Stuck at home, working from home every day, it's becoming a lot harder to make excuses why I'm not training more.
I manage a little here and there, but really with 2.5 - 3 hours less commuting each day, surely at least an hour of that could be spent training?
On the positive side, I am slowly losing weight, mostly I assume because I'm not stuck at work with only a snack machine for company. But this time really should be capitalised upon to help improve my bagua.
With things being so uncertain, though, it is easy to lose interest in things that, while loved, don't seem quite as important as finding supplies and looking after my family.
Anyhow, hopefully this blog will be somewhere I can record my victories in the training department (however minor) and that might then serve as the motivation I currently find myself lacking.
Wednesday, 1 April 2020
Tuesday, 10 March 2020
Wednesday, 19 February 2020
Naughty, naughty...
I've been away from class way too long. Injuries, family incidents and assorted other responsibilities have kept me from my weekly bagua.
I've still be practicing at home on occasion, but the quality of my "bagua sandwiches" is beginning to suffer.
Next week, we start again. This time with feeling!
I've still be practicing at home on occasion, but the quality of my "bagua sandwiches" is beginning to suffer.
Next week, we start again. This time with feeling!
Friday, 13 September 2019
The bagua sandwich revisited
Apologies for the weird title. Unless it was that kookiness that attracted you to the blog, in which case welcome!
My Baguazhang instructor sold us the concept of the "bagua sandwich". Essentially, he said, the modern world means we bagua players can't always devote hours of training each day as expressed in the traditional Chinese model. Go live with an instructor, do their chores and get paid in training is a nice idea (and a trope in many martial arts movies) but doesn't really gel well with having a full time, 40hr a week job and a family to support.
So, he explained to us that a good way to think of your training was like making and eating a sandwich. Now there are many kinds of sandwich. Some take a great deal of preparation and the finest ingredients to craft a sandwich that tastes incredible and is really satisfying to eat. Other sandwiches are literally just some sandwich paste in between two slices of generic, white sliced loaf.
Both have their value. Some days, you can devote lots of time, energy and focus to your training and craft yourself a superior "bagua sandwich", with really good ingredients and solidly put together before eating slowly to savour the taste.
Other days, time is at a premium, or maybe other things weigh upon your mind. Those days, some sliced ham slapped between a couple of slices of cheap bread is the best you can manage.
While the latter, cheaper, simpler sandwich is not as satisfying as the one that took more time, energy and focus, it still manages to stave off hunger for a while. It keeps your "bagua stomach"(?) full until you make time for yourself to have something more nutritious.
Recently, I have been having a lot of cheap sandwiches. I need to sort some time to myself so I can get back in the practice of making some truly legendary sandwiches once more. ;)
My Baguazhang instructor sold us the concept of the "bagua sandwich". Essentially, he said, the modern world means we bagua players can't always devote hours of training each day as expressed in the traditional Chinese model. Go live with an instructor, do their chores and get paid in training is a nice idea (and a trope in many martial arts movies) but doesn't really gel well with having a full time, 40hr a week job and a family to support.
So, he explained to us that a good way to think of your training was like making and eating a sandwich. Now there are many kinds of sandwich. Some take a great deal of preparation and the finest ingredients to craft a sandwich that tastes incredible and is really satisfying to eat. Other sandwiches are literally just some sandwich paste in between two slices of generic, white sliced loaf.
Both have their value. Some days, you can devote lots of time, energy and focus to your training and craft yourself a superior "bagua sandwich", with really good ingredients and solidly put together before eating slowly to savour the taste.
Other days, time is at a premium, or maybe other things weigh upon your mind. Those days, some sliced ham slapped between a couple of slices of cheap bread is the best you can manage.
While the latter, cheaper, simpler sandwich is not as satisfying as the one that took more time, energy and focus, it still manages to stave off hunger for a while. It keeps your "bagua stomach"(?) full until you make time for yourself to have something more nutritious.
Recently, I have been having a lot of cheap sandwiches. I need to sort some time to myself so I can get back in the practice of making some truly legendary sandwiches once more. ;)
Tuesday, 10 September 2019
Sounds like the plot for a chop-sockey movie...
Full original article at: The Taipei Times
Master fights to earn name for feeding crane combat
By Huang Hsu-lei and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Martial arts master and special forces combat trainer Liu Chang-i (劉長益) said he hopes to introduce the feeding crane style to the world as Taiwan’s distinctive martial arts form.
