Classes resuming Tuesday 4/30!

My public classes in Gao style Bagua are resuming for the summer next Tuesday, 4/30!
We will be focused on key elements of the hand and body usage in Bagua.
Please let m know if you'd like to join - the first class is always on me!

Bagua/ Xingyi Seminar Boulder, CO Feb 25 & 26

Hello Everyone,
Boulder Internal Arts is hosting Matt Autrey for another awesome weekend of Bagua and Xingyi here in Boulder, CO February 25th & 26th.
I will send another email when i have exact times and places.
If you have any other questions please contact me.




Matt Autrey
*Senior Student of Luo De Xiu of Taiwan*




*Boulder, CO. February 25th & 26th *



Matt Autrey is a senior student of Yi Zong teacher Luo De Xiu. Matt has just moved back to the United States after 8 years of training Bagua Zhang, Xingyi Quan, Tai Ji Quan in Taipei, Taiwan including 5 years with Marcus Brinkman as a private student. Matt spent many years teaching and assisting in Luo Laoshi’s class in Taiwan, his extensive knowledge and command of the internal martial arts is an asset to any practitioner.



Boulder, CO. Dates and Curriculum:



Saturday, February 25th Morning Session

Xing Yi 5 Elements Kicking – Theory and Application

This will be an excellent introduction to the Xing Yi Quan kicking methods of Hong Yi Xiang. Learn fundamental training practices, footwork, and applications of the Wu Xing (5 Elements) kicking methods. This seminar is open to public and beginners are welcome.





Saturday, February 25th Afternoon Session

Bagua Zhang - Lao San Zhang: Three Old Palms - Theory & Practice

In this seminar Matt will cover the Lao San Zhang (Three Old Palms). The Lao San Zhang (Three Old Palms) will cover traditional Cheng Ting Hua style Bagua theory as it relates to Gao Style and Sun Xi Kun Xiantian (pre-heaven) Bagua as well as its influence on Gao Style Hou Tian. This seminar is a great introduction to Ba Gua Zhang in general and the Gao system in particular. This seminar is open to public and beginners are welcome.





Sunday, February 26th Morning Session

Xing Yi Fa Jin Training – Power Development for the Five Fists

Matt will be teaching Fa Jin forms and exercises used to develop power for the Xingyi 5 Elements. He will also teach applications and fighting strategies for power usage in Xingyi Quan. Previous knowledge of the Xing Yi 5 Elements is recommended.




Sunday, February 26th Afternoon Session

Bagua Zhang Skill Building – 2 Man Drills

The Gao style Bagua Hou Tian, post-heaven, palm forms are a unique feature of Gao Yi Sheng’s Bagua Zhang system; they are preformed in a straight line with emphasis on combat application. These two person training drills will help build reflexes, timing and distance required for the usage of Bagua in a combat setting. This seminar is open to public and beginners are welcome.



Cost:

1 $175 for all Four Sessions!

2 Individually, Each Session is $50.

3 Saturday & Sunday $95 each day or $175 for both Days.

4 Preferred payment is cash (please contact if paying by check)

5 Same day registration (call for availability) $180 cash only



FOR PRICING INFO AND LOCATION EMAIL:
Owen Schilling at mailto:Owen_YiZong@Hotmail.com

Or Check http://boulderinternalmartialarts.blogspot.com/or Call 1 720 841 2404



Matt will be offering private lessons while he is in town. I highly recommend them; his knowledge and skill applied at the individual level is a fantastic catalyst for growth. Contact me or Matt at yizongwest@gmail.com or talk to him at the seminar. For more info on Matt check his blog: yizongwest.blogspot.com

Luo Dexiu & Ed Hines Yizong Demo!

An excellent demo of Yizong Bagua and Xingyi from Ed Hines and Luo Dexiu.  I really like the full speed demo Luo does of Xingyi Bashi!

Xing Yi Swallow form

Here is a video clip from the "Way of the Warrior" episode that featured Hung Yi Xiang.  The man doing the form is one of Hung's sons.

Denver Luo De Xiu Seminars, 2011

Last weekend we were privileged to have an incredible four days of workshops with Luo De Xiu of Taipei, Taiwan.

