1,000 Days of Bagua: The Preamble

Okay, so elsewhere on the information superhighway, you may have come across the concept of "100 Days of Bagua". Not sure who came up with the concept, but essentially, it requires you, the bagua player, to commit to training Baguazhang at least once a day, every day for a continuous, 100 day period. Usually starts with the new year in a resolution type way.

Really good idea, and a task I have undertaken a couple of times. Both times failing a few weeks down the line. So, perhaps hoping to redeem myself, or maybe by way of punishment, I have corrupted the idea into 1,000 Days of Bagua.

Essentially, on April 6th (in a few days - this Wednesday, to be precise), there will be 270 days left of the year. 270 + 365 + 365 = 1000 (days).

So, if I begin on Wednesday, April 6th 2016 and train Baguazhang each and every day until 1st January 2019, then I will have completed 1,000 continuous days of Baguazhang training.

Why am I deciding to do this? Well, weirdly, for me it sounds like the kind of thing I would find easier to keep going. And, anything that encourages me to train more can only be a good thing, right?

So, to add a little detail, to avoid making my training a chore, anything more than 10 mins counts. However, it has to be focused, good quality training. And, after a few weeks, I will work out my average training time per week and make adjustments to improve upon that on a monthly basis - where possible.

As often as possible, I will try to log or at least recount in retrospect what training I have managed that day/week.

Watch this space.

Afterglow. Ermm...?

Last night,  after practicing single palm change for perhaps as little as 10 minutes, I experienced something of a revelation.

At class just the Monday before,  teacher had mentioned a curious sensation often felt after walking the circle.  The sensation of aliveness of the limbs and big hands.

I had dismissed it as something people of greater ability would perhaps feel, but didn't expect it to happen for me.

Yet I did, indeed, feel just that.  Could have been my minds creating an experience I wanted to share.  But I'd like to feel that, on that night, at least, I was "doing it right".

Making a sandwich...

Excellent class tonight.

Discussed the idea of quality and quantity of daily training.  Something I've mentioned on this blog before. 

The analogy of having a sandwich was used.  While it is possible to make the perfect sandwich (steak and onions with lettuce, tomato and English mustard, on a granary baguette, maybe?) with the right amount of time and resources, sometimes a piece of bread and dripping is all you can manage.  Or maybe a helman's sarnie spread butties?

If all you can manage is 10 mins, that's.  If you've got the time but can't be arsed,  just do something simple.

Doesn't matter what you do...  Only that you do.

Makes it much more enjoyable,  too - and creates a playful mindset.

Working Bagua into your day.

The most difficult obstacle to daily practice for me has been the idea that I need to train all in one go.  For the average, western bagua player with a family, taking 60 minutes or more out of your day to train isn't really viable.  Not all in one go, at least.

I find that I can manage 20 mins after I get up in the morning or alternatively before work sometime.  10-15 mins can be racked up during my lunch hour at work.  Then maybe 40+ mins before bed.  So, on a good day, I can manage well over an hour of practice.

Even being more conservative than that, 5 or 10 mins here and there is much better than nothing.  Who can't spare 5 mins a few times a day?

So, really, even at my busiest or laziest times, there is no excuse for not practicibg Bangazhang every day.

Needs must...

With our home life being so chaotic right now, I feel quite proud of myself having just managed 10mins of bagua practice in my lunchbreak here at work.

Wasn't very dignified, jiben shou fa in a toilet cubicle - but felt productive nevertheless!

Training

Well, new year has been well and truly seen in and so it is way past time to resume bagua training with renewed vigour.

Using '100 days of Bagua" as both an excuse, if validation is at all needed, and more importantlu as a hashtag to make the log of my meagre strivings easier to find (and pigeonhole).

Managed a little last night but a combination of Marlboro and single malts compromised the effectiveness of the routine somewhat.

Nappies Before NeiGong II: The Training Montage

Okay, so my '100 days of Bagua' is taking a really beating as often I find myself doing little more than some basic leg-strengthening or even ten minutes of stancework as my daily practice.

When you have a baby (8 months old and already into everything), there are simply many more pressing issues than perfecting your crashing palm that have to be attend.  Even once they have been attended to, often exhaustion means the last thing you feel like doing is racking up an hour of stance work.

But here are a few ways I have managed to combine training into my daily routine/babycare regimen.

1. Chickenstep whenever pushing baby's pram.
2. Engaging calf muscles whenever walking or pushing pram.
3. Practicing Jiben shou fa in toilet cubicles at work (not ideal, and strive for the cleanest cubicle possible, but saves embarrassment and awkward questions).
4. Squatting rather than bending down to pick things up/access low shelves.
5. Holding various (innocuous) stances on tram to and from work.
6. Sitting down and getting up from chairs using one leg at a time.
7. Standing on one leg whenever motionless for a while.
8. Lying with kwa open while watching tv.

They are hardly in-depth exercises that will unlock bagua's secrets for me (with the possible exception of the jiben shou fa), but they do allow me to maintain momentum in my improvement more than if I had simply done nothing between those all too infrequent training sessions.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Proud of myself tonight.  I discovered that I have managed to forcibly change my attitude.

Whereas normally, I would put off my bagua practice til later - sometimes even bargaining with an offer of twice as much practice tomorrow in exchange for less practice today - tonight I felt the compulsion to do some bagua, was about to put it off til later, then got up and did 40 of each jiben shou fa exercise.

I'm on the right track, at least...

Nappies before Neigong

I appear to be stretching the bounds of this '100 days of bagua' already as the only training possible last night was some chicken-step while I attempted to sing my daughter to sleep.

This just reiterates what I have said in previous posts about training that I can do in concert with my daily chores being better for me as things stand.

Hopefully, some Tian Gan wil be in effect tonight.  Added to my usual leg strengthening (I started bagua just over a year ago with really weedy legs for a guy of 6'3"!)

Living on a razor's edge...

No bagua so far today.  A restless six-month old will do wonders to raise the priorty of a lie in at six in the morning, trust me.

The chinese have a phrase 'heavenly stem' (tian gan), which sounds really wonderful and pleasant.  However, if you train in bagua, then the phrase calls to mind only pain.  It refers to a series of strengthening exercises that put the body through its paces.

These were what I was intending to train today.  Perhaps they are better to complete this evening.  That way, if I am knackered then I can go straight to bed.  Or the sofa.  Whichever is closer.

100 Days of Bagua - The early days

My 100 days of Bagua kicked off yesterday while I was still at my parents' place in Lincolnshire, celebrating the new year.  My training was pretty minimal, but I did some jiben shou fa.  Piercing palm, chopping palm and crashing palm were performed in front of a large mirror - which I found to be a great help.  This may be worth noting for the future - if I can do some of my practice in front of a similar large mirror, maybe this can help me with my forms?

Tonight, I will probably do some more jiben shou fa and maybe some leg-strengthening exercises.  Don't want to do too much as I have overdone the festitivities a little of late, we only got back to the flat a few hours ago and I am back at work tomorrow morning.

It's a rollercoaster ride, once it starts, it never gets going...

Still having a bit of a random training regimen for my bagua.  The odd bit of formal practice here and there, but mostly I am finding ways to strengthen my legs, for example, as part of my daily chores.

I hope to instill a more formal and useful training habit when I complete the '100 days of Bagua' challenge this year.  Essentially, the challenge is to train bagua (for me, at least one hour) every day for 100 days, starting on New Year's day.

I've essentially stolen the idea from something I saw online, but the long term effect will be, I hope, a routine of daily bagua practice that I can continue once the challenge has been concluded.

I will also blog about the training here - so stay tuned.