Liu, 55, has mastered the style and is a combat instructor for the army’s, marines’ and military police’s special service companies.
The companies last year jointly demonstrated their feeding crane-inspired hand-to-hand combat techniques at the Double Ten National Day ceremony, which Liu said made him proud.
The style’s emphasis on fast and deadly blows makes it suitable for military applications, where soldiers have to defeat the enemy quickly, Liu said.
“It was originally a fighting style for women. The point is to defeat the opponent immediately by using explosive power and striking at vital points, as women cannot win protracted struggles with men,” he said.
The style is said to have been created 400 years ago by Fang Qiniang (方七娘), who modified the Chinese white crane style for women’s self-defense, Liu said.
Fang’s system has four main traditions — the flying crane, singing crane, resting crane and feeding crane styles, the last of which was brought to Taiwan by Master Lin Te-shun (林德順) in 1927, he said.
Lin taught the feeding crane style to Liu’s grandfather and after that the title of the master passed from father to son, he said.
Learning the style at a young age, Liu said he began helping his father with teaching it from the age of 14 and started teaching his own classes when he was 21.
At the age of 32, Liu established a feeding crane style school in the US and he has since opened schools in Romania, Germany, Spain and France, he said, adding that he travels the world to teach the style.
Every Asian nation and culture around Taiwan has laid claim to a signature martial art, such as taichi, wing chun, karate, taekwondo, Muay Thai and escrima, he said.
“It is a shame that Taiwan does not have a representative martial art,” he said. “I want to leave behind something for the nation. I have vowed that I will travel to make the feeding crane style thrive all over the world,” he said.
Master fights to earn name for feeding crane combat
By Huang Hsu-lei and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Martial arts master and special forces combat trainer Liu Chang-i (劉長益) said he hopes to introduce the feeding crane style to the world as Taiwan’s distinctive martial arts form.
Liu, 55, has mastered the style and is a combat instructor for the army’s, marines’ and military police’s special service companies.
The companies last year jointly demonstrated their feeding crane-inspired hand-to-hand combat techniques at the Double Ten National Day ceremony, which Liu said made him proud.
The style’s emphasis on fast and deadly blows makes it suitable for military applications, where soldiers have to defeat the enemy quickly, Liu said.
“It was originally a fighting style for women. The point is to defeat the opponent immediately by using explosive power and striking at vital points, as women cannot win protracted struggles with men,” he said.
The style is said to have been created 400 years ago by Fang Qiniang (方七娘), who modified the Chinese white crane style for women’s self-defense, Liu said.
Fang’s system has four main traditions — the flying crane, singing crane, resting crane and feeding crane styles, the last of which was brought to Taiwan by Master Lin Te-shun (林德順) in 1927, he said.
Lin taught the feeding crane style to Liu’s grandfather and after that the title of the master passed from father to son, he said.
Learning the style at a young age, Liu said he began helping his father with teaching it from the age of 14 and started teaching his own classes when he was 21.
At the age of 32, Liu established a feeding crane style school in the US and he has since opened schools in Romania, Germany, Spain and France, he said, adding that he travels the world to teach the style.
Every Asian nation and culture around Taiwan has laid claim to a signature martial art, such as taichi, wing chun, karate, taekwondo, Muay Thai and escrima, he said.
“It is a shame that Taiwan does not have a representative martial art,” he said. “I want to leave behind something for the nation. I have vowed that I will travel to make the feeding crane style thrive all over the world,” he said.
Thursday, 25 July 2019
Manchester Bagua theme song?
As the class I attend is Manchester Bagua, I thought I'd have some fun with some classically Mancunian lyrics:
Bagua Supernova
By Oasis - with some help from me
Wake up at dawn, and then gyrate
With arms that are not bent/not straight
Coil and twist as smoothly as you can
Slowly circling 'round the hall
Inside an imaginary ball
Where were you while we were doing ban?
Someday you will find me
Swimming like a dragon
In a bagua supernova in the sky
Someday you will find me
Swimming like a dragon
In a bagua supernova
A bagua supernova in the sky
'Cause people believe
That their ch'i is gonna make them a winner
But me and you, we train hard too
The world's still spinning 'round, when we do what we do
Do, do, do, do...
