Well how about that. My last entry was in March 08. It is now Jan 09 and a lot of time and practice has passed.

Re-reading what I have written before, so much of my situation has changed. I no longer study massage, or work in the same job. I live closer to work and so don't have to spend 5 hrs per day on commuting. I get to see my son and wife more these days which is fantastic. The new job I have, even though there is more responsibilty, the pace is more even and allows me time to practice (uninterupted) during the day. I still get up at 4am to get into work at 5 and start morning practice. It really is the best time to give my self totally to the art.

I am still training for compitition, even though my progress was held back somewhat by changing events. Now however, things have settled and I have more spare time and practice partners. I still need to get my cardio to peak, and drop a couple of Kilos, but I am not getting tired during sparring so things are moving forward. Also for the first time in about three years I seem to be sleeping reasonable hours; so I'm more focused and calmer during practice. This means I moving more economically and not faking myself out so much during sparring. Sleep is really underated I must say.

Skills wise, I am working on better bridges and entries using half-step and agility for evaisive movement. My main sparring partner is a guy much taller with much greater reach, and is very lively in both the arms and legs. This caused me quite a few problems at first, but I am learning direct my initial attacks to the lower body rather than go for the head. I have used this strategy before of course, but due to my partners size I don't really have much of a choice. This has been very challanging but I am slowly making advances. Funny thing though, its like learning to swim with lead boots on. When I work with other less limbed individuals, I realize I have made quite a bit of progress.
Just like taking the boots off.

So a mate of mine comes over yesterday. I hadn't seen him in about two years; in which time he had been doing some BJJ, Wrestling and Boxing. I couldn't put any power into my strikes because of a neck injury he sustained, so we ended up doing a lot of wrestling and seeing what came of certain attacks and counters.

One thing I noticed which I hadn't thought about in a while was how useful my pushing hands training was. Not being able to strike with force ment that any shots that landed were so light they were either not noticed or completely ignored. This ment that a third of my game had been neutralized, and an accent placed upon stand-up grappling, locks, throws etc. It has been around 6 or 7 years since I have had consistant pushing hands practice, but the foundation I built over the 20 years before that has stuck with me. I found it interesting that all vigarous attempts to put me on the ground with locks, shoots, throws, head-locks and what not, really amounted to me falling back on my push hands training. The Ta Lu came in handy, with diagonal stepping and neutralizing pivots. Also just the act of being able to maintain central equilibriam managed to neutralize alot of throws. Very simple really.

Its funny though, I've spent a long time working on mobility, agility, four onces and all that jazz; but I really enjoyed something a little more grizzely. I think its just testing my root that is the appealing thing. Its a little nostalgic and good training.

Wow! long time, no flesh to plastic!

I have been so incredibly busy. I just completed moving house and home to Sydney; closer to work, study and freinds. It is great to be back
As a result of the move and the begining of the school year though, I have not practiced martial arts for around a month. I just got things semi sorted and then fell sick with a nasty gastro bug. It sez alot for getting continual excercise. The moment you slack off your vunerable to all sorts of pernicious influences.

Any way I'm on the mend now and ready to to get back on the path training up for a tournament. Across the road from my new house is a martial arts gym so there will be no shortage of guys to work with. I am also going to get back into Kali as there is a class there a couple of times a week. So things are looking good at present and I am very excited to be getting back to training.

Good things to come.................

Well; I have continued my work in the solo forms, of which the main theme is linking together very tight changes in the angles and trajectories of the arms. Because of the condensed nature of the arm frame, they are more suitable for close in work. The jin is very solid, dense and springy. Tragically, I have had only one chance to test it out on an opponent. The results were promising, but I need more time to realize the full potential, and sadly, existence has conspired to keep me extremely busy for the next three weeks, so I don't quite know when I am going to get the chance to work on it with someone. I will be working a four day, forty eight hour week, with a five hour commute, for a while and will be spending the rest of the time house hunting for a place closer to my course and work. I may be able to squeeze in a quick sparring session, but it looks like I'll be training solo for a while.

