http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/health/nutrition/02best.html?_r=3&nl=8hlth&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=hltha4&adxnnlx=1223478830-V/6HOKV/UX6MLDim5oO5Qw

But still, one of the best parts about this video is that you also get to see Lin Guozheng performing and doing sanshou with Luo Laoshi. He also leads some of Luo Laoshi’s students through some Xingyi five elements practice. Lin Guozheng has been practicing martial arts since the early 70s, starting in wingchun due to the Bruce Lee craze. He eventually found Su Dongchen and studied under him for a number of years in Japan, and then for the last 20 years or so has been a disciple of Luo Dexiu Laoshi. He’s one of the early students under Luo Laoshi and his first Taiwanese student. I learned a lot from him while I was in Taiwan and owe A LOT of my skill and understanding to his ever patient and painful explanations. Its not much footage, but alas, here’s some!

 http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=fz4zF3oBg38

It’s been a while…I’ve been really busy with school and work.  One more week of finals and that’s over!

One of the things that is constantly at the top of my mind is the concept of good posture.  We train posture constantly in Bagua.  “Structure” is the key to our art.  If the skeleton is out of alignment, you lose energy at each little weak link in the chain, resulting in powerless movement.  You’ll also get snapped like a whip anytime someone executes a move on you.

Just have George do Pi Quan on you, and you’ll