Facing north, then facing south
Staring past the tiger's mouth
Where were you while we were doing ban?
Slowly circling 'round the hall
Inside an imaginary ball
Where were you while we were doing ban?
Someday you will find me
Swimming like a dragon
In a bagua supernova in the sky
Someday you will find me
Swimming like a dragon
In a bagua supernova
A bagua supernova in the sky...
'Cause people believe
That their ch'i is gonna make them a winner
But me and you, we train hard too
The world's still spinning 'round, when we do what we do
Do, do, do, do...
Facing north, then facing south
Staring past the tiger's mouth
Where were you while we were doing ban?
Bagua Supernova
By Oasis - with some help from me
Wake up at dawn, and then gyrate
With arms that are not bent/not straight
Coil and twist as smoothly as you can
Slowly circling 'round the hall
Inside an imaginary ball
Where were you while we were doing ban?
Someday you will find me
Swimming like a dragon
In a bagua supernova in the sky
Someday you will find me
Swimming like a dragon
In a bagua supernova
A bagua supernova in the sky
'Cause people believe
That their ch'i is gonna make them a winner
But me and you, we train hard too
The world's still spinning 'round, when we do what we do
Do, do, do, do...
Facing north, then facing south
Staring past the tiger's mouth
Where were you while we were doing ban?
Slowly circling 'round the hall
Inside an imaginary ball
Where were you while we were doing ban?
Someday you will find me
Swimming like a dragon
In a bagua supernova in the sky
Someday you will find me
Swimming like a dragon
In a bagua supernova
A bagua supernova in the sky...
'Cause people believe
That their ch'i is gonna make them a winner
But me and you, we train hard too
The world's still spinning 'round, when we do what we do
Do, do, do, do...
Facing north, then facing south
Staring past the tiger's mouth
Where were you while we were doing ban?
Tuesday, 29 January 2019
Book Review from Independent (newspaper) website - Dark Trade - Lost in Boxing
Original article at: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/book-of-the-week-dark-trade-lost-in-boxing-by-donald-mcrae-9053596.html
Book of the week: Dark Trade - Lost in Boxing by Donald McRae
Simon Redfern
Saturday 11 January 2014 19:30
Dark Trade: Lost in Boxing by Donald McRae
This last week I started reading three recent boxing autobiographies or biographies, but didn’t get far with any of them. They weren’t awful, but weren’t good either – plodding, literally blow-by-blow accounts offering little insight into the moral, emotional and financial complexities of what Mike Tyson has memorably called “the hurt business”.
I thought back to Dark Trade, because it gets to the heart of those issues in a way few other books on boxing have managed. It was first published in 1996 but will be reissued this spring, and it is still in print and available on Kindle.
Donald McRae is a white South African, a fact not calculated to endear him to the predominantly black protagonists around which Dark Trade is based. But his obvious obsession with, and conflicted love of, boxing must have disarmed them, because through many hundreds of hours of meetings they opened up to him. The roll-call of his interviewees is impressive: it includes Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Frank Bruno, Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn, Michael Watson, Oscar De La Hoya, Naseem Hamed and James Toney, plus the promoters Don King and Frank Warren. McRae plays an active part in the narrative, but his presence is enhancing rather than obtrusive as he wrestles with the sport’s ambiguities.
Death and catastrophic injuries stalk the pages, and few of the fighters he talked to escaped the ring unscathed; he grew especially close to Toney, his favourite boxer, and Toney’s subsequent decline into slurring incoherence in the Noughties provides a sad, unwritten coda.
McRae’s original choice of title was Showtime; he had planned an altogether jauntier work, emphasising the glitz and glamour of the fight game. The sombre truths he learned inspired instead a haunting, utterly memorable book.
Published in paperback by Mainstream, £11.99
Book of the week: Dark Trade - Lost in Boxing by Donald McRae
Simon Redfern
Saturday 11 January 2014 19:30
Dark Trade: Lost in Boxing by Donald McRae
This last week I started reading three recent boxing autobiographies or biographies, but didn’t get far with any of them. They weren’t awful, but weren’t good either – plodding, literally blow-by-blow accounts offering little insight into the moral, emotional and financial complexities of what Mike Tyson has memorably called “the hurt business”.
