaxed it usually means he is confident and has nothing to hide or prove. If the teacher fails to train with his students or even teach them personally that is a VERY bad sign. I can understand if he is busy with another class or a meeting, but to sit and watch a student who has only been training for a year teach his new students is bad! A good teacher trains with his students to show them how to do things correctly and the right intensity, he doesn't just shout orders. Many famous MMA fighters still train along with new students to bond with them and show them how hard the new student should train. In the Marines, the Drill Instructors have a saying "I will never ask you to do something that I am not capable of doing along with you". I hate to put it that way, but there are so many fake teachers in the world that are only interested in getting your hard earned money, you should be very suspicious of a teacher at first until you make your decision. Masters should be open and friendly with prospective students, sharing and answering any questions easily and without having to think or change topic. <br />
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So my reason for being proud? First off I know I trained like a maniac, even under false instruction. I know that the skills I learned from him actually worked in real fights, at the time I was training with him I had a job as a bouncer at a nightclub and my knowledge came in handy many times. I made great friends with some of the other students and I still talk to them to this day. But mostly I am proud because learning that I had been lied to started an amazing kung fu journey that took me places I never would have gone if I didn't learn the truth. I got to see so much more of the world, train with some of the best teachers and my understanding of my arts grew so much because of it. I can honestly say for the most part I have "Been there and done that". Of course I am a bit harsh on other teachers and their claims at times if I'm not careful because I ask for solid proof or a logical explaination, but for the most part I am a much wiser student of the arts now. I actually wish I could thank my old Sifu for how my training and skills have turned out because of his actions.<br />
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There are many more ways to find out if your teacher is legit or not, and just because he doesn't meet the standards I am laying out here doesn't mean for a second he is fake. That is a very serious charge to lay against a martial arts teacher and if said can wreck his school and ability to care for his family. Be careful of who you train with and give your time and devotion to and trust that if he proves to be real, your hard work will pay off in spades. Best of luck and I hope you enjoyed reading this! Now get back to training!Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-40138398726207119202012-06-29T18:08:00.001-07:002016-08-24T09:00:32.182-07:00Pick the style, THEN the teacher!Pick the Style first.............<br />
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There are so many great articles out there that talk about how to find a good teacher, it would be redundant to just rehash what has already been said so many times. But what is rarely said is that the student should choose his style first, then the search for a teacher becomes much easier. Now this will go directly against what a Sensei in a McDojo will tell you, all while pushing a lifetime contract at you and using every high pressure sales trick to get you to sign. But for people who want a real martial art and quality instruction, the path I will describe has a high success rate.<br />
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First a student should understand that there is nothing new under the Sun. With relatively few exceptions, every style in the Chinese Martial Arts shares similar techniques and skill sets. This is best understood when you remember that everyone is built the same-2 arms, 2 legs and a head with a body in the middle. That really limits what can be done while fighting. And any good style will have explored and developed all of those tools to the farthest extent possible. So never believe a teacher who tells you about their "Secret" technique or training. That is a song that only suckers fall for. And since now we understand that most styles share many techniques, we have to understand what makes a style unique among others. I would argue it's the personality and application of the style that makes it special. My personal arts of Xingyi and Bagua use many of the same movements, but they apply them in much different ways. For example, the Hou Tien movement "Tan" is very similar in body movement to Beng Chuan in Xingyi. Or the Wing hand in Hung Gar and the Praying Mantis hand, they are only different because of minute finger placement. There are many other examples as well, if you take the time to look. So now we understand that the practitioners mind and how they apply the movement makes the style, so what does that mean for a new student? It points to a truth that every style of martial arts has a "Personality", for example Hung Gar builds and uses tremendous power, where Praying Mantis relies on speed and angles, Xingyi uses vertical circles in its movements while Bagua prefers horizontal circles..<br />