Given the limited time available for this period, I have decided to work on standing practice, leg and foot work. With the advances I've mad with the arms, it struck that I could apply the method to the legs for kicks, locks, sweeps etc. I am also hoping that this work will have benefits on general agility as theoretically, the smaller motions and increased power should produce faster movement through space. The basic method of movement (just as with the arms) is to use the changes of angles and direction of the limb to deliver the power. It is the point of change that is the crucial thing, as this is what assists in condensing the force generated. The movement of the legs are of course are an outgrowth of the circle walking and palm changes, and so will work with spiral and wave like motions; but the frame of the legs will be more condensed due of the use of a pivotal point at the centre of the lower leg. Moving with this intention works the hip joint nicely, without becoming too fixated on it.

I will of course have to work on an area I have woefully neglected; leg flexibility. Having not stretched seriously for many years and also having developed quite a bit of strength in the legs, I find myself in the possession of some pretty tight hammys. Even though my hips are quite loose, so hopefully the battle won't be too arduous. Sad really, as in my early twenties I lived in an ashram for a couple of years and practiced yoga every day. I could do all manner of contortions, the splits and high kicks.

And so to standing. It has been a while since I have worked on standing. I have two areas that will be my main focus. One is working on deep emptiness, and the other to work on spiraling energy . The emptiness is the foundation mind set of my art, and I feel a little out of touch with it at the moment; and working on the spirals in very internal way will be an intriguing experiment. Practicing the sensation of our movements is great work, and having become familiar with the spiral movement, I am going to work my insides in some creative and interesting ways. I've done a fair bit of chi gung in the past, but haven't spent a lot of time on working the spiral force in an internal way. I have a feeling it will produce some interesting effects on my abilities. In any case, standing practice is a bit like swimming; it might take a while to dive in but when you do, you rarely regret having done it.

So this is my work for the next month. I will carry on running and swimming for fitness, and hopefully when I next spar I will have some interesting skills to play with.

Zhaun Zhuang at 80kph

To get the most out of my time, I've gone back to doing my standing practice on the train. The first
leg of the journey is an hour and a half, so there is plenty of time to practice a few postures and some warm
up chi gung to prepare for when I get to work. I am pretty lucky in that the building I work in has fantastic facilities.
There is a large private garden (where I practice), a pool, a spar, sauna and a gym. I start work at 7am so
I catch the first train into town at 3.30am to arrive at 5.30am, practice for an hour or so, shower and start my day.
Of course this means that I have to wake up at 2.55am to catch the train, but if I don't, I don't get any training in;
And that would be bad!

Anyway, so at that time in the morning, the only guys on the train are builders or laborers, and they
spend most of the journey asleep; so I just stand at the back of the train and get into it. For the first year after
we moved out of Sydney, I used to practice on the train. I only stopped due to an injury and sort of fell out
of the habit. For what I want to achieve now though, for the competition, I need to stand, so I'll make use of the time.
The idea is to start working the lower more compact postures; so that the legs are mirroring the arm frame.
In order to do this there needs to be a lot of relaxation and comfort in the lower (medium stance) leg postures.

You might think that the train is not such a great environment for zhaun zhaung, but once you learn how
to relax and sink to prevent loosing balance, its surprisingly calm. Even with the constant slight
adjustments its easy enough to reach a pretty satisfactory level of relaxation. It also seems to
refine the stability reflexes as there is the constant motion and tilting of the train. There is also
the pleasant surprise after becoming accustomed to the practice, of doing zhan zhaung on
terra firma and soaking up the experience of stillness......very nice.

Gee I wish I had a youtube compatible camera!

It would be nice to show what I'm talking about without having to rely on someone else to turn up with the right gadgets.

Anyway, I spent New Years eve working, in my concierge security role, (forty story building in the heart of Kings Cross red light district). The great thing about a forty story building is that there are a lot of patrols to do, and lots of private areas to practice. So I spent (spend) a majority of my time at work, working on my art. Pretty good gig for a college job.

Of late, I've been working on putting together a handful of forms that best express my views on the necessities of fighting with Bagua. They involve tight, smooth changes, nippy and broken stepping but with a spiral flow. I also just recently discovered a new centre from which to move. It is further toward the lower back, as opposed to the "centre". This coupled with the movement of the rest of the body, gives the feeling of moving around an empty centre (as previously stated). It isn't the first time I have come across this type of practice, but it is the first time I have been able to walk continuously through my movements with this kind of body method. It is very exiting for me as the movements are cylindrical/spherical and afford me smaller, faster and stronger changes.