I thought back to Dark Trade, because it gets to the heart of those issues in a way few other books on boxing have managed. It was first published in 1996 but will be reissued this spring, and it is still in print and available on Kindle.
Donald McRae is a white South African, a fact not calculated to endear him to the predominantly black protagonists around which Dark Trade is based. But his obvious obsession with, and conflicted love of, boxing must have disarmed them, because through many hundreds of hours of meetings they opened up to him. The roll-call of his interviewees is impressive: it includes Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Frank Bruno, Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn, Michael Watson, Oscar De La Hoya, Naseem Hamed and James Toney, plus the promoters Don King and Frank Warren. McRae plays an active part in the narrative, but his presence is enhancing rather than obtrusive as he wrestles with the sport’s ambiguities.
Death and catastrophic injuries stalk the pages, and few of the fighters he talked to escaped the ring unscathed; he grew especially close to Toney, his favourite boxer, and Toney’s subsequent decline into slurring incoherence in the Noughties provides a sad, unwritten coda.
McRae’s original choice of title was Showtime; he had planned an altogether jauntier work, emphasising the glitz and glamour of the fight game. The sombre truths he learned inspired instead a haunting, utterly memorable book.
Published in paperback by Mainstream, £11.99
Tuesday, 27 March 2018
Martial Arts News: Nobody is kung fu fighting: Chinese martial artists ordered to stop organising their own bouts
Article taken from: www.scmp.com
Nobody is kung fu fighting: Chinese martial artists ordered to stop organising their own bouts
Sports authority issues series of orders to kung fu practitioners after tai chi master’s crushing defeat at hands of mixed martial arts fighter
The directive, issued by the General Administration of Sport on Thursday, bans a total of eight practices and follows an intense debate across the country prompted by the humiliating defeat of a tai chi master by a mixed martial artist in April.
Many questioned the merits of traditional martial arts after the fight, in which the founder of “thunder style” tai chi was defeated within 10 seconds by the MMA fighter.
In the directive, which aims to tighten regulations on martial arts-related activities, the General Administration of Sport said practitioners should “build correct values about martial arts”.
Among the top sins they should avoid were “creating one’s own style, organising a fight without a permit from the authorities, malicious attacks, slandering or discriminating against others”, according to the document.
Claiming to be the “authentic” successor of a particular art was also on the banned list, because the administrators said the practice was misleading the public.
The directive further warned against moneymaking activities such as accepting apprentices, making inappropriate remarks, creating and spreading rumours, as well as fabricating certificates for athletes, coaches and judges.
Mixed martial arts vs tai chi group brawl stopped by police in Shanghai but battle rages on online
The government’s intervention in fights between martial artists, a traditionally private activity, raised eyebrows on social media.
“Creating one’s own style of martial art [is banned]? Weren’t all the existing styles created by people? Organising private fights [is also banned]?
“Isn’t competing and finding out their strengths and weaknesses what martial artists should do?” one user commented on the social media platform Weibo.
Gone in 10 seconds – Chinese MMA fighter wipes floor with ‘thunder-style’ tai chi master
“It’s just afraid that more kung fu masters will be defeated, isn’t it?” Wang Xu, an online commentator in Beijing, wrote on the microblogging platform.
The defeat of Wei Lei, a tai chi master, at the hands of Xu Xiaodong, an MMA fighter, in April had followed a war of words over which of the two arts was stronger.
Xu, who is known for his provocative comments, had described traditional martial arts as a “farce”.
Wei, who was described by state media as one of China’s greatest tai chi masters, said he wanted to take the fight because Xu had insulted tai chi and “cursed at the ancestors”.
April’s fight between Wei Lei, left, and Xu Xiaodong ended swiftly. Photo: SCMP
Xu’s comprehensive and swift victory in front of a large crowd in the western city of Chengdu only served to pour fuel on the fire.
His microblogging account was deactivated in light of the attention he had attracted and a new account that appeared to be his was also later blocked, the Beijing Times reported.
Xu arranged a contest with another tai chi master Ma Baoguo in Shanghai in June after tai chi supporters demanded a rematch, but the fight was halted by police,
Xu later claimed that the officers had been tipped off by a relative of Ma’s in an attempt to sabotage the bout.