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Why is the personality of a style important you ask? Because each person has their own personality as well, and many times if the mindset of a person and their training style aren't matched, the student won't naturally understand and learn how to react instantly with the skills developed. Or they might not be able to perform the movements well enough to protect themselves. If an older man tries to overpower a younger man with a Hung Gar approach, he has a higher risk of failing than if he had used a method of defense from an Internal art. So is it worth his time and effort to train in Hung Gar? Not really! If we are looking for the best method of self defense, part of our research should be devoted to which styles we can physically perform. I know this sounds a little confusing to some people, but I think if you take the time to read and research, you will see the truth in my words.<br />
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So lets use me as an example of a student looking for a new school. I would have to look at myself and see what my personality is and how I like to handle problems and situations. I would look at my past training that went well and I understood correctly. My mindset is more aggressive than many people. I like to drive straight into problems and solve them with limited time and effort spent. I don't worry too much about manners and politeness when I am in a difficult situation. I was an All American in Greco Roman wrestling which means top 20 in the US. My experience in Xingyi has been wonderful since it fit my mentality. So taking all of this into consideration, I would look for a direct, aggressive style that favors or allows for close contact fighting. I wouldn't do well if I chose to practice Tai Chi as a martial art or Northern Shaolin which has many leg techniques. So just now I narrowed my search to what I am more likely to do well in.<br />
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Now the easy part of the search begins, I can simply start to search the internet and find teachers of the styles that I am open to and try to match how I learn to their teaching style. Many teachers love to teach hands on, but not every student learns that way. Some students learn in a more abstract manner and like to have examples and comparisons given. Also I have to make sure that I will fit in with the school population, since that is a MASSIVE factor in my future success. No one every became a master alone, without the help of senior students or a close relationship to the teacher, the chances of learning well will decline greatly. <br />
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I hope that this article hasn't been too confusing or ethereal for most. In summary, pick a style that you can easily understand WHY it does things the way it does, and look to see if you can mesh in well with the school family. But the most important part is to not take forever, every week you spend THINKING about training, you have just lost a week of ACTUALLY training! So get to it!<br />
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<br />Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5397300596221394547.post-61908457371939765942012-04-22T22:44:00.002-07:002016-08-24T09:00:54.990-07:00If you want peace, prepare for war<div style="text-align: center;">
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If you want peace, prepare for war- Si vis pacem, para bellum</div>
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This may seem a bit dramatic since we are only talking about martial arts, not international relations, but the core principle relates directly to our practice and the direction of our training. If we are visibly weak, others will prey on us. If we show that we are serious opponents and not easy marks, predators will keep away and look for an easier path. I feel that peace in life can be easily achieved by the sheer physical presence of a true martial artist. People are less likely to start problems or harass a fighter because the signs are usually very clear of their skill and abilities. Some of these are seen in external signals like the confident walk, strength in the eyes, calmness in most situations, a willpower of steel when dealing with various situations. These are often mental attributes showing, but we can accelerate and make them stronger through proper physical preparation for combat. Many people practice martial arts and don't show these signs, and I feel that increased physical training will bring them out, due to the fact that increasing health and wellness allows our true selves to show externally. And for this article we are starting from the general agreement that martial arts are purely about fighting, and the excellent mental and spiritual benefits are a side effect, albeit a very valuable one.<br />
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I will address my personal thoughts and ideas about combat training here, how to structure a solid program for practice and how to measure the gains and refine the skills and abilities developed here. <br />
The most important things a fighter needs are stamina, speed and power. Only when you have all 3 can you properly refine your technique. Many people would disagree with this, but not world champion fighters like Miguel Arrozal, my former roommate and boxing coach. Being fast, strong and have the ability to outlast your opponent give you so many more options when it comes to fighting, rather that hoping that you might have a bit of information or knowledge that the other guy doesn't and praying that it works this time. And those 3 areas of development also allow a higher level of refinement and perfection for any technique in any martial art.<br />