So tonight (New Years Eve) I was working on this stuff and in the early hours of the morning I stumbled upon some really nice changes of hand motions. They are basically condensed and mixed versions of stuff I have been previously taught, pulling together three or four single or double palms done in very tight spaces. The goal is to increase the speed of the changes while increasing the amount of power generated, and remain of course moving around the opponent. The net result of this endeavor is to be able to better control the opponent at first touch, and move to a more advantages position.

I have been working on a few things lately in regards to releasing power. One thing is issuing the strike, push, or throwing force at the moment of directional change, either in the body (torso) or in the arms and hands. I was inspired by the warriors of stillness book written by Jan Diepersloot, in which he described the act of stopping or freezing into the required frame in order to have the power come out. His third and much awaited (by me) book about Bagua was such a long time coming that I started putting some serious thought to stillness in relation to Bagua power generation. At first it seemed that with an art based on change, stopping was the complete antithesis of the Bagua method. Then I started to think about what happens at the point of directional change as a kind of momentary stopping.

For explosive fa jin, I was taught a method that used the analogy of a tea pot (half full) being drawn across a surface and then brought to a halt. At this point the liquid inside the tea pot sloushes to the side of the pot and sends energy to the periphery. This is only one method, but it works quite well. It struck me that when making directional changes, the energy used for striking is kind of "sloushed to the periphery of the limbs; and is actually made stronger or more condensed by two or three directional changes, in a short space.

This concept applies also to the point of change from coiling and uncoiling and vica versa. An example would be, in the arms say, to raise the right hand (index finger pointing) to right ear palm outward, coiling outward; then execute a horizontal inward deflection with the inside of a yang palm, to the front of the body, before thrusting a willow leaf palm straight to the front. The power that results from these (relatively) small movements/changes is quite considerable, and caused me to reconsider much of what I have been practicing.

I suppose all this is just a refinement of the things I have been practicing to date, but it feels like a completely new era in my training. I find it amusing that it should be born in the early hours of 08.

Ok, more discovery stuff.

I was training with a mate of mine the other day, and we started by practicing a few power shots on some pads to get a bit of feedback as to our progression in that area. I was working mostly on my Bagua as I consider that my main art and also the one I will use most in a competition. It was going pretty good; we smacked the hell out of these pads and gave appropriate "woh"s & "nah"s for good or not so good executions. I thought I'd try a couple of shots from my Tai Ji as well to break things up a bit, so I stuck in a couple of Brush Knee slaps and standing fists.

My partner was quite suprised at the force produced with these moves and remarked on the strength of the shots considering the distance covered. I told him I had been working on manifesting The old tai ji maxim of "where there is a forward, there must be a back, where there is a left there must be a right and where there is an up, there must be a down"; and that my take on the first two was to shift my weight ever so slightly back on the side I was not striking form, and in so doing, creating a wheel type effect that allowed a more rounded type of power to happen. In shifting the weight back the lead leg can 'open' in concert with the turning, and so create an expansion from the leg to the hand that takes the path of a sequential spiral force up the body as it is turning into the strike. This is easy to see with the opposite leg forward to hand striking.

I also pointed out that in shifting the weight, and turning just so, I was getting the feeling of moving around an empty space at my centre, as apposed to turning from or on the pivotal point of my centre. The net result of this method (coupled with a rounded arm and leg frame), being that a very round and solid flavour appears in the limbs; much like stirring a cup of tea will create emptyness in the centre of the cup and more pressure on the periphery of the cup.

Further more, I told him that I had not worked on this in great depth, apart from doing the tai ji form with this as the main theme. The reason being that I did not see it as a method I could use in my Ba Gua, as shifting forward and back in bagua slows down the walking aspect and detracts from my goal of constant motion blah di blah.

I tried a couple of Bagua strikes using this method, and they did seem good; but I just thought, better to work on something a bit more realistic.

We then started waming up to sparring with a little rou shou. Now, bearing in mind, I had been doing the " turning around empty space thing and turning like a ball" for quite a while in this session, and so, it just seemed to take over. I used it in rou shou to deflect/spin off attacks and it was working very well. It got me thinking that it was too good a thing to chuck on the scrap heap of pontentially good ideas, and made me really try to get to grips with using it in the circle walking and trying to feed it into my movements.