I am always blown away by Luo Laoshi's ability to transmit knowledge to people no matter where their skill level is.  I have seen people that are relative beginners to Yi Zong arts come away impressed by how much they have improved in the span of a few hours.  The more experienced people have much to gain as well, even if it is material you have been training for a decade or more there is always some new insight to be had.  Hell, I have even seen people that don't even train in our school have a great time and learn tons!

This year I had the pleasure of seeing the Xing Yi Ba Shi form for the first time.  This form is a mix of four of the five elements and four of the twelve animals.  It uses Beng (crushing), Tsuan (drilling), Pao (pounding), and Heng (crossing) along with Chicken, Swallow, Horse and Sparrow Hawk.  The form is very dynamic and definitely more advanced in how it is done than the other Xing Yi linking forms that I have learned.

As is typical with Luo Laoshi's seminars, there was a tremendous amount of application work.  The form was broken into three sections.  Each section was loaded with clear and effective applications!

I really appreciate how Luo Laoshi can clearly demonstrate the difference between the Xing Yi, Bagua and Taiji that we do in the Yi Zong school. 

On Saturday, we did the first line of the Houtian palms.  I have been doing this set of forms and their applications for at least 10 years now and I still picked up some invaluable information.  Luo Laoshi was touching on the use of the circles found in the single palm change that are contained within first line of the Hou Tian palms.  For me personally I got a lot of mileage out of this.  

On Sunday Luo Laoshi presented two different subjects.  In the early part of the afternoon we worked on the first three of line eight of the Hou Tian palms.  The second portion of the day was spent focusing on Su Ping Tui Shou.

I have not had the opportunity to learn any of the eighth line from Luo Laoshi.  The eighth line focuses on the changing of the mind and is largely intent driven.  The three forms that we worked on were Bear, Badger, and Monkey.  The applications were sweet!  Bear has some powerful crashing and arm trapping techniques.  The Badger contained some nasty, close in drilling type of striking.  The monkey was intersting in how it sucks in the power of the opponent away and returns it viciously.  

The Su Ping Tui Shou part of the day was intense and incredibly insightful.  Luo Laoshi use of small refined circles is incredible.  The layered approach that he took to teaching this workshop was great!  We started with some simplified single hand methods and then progressed to simplified body methods.  These were eventually fused together as we progressed into the actual format of Tui Shou that we do.  At this point we were shown several ways to apply techniques from the Tui Shou format.

On Monday we wrapped up with the Wu Lung Bai Wei palms.  This set of forms is very smooth and fluid and some of the mind training involved was very interesting to say the least.  One of the things I learned at this workshop was that the first three palms are considered one palm.  Not only was this an interesting way for me to look at how I am training the forms, but it was kind of a humorous thing as well.  There are seven different forms in this set, not the typical eight that are in the other two sets that I have learned.  I always thought it was a little odd, but whatever.  Then Luo Laoshi says the first three are considered to be one palm and the light goes on!  Duh!  Wu = Five!  Anyways, by stringing the first three forms together seamlessly you really begin to dive into the mind training aspect of the set.
There is a process of lengthening the mind that takes place which transfers over to application incredibly well.  While training the forms you seek to walk and lengthen the duration the changes are done while walking.  This in turn makes it so your lower and upper body can move at separate speeds but in-sync as far as tempo goes.  I liken this to using different beat counts at the same time.  My feet will move at 16 or 32 counts per measure while my arms only move at 4 or 8.
The application work at the Wu Lung workshop was killer.  The applications varied from the use of hits and throws and had some very cool head use for multiple opponent application!  I must admit I was very impressed with Luo's demonstration towards the end of the workshop.  He was showing us how to use the movement of the head and lengthening of the body to remain in control of an opponent while moving to deal with others.

All in all, I had a great time in the four days that Luo was here.  I enjoyed the company and hard training of everyone that attended and thank Luo Laoshi for his generous teachings!

Differences in intention

The difference in intention is a major factor in what sets our arts apart.

Within the Yizong school we train Hebei Xingyiquan, Gao Style Baguazhang and Chen Pan Ling Tajiquan.  The differences in intention can be seen in how the arts of Xingyi, Bagua and Taiji are applied.  This is not something that you can necessarily see all that well when someone is doing a form, but may be obvious when one is applying their intent towards another person.  I would also say that it is very difficult to feel the proper intent in your forms until you have a proper understanding of how it is being applied with resistance.  This is why it is so important to train both solo and two person practice.  If you do not train both then there is a likelihood that you are missing a piece of the whole.