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So the first and most important aspect is stamina. My coaches in wrestling trained us with the motto "You might lose to a more skilled wrestler, but you will NEVER lose because you run out of gas" Physical stamina can be built in many ways, but the most effective are running and walking. Personally I have trouble running, I shattered my left leg and broke my back several years ago, so running is often painful. I do continue to run, but not as much as I did before, and I compensate by walking at least 10 miles a day. This might seem crazy, but I walk to work and back, to practice and teaching as well. I own a vehicle, but walking is so much more productive and healthy, plus I don't have to worry about the rising cost of gas anymore! Running for 30 mins a day is a solid goal for a martial artist, in addition to their training, but I mean running, not jogging or fast walking. Running will improve your heart, clear your mind and has a host of other benefits as well. I recommend running before practice, to pre-exhaust the legs and help deplete the nervous energy we all have so our practice can have greater focus. Your gains in running can be shown in covering the same distance in a shorter amount of time or in being able to cover a longer distance at the same pace. Both are valuable and should be experimented with by the fighter.<br />
Speed is a combination of physical quickness and efficient movements. If you use simple, straight movements in your applications, they will naturally be quicker than large, fancy attacks. In my school we emphasize the 8 directional stepping to teach quick foot movement and dodging to the feet. The body becomes quicker with muscle development, not training for size or power but through many repetitions of simple movements. The more simple an action is, the faster it becomes. The hands can be trained to become faster through shadow boxing or light weight training during martial arts practice. This is a one great way to build speed- attach light weights to your wrists and ankles, many sporting goods stores have wrap around weights just for this purpose. Speed can also be increased through developing sharper focus and relaxation, often the side effects of meditation or mental development. All of these methods can be implemented into any martial arts program simply and easily and they yield excellent benefits when trained for any period of time. We can see our speed increase through training when our applications become so simple and automatic that we don't have to think to apply them. That is the most important speed attribute. Often when a student commits to imporving his speed, he startles himself with how much faster he is moving and that is a great thing! You know your body better than anyone and if you develop such an amount of speed that even you are surprised, you are on the right track!<br />
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Power is one of the easiest attributes to understand, but many people misunderstand how power is developed in martial arts and how to apply it in fighting. A powerful fighter often looks nothing like Mr. Olympia and lacks the giant muscles of many actors in Hollywood. Instead they are solidly developed and their body moves as one unit. Traditional weight training is an excellent addition to training, but should not be the primary focus as many weightlifting movements are focused on single muscle groups and that works contrary to the goals of a martial artist. Kettlebells are an amazing addition to training as they are multi-muscle in nature and also help to strengthen the joints and stabilizing muscle groups around them. But most good martial arts schools have a wide array of bodyweight only movements that develop functional strength. Some of these are using iso-tension in forms, twisting the body and stretching it to force tendon and muscle rebuilding in the body, and heavy weapon training. And many schools add exercises like squats, push-ups, and pull-ups to assist in power training. All of these are fantastic additions and add a lot of power to movements. Our power development is measured through striking and kicking objects and applications. As our power develops, we use less motion and achieve a greater result in our applications, We have to use more caution when free sparring and what was a light strike before now knocks your partner down or hits much deeper than before.<br />
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Now many of the more experienced martial artists that read this might be thinking "No shit Sherlock, you aren't saying anything new". That is true, but I am emphasizing things that you might not be doing now and things that could help your training if you only put a little more focus on. And many new students of our arts might not know this and can benefit greatly from introducing some of these methods into their practice. Remember, there have been many skilled teachers and traditional fighters who have been beaten severely solely because the challenger was stronger, faster and could out-last the more experienced pracitioner. This proves that as long as we want to be serious martial artists, we should always push ourselves to develop these aspects of our bodies to enhance the knowledge and skills we already have. I have also been vague on purpose with these exercises since I am not a doctor and don't want to push a student to do something they are not capable of doing without injuring themselves. I encourage everyone to research these ideas for themselves and develop their own personal programs for combat preparation. <br />
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If a solid program is developed and implemented for developing the things mentioned here, I think that we all can reap the personal benefits that come from combat preparedness. I know there is a deeper sense of calm and I am able to be more confident and have greater self esteem in aggresive situations, which is often the deciding factor in how it turns out. I hope everyone can take something from this and use it to benefit their lives.Stone Tiger Xingyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18097906721923819647noreply@blogger.com0