We will continue on with this exploration and other simialiar explorations over the up coming months. I will also work with other material for example palm (Yi and Xin) energy, weapons, YiXinGong etc. As well as other skills that I’ve learned in my time in the art.

I’ve found that by going back and reviewing the “Basics”, I’ve found to be more structurly sound, more song(void of unnecessary tension) in my standing.  My ability to create the sensations in YiXinGong quicker and stronger. These improvements then flow into my shifting, walking and applying these skills which then also improve two fold. 1 by having a better connection internal and 2 improving my individual skills ie shifting. This is just within the Drogon Rolling the Pearl program. By going back to these “Basics” it will then it will have a similiar effect when working on the individual palms.

So as we start a new year I’ve started going back to the beginning.

We then spent a class playing Anzhangfa, this is a form of push hands. In this exercise/game it brings you a little closer to sparring. However this is still a sensitivity training excercise that is more complex. What makes it more complex, is that you’re walking and in the excitment of playing the game there is a tendency to move faster. When you notice this happening, you need to remember to slow it down. We did this as a warm up for the workshop we went to in Toronto a couple weeks ago.

http://bagua.ca/two-dragons-at-play-workshop-review-part-1/

http://bagua.ca/two-dragons-at-play-workshop-review-part-2/

We also followed up after the workshop with some more Anzhangfa aka two dragons at play.

Finally last week, we went back to working on the basics of linear walking, by attempting to refine our skill even further. A couple things that were focused on were dropping our root and making stepping smoother

At the being of the class we worked on refining the circling the circle stepping pattern. I have found that this particular stepping helps in developing your ability to have nimble feet, as well keeping well balanced while moving and changing directions.

In a previous week I had been working on the Big Dragon Turns around stepping pattern and how it can be applied as a means of counterning a hammer lock. So on Thursday myself and Charles took some time to play with what I had been thinking. We then started playing with a few other locks and how to escape them by utilizing core Jiulong Baguazhang principles and specific attitudes. This was very interesting and we had a lot of fun playing with these and we look forward to playing with more of then. With any lock there is a key to unlock it, I’m just paraphrasing something Shifu John Painter has said.

For an update of the Gathering see my personal blog http://hamiltonbagua.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/back-from-the-gathering-of-the-circle-fire-palm/ .

Last Thursday, Troy and I spent some time discussing some of the concepts and worked with countering a grappling styled take downs from a static position  and head locks. This was very interesting, in that timing is paramount, especially if you’re stationary.

After our discussion we decided to look at how to deal with a variety of kicks while circling. This was a really informative learning lesson, as we found that similiar themes occurred among each of the different kicks. For the most part how we handled a front kick, side or back spin kick with very similiarly. By using basic footwork to get us slightly away from the kick, while moving closer “attacker”. While other variations of kicks we only needed to make minor adjustments to how we handled the other kicks.

The more I experiment with this art I find the less I need to learn in the way of techniques. I just need to get really good with the basic concepts and principles and make them natural and fluid.

The Thursday following the workshop it started with some discusion about the wedge and then moved into some basic exercises.These are exercises that help you get an idea of how the wedge should feel, getting the angles, footwork and structure correct.

After this, we then started to play with the wedge vs. a straight punch, and wedge vs. an upper cut to the body. We kept it simple, just keeping to a single step. The interesting thing that we found is that there is very little difference between the two. This makes it a veritile tool in self defense. Remembering and internalizing a single concept is easier than 5 or 6 different techniques.

Last Thursday, we started off with some discussion on the Ba Step and then spent some time working on it. There was also some time spent playing with a game to work our night swallow stepping. Before we did another exploration of the wedge. This time we took some time to look at it vs round house kicks to the upper and lower torso. This was also kept to a single step, but we also acknowledged what would happen next if we were to keep moving.

I look forward to more playing with the wedge in it’s different layers. Here are a couple links to blog posts with video clips from the workshop recently presented about the wedge, http://bagua.ca/secrets-of-the-secrets-of-the-wedge and http://bagua.ca/secrets-of-the-secrets-part-2 and http://bagua.ca/secrets-part-3-disciplined-freedom .

Click here :  Secrets of the Secrets Part 2

Here is the first of 3 articles reviewing the weekend, complete with some video!

Click here and enjoy.

We also took some time to review the 5 circles, looking at some of the finer points on how some of these circles worked. After this, we looked at how these work with in the context of a martial application. During this, we took some time to look at the principles that were at work or not during the different applications. This was very informative as it helps to reinforce you’re understanding of the principles.