I am not quite sure how I made the quantum jump from not being able to do it, to being able to do it, but something happened. I could now move through pretty much all the forms I know, and by making slight adjustments to the speed and weight shifts/arm motion timing, I could manifest a very different quality. It is a work in progress, but has given me a few good things to play with. Turning the opponent is very easy now as a result, because the force expands strongly to the outside of the arm frame; and the replenishing aspect of the movement means that I have energy constantly moving outward in all directions. It is very exiting. By condensing the frame I am able to make the movement of force continuous with small changes of angle and direction. This gives way to the odd lashing out with whippy type strikes, then collecting the force back up again.

My partner and I spent a lot of time working on piercing palms against jabs, crosses and weighty punches. This was good practice for me, especially because my partner was much taller than me, so I had to work hard to get on top of his arms. When it worked well, the wedging and spiraling qualities of the piercing palm turned the opponent and opened access to the back. I want to do lots of this practice so I can learn to capitalize on the loss of balance and also get around to the back.

The more you polish, the more it shines I suppose.

So I started running the last couple of days to up my fitness level. I put a little thought into it and decided to incorporate some of the principles of the Bagua. I figured to use the time efficiently; I would run in the manner of circle walking. I train in front of a large cricket field which has a circular boundary. So there I am knees bent, gripping the floor with toes and arms out stretched, running around the field, doing kicks and half steps. I got a couple of funny looks from passers by. It made me think of the old Monty Python Sketch.

Because I find running inherently boring; I also started working in palm combinations, much in the manner of a boxer, except using bagua hand techniques and whole body spirals. This was much better. I found a hard time justifying spending my training time just running; but now I can kill two birds with one stone, I don’t feel so bad about it.

Sparring last week was better than the week before. I guess some days are just better than others. I was trying to figure out what the difference was, and if it was anything I could replicate in the future. I realized though that it probably has something to do with not being at college, as I am on a break for the Christmas holidays. It is amazing what consistently good sleep will do. I am a bit concerned with the oncoming semester as I will be going full time; but hey, were there’s a will.

Any way, the things that were working for me were finding gaps more easily; and stepping well. This was mostly due to sensitivity I think. I don’t feel so numb from tiredness, so I can actually feel what is going on and sense movement better.
My solo practice is a lot of fun at the moment. I have a Tai ji form that is basically turning into Bagua, from the spirals taking over; which I can handle for the moment; and my Bagua practice is feeling smooth and full. Getting the power into both hands simultaneously is becoming second nature now and my centre is consistently driving the movements. Feels natural.

I don’t have any poles to practice nine stations with, so I have taken to working with young trees. The branches and stems are nice and springy, and move out at lots of different angles, so I can strike or glance off them, duck under and roll around them. It is a good exercise for training timing, variety and spatial awareness.

Got sparring practice tomorrow morning and some free time before work so I'll do some extra training.
I am slowly recruiting different stylists into my practice sessions as I want to train against guys who approach things differently. I have a couple of kick-boxers coming down next week so that should be interesting.

Wow, exams are finally over! Talk about stepping through mud! Any way now I can devote more time to training.


I am so glad that I have studied Tai Ji. Apart from the solo practice which has given me hours of joy in my life, heightened proprioceptive awareness, and a strong and flexible body; the partnered training and the way it has been taught to me, has been the ideal foundation on which to build the mind set for combat.

From the very first introduction to pushing hands, I was given strict instructions not to let failure rattle me and to constantly seek out the softest approach to over-coming my opponent. It was all too easy to be pushed a few times, and start becoming stiff; or loosing to someone less experienced or stronger and fall into the blame game, "your not doing it right" sort of thing. I was taught to embrace a self-effacing, calm, questioning and zen like approach. The reason for this was nothing to do with piousness, but everything to do with survival; and on a number of levels.

Just in terms of longevity in the art, and getting the basics, these attitudes are very helpful. Also for realizing where the fault lay when considering where things went wrong. I remember one teacher saying "if you feel hardness, its coming from you", and another telling me " wer'e usually at our strongest when we find our weakness". The general rule here was to keep on learning and to retain emotional control. There was also the meditational aspects of Tai ji that were carried through into partned training. These not only gave us a completely different veiw of what was required in the arts, but also helped unlock our minds enough to just do what was required.