Tai chi master ‘sabotaged fight’, MMA fighter claims after police halt Shanghai contest
Gong Maofu, associate professor from the martial arts school of the Chengdu Sport Institute, said the directive was apparently motivated by a desire to create a better environment but whether it would be truly implemented remained a question as this was only an administrative order.
“It’s very difficult to carry out [these bans]. There’s no legal clause for reference if there’s another fight like that. It’s still unclear who is to supervise this and impose the punishment,” Gong said.
He added that it was meaningless to conclude that Chinese kung fu was weaker than Western martial arts because of a contest between two individuals.
“The result of a fight depends on several factors – who is fighting, how they are fighting, and when,” he said, echoing many internet users’ opinion that Wei was too weak to represent Chinese kung fu.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Authorities don’t pull punches with martial arts rules
Nobody is kung fu fighting: Chinese martial artists ordered to stop organising their own bouts
Sports authority issues series of orders to kung fu practitioners after tai chi master’s crushing defeat at hands of mixed martial arts fighter
The directive, issued by the General Administration of Sport on Thursday, bans a total of eight practices and follows an intense debate across the country prompted by the humiliating defeat of a tai chi master by a mixed martial artist in April.
Many questioned the merits of traditional martial arts after the fight, in which the founder of “thunder style” tai chi was defeated within 10 seconds by the MMA fighter.
In the directive, which aims to tighten regulations on martial arts-related activities, the General Administration of Sport said practitioners should “build correct values about martial arts”.
Among the top sins they should avoid were “creating one’s own style, organising a fight without a permit from the authorities, malicious attacks, slandering or discriminating against others”, according to the document.
Claiming to be the “authentic” successor of a particular art was also on the banned list, because the administrators said the practice was misleading the public.
The directive further warned against moneymaking activities such as accepting apprentices, making inappropriate remarks, creating and spreading rumours, as well as fabricating certificates for athletes, coaches and judges.
Mixed martial arts vs tai chi group brawl stopped by police in Shanghai but battle rages on online
The government’s intervention in fights between martial artists, a traditionally private activity, raised eyebrows on social media.
“Creating one’s own style of martial art [is banned]? Weren’t all the existing styles created by people? Organising private fights [is also banned]?
“Isn’t competing and finding out their strengths and weaknesses what martial artists should do?” one user commented on the social media platform Weibo.
Gone in 10 seconds – Chinese MMA fighter wipes floor with ‘thunder-style’ tai chi master
“It’s just afraid that more kung fu masters will be defeated, isn’t it?” Wang Xu, an online commentator in Beijing, wrote on the microblogging platform.
The defeat of Wei Lei, a tai chi master, at the hands of Xu Xiaodong, an MMA fighter, in April had followed a war of words over which of the two arts was stronger.
Xu, who is known for his provocative comments, had described traditional martial arts as a “farce”.
Wei, who was described by state media as one of China’s greatest tai chi masters, said he wanted to take the fight because Xu had insulted tai chi and “cursed at the ancestors”.
April’s fight between Wei Lei, left, and Xu Xiaodong ended swiftly. Photo: SCMP
Xu’s comprehensive and swift victory in front of a large crowd in the western city of Chengdu only served to pour fuel on the fire.
His microblogging account was deactivated in light of the attention he had attracted and a new account that appeared to be his was also later blocked, the Beijing Times reported.
Xu arranged a contest with another tai chi master Ma Baoguo in Shanghai in June after tai chi supporters demanded a rematch, but the fight was halted by police,
Xu later claimed that the officers had been tipped off by a relative of Ma’s in an attempt to sabotage the bout.
Tai chi master ‘sabotaged fight’, MMA fighter claims after police halt Shanghai contest
Gong Maofu, associate professor from the martial arts school of the Chengdu Sport Institute, said the directive was apparently motivated by a desire to create a better environment but whether it would be truly implemented remained a question as this was only an administrative order.
“It’s very difficult to carry out [these bans]. There’s no legal clause for reference if there’s another fight like that. It’s still unclear who is to supervise this and impose the punishment,” Gong said.
He added that it was meaningless to conclude that Chinese kung fu was weaker than Western martial arts because of a contest between two individuals.
“The result of a fight depends on several factors – who is fighting, how they are fighting, and when,” he said, echoing many internet users’ opinion that Wei was too weak to represent Chinese kung fu.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Authorities don’t pull punches with martial arts rules
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