1,000 Days of Bagua: Day One

Managed to practice my baguazhang during my lunchbreak at work today. Or, rather, at the park near my work. It was pretty windy and cold, despite the bright sunshine. So I had to keep my overcoat on for the full five minutes of basic hand movements and single palm change.

Doesn't really match the iconic image of the internal martial artist that I have gained from watching way too many martial arts, herioc swordplay and chop sockey movies. Call it is misspent youth, if you will, I consider it a valuable education.

The movies, though, really hammer home the idea of an internal practitioner, honing their art for hours on end. Usually at sunrise and probably while sporting an impressive pair of pajamas (possibly shiny).

I, on the other hand, was wearing a pair of camouflaged combat trousers, a t-shirt, fleece and overcoat and a pair of Everlast trainers. Not exactly iconic, is it?

Still, it was good, focused practice and I must have been doing something right, as my be-trainered feet were slowly drilling down into the muddy, sodden grass.

After that, I went on with my usual, lunchtime walk. It felt really good to take a break and do something I actually enjoy in that time of day normally reserved for the drudgery of work.

First day of 1,000 Days of Bagua has been a success. Roll on tomorrow's practice.

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.