Another very important side to the meditational approach was that it made the action more continuous and flowing. Not just in the good times, but also when things started to get rough. Practicing stillness of mind is a superb answer to getting smacked in the head. If your meditaions was good, you did not react to it; you would just carry on with your buisiness. It is simply because the stillness can be used as your anchor. This guards you from becoming angry and loosing it, over extending yourself, or being stunned into a worse situation.

There is inevitably some level of freezing, or shock experienced during fighting. I think however, there are ways to minimize the length of time this effect takes place and set yourself back on track. Having a good plan or strategy is one; but refocusing into the state of stillness is also very useful, as it allows you to take care of the follow up to the ones that gets through. This is where the training becomes invaluable in the shortening the moments between getting caught and getting back on track.

This kind of mind set has carried through to my bagua practice. Even though there is a stronger emphasis on forwardsness, there is still a sense of the clear and calm to carry me through the changes. Or its the carrying through the changes (in a continuous manner) that brings the sense of stillness. Not quite sure; I think one most likely feeds the other.



Work has been very quiet lately, so I have had plenty of time for solo practice. Main aspects at the moment are footwork, changing rythym , disconnecting with the ground and returning without breaking the spiral flow (useful for evading sweeps and kicks); and also working on tighter changes of arm angles, so I can slip into my opponents defensive gaps.
The foot work is very fun and, even though I'm not panting at the end of a session, it is reasonably good work for the CV system. I have always had nippy feet, but I am really working hard on 1) using the internal force to drive the speed and dexterity of the feet, 2) use of the internal force to add to my leg techniques. The arm work is very much concerned with training the pivotal points on the forearm to facilitate sticking to and rotating around the opponent’s arms. This allows adjustments to the angles of attack and defense, while also glancing the opponent’s arms ‘off line’ with the pivotal points, yet not loosing contact with them.

My partnered work at the moment is confined to one on one, but a freind and I are trying to recruit a bunch of guys into a "free for all" type practice, that I mentioned before. It is like swimming with lead boots on when you take them off, everything is so much easier.

Thats it for now I think.............time to train.

Testing Blog entry function per member request

Worked on Na and getting out of bad situations over the weekend. Clinches and getting locked up never has been a favourite place of mine, so working on a weakness in posture or position and finding ways to move out of it is a good one for me. As a rule I try not to get captured, held, pushed or impacted on in any way without turning. This way I generally throw of whatever force is landing on me. However letting someone put locks on or grabs and dealing with it from a position of weakness (leaning backward, having arm or head locked or being steam-rolled) is good practice. Not that I ever really want to be in a position like that but some of the techniques I use can be pretty risky and have the potential to go horribly wrong. Starting off in a compromised position also helps to tighten up the moves and find smaller spaces to fit into to turn the situation around.

On reflection, these are the things that shone out for me. There is always a point of weakness in your opponents attack; in getting out of a tight spot (lock or clinch) finding the opponents empty and spiraling/peircing through it is pretty key; and if you can step in another direction (no matter how small) it seems to split his attention and disrupt his balance long enough to turn it around. Also stepping to a position where he is brought outside his base is very helpful. Another thing related to this was that footwork is so important. Knowing the direction you want to go in order to move into a better position goes hand in hand(no pun intended) with the feet being well set up for the task. This sounds obvious but really takes presence of mind when pressed. Also precursing every move with a movement in the opposite direction assists in finding space to get things started and on the move. Other things that helped once it was possible were, striking/stomping as soon as possible to distract; jostling and standing on the foot to unbalance him.

As I said it is not at all where I would want to be, and work hard to avoid these positions, but as the classics tell us, those who look for problems tend to encounter them the least

On the weakness theme; I picked up a couple of nasty bruises on the shins. This keeps happening from time to time, and is very annoying. I can attack quite well with my legs, but I get caught with the short kicks at close range too often to say that I'm good at defending. I will have to look into improving this; maybe better guarding on the way in? I'll have to check it out.

I finally got hold of My freind David and we will start training again this week. He is six foot plus, a good kicker and doesn't let me get away with much. He is going to pull a few of his mates into it as well. Looking forward to this.