The majority of my experience in this matter comes from training the Hebei Xingyiquan and Gao Style Baguazhang of the Yizong system taught by Luo Dexiu.
The intent of Xingy is such that it overwhelms an opponent with force.  Xingyi is much like a tank; it rolls right through obstacles and simply blasts things that come up against it.  Xingyi is well suited for people with a large frame.  This could be why it worked so well for masters like Hong Yi Xiang and why he was renown for his tremendous power and skill.

Bagua's intent is to overwhelm an opponent with change.  By use of my footwork and body position I produce such a variety of movement that my opponent will be overwhelmed and not be able to effectively counter my attacks.

I think that once you can integrate these aspects in your two person training you can integrate them into your forms and solo work.  The focus of the intention is key to the mind training aspect of the arts, especially during solo practice because you have no outside stimulation.

Just a few more ideas about training intent...
Intent at different levels of intensity:
I can apply my intent at different levels of intensity when training both solo and with a partner.  My intent does not have to just blast on.  It functions more like the dimmer switch on some lights.  I can play my intent light, keeping the level of intensity low so as I do not alert someone to my intentions.  I can play in the mid range, clear and in control.  I can play my intention at full intensity, overwhelming my opponent with the force of my mind and body.
Use a training partner to develop my intent. 
By training with a partner I can see where the proper use of different levels of intention can help me to effectively engage and eliminate my opponent.
Remembering how your body and mind felt when you engaged your partner and plugging that into your solo practice is the next step.  Forms help to develop focus.  If you know what to focus on and how to do it then this type of training can have great benefit.

Breaking things apart... Part 4

In the last posts I covered how I train my form, solo hand methods, and solo body methods.  Now I will discuss drills and two person work and how we can use the previous methods of isolating training pieces from a two person aspect.
In my experience, there are three general ways that I train with a partner.
- Drills
- Rou Shou
- Application/sparring
I find drills are an incredibly useful tool for training isolated aspects of the houtian forms, as well as other things we do within the Yizong system of martial arts.  Drills allow us to take the isolated hand and body methods and train them against resistance in a controlled and cooperative way. 
We will use Li (1.5) as our example for this discussion seeing as how we have used it for our point of discussion in previous posts.  Li means to encircle.  In breaking down the form we see that there are two main ways that we are 'encircling'.
1.  Encircling my opponent's body
2.  Encircling my opponent's arms
To train the encircling aspect of Li, we can use the exercises that we had in the solo methods.  Examples of each are below:

In this clip I am drilling the hooking motion from a fixed stance, feeling how the hooking/dropping motion works against the resistance provided by my partner.  I can then take the drill and add movement of the feet to see how the hooking/dropping motion leads me to encircle my opponents body.  This can be done outside as well as inside.  All aspects of usage should be trained.  The key to gaining skill through drills is repetition!

In this clip I am working on the 'arm encircling' part of Li.  As with the hooking part, I can do the arm encircling from a fixed stance to simplify things and then layer in the application of footwork.  As with most of what we do, different methods of applying the method should be explored.  Here we see an example of an inside application and outside application being trained in a drill format without much movement from the feet.

In this clip I apply footwork to the circling of the arms.  I can apply this at varying ranges.  I can stay at an approaching range to test my opponent's reactions to what I feed him, I can move in slightly so that I can gain control, or I can move to within a hitting or throwing range. At the very end of this clip I show a brief application for the arm hook.

In the following clip we see the inside and outside application being worked on from a rou shou format.  This eliminates the initial phase of going from a point of zero contact to a point of engagement.  Applying things from a rou shou format creates a situation where I need to be able to apply my methods from a point of contact/control.. This requires the ability to stick, adhere, connect and follow.  At first I do them from standing in the roushou format but generally start to move around and 'play' with the usage more.  I need to become more and more comfortable using my methods and be able to o them clearly from different situations.  It is vitally important when training to be clear in your methods.  Clarity in your methods translates to clear, smooth and steady intent and that translates to having good power.

Circling the body...

Circling the arms

The final aspect to plug in is sparring.  With sparring I take all of the different aspects that I have trained with my drill and rou shou and marry them to my different opening methods.  At first it is good to work in an A-B format where one person is working on the applications and the other is offering resistance.  Gradually you should work to increase the level of resistance and intensity and decrease the level of cooperation so that you work to a open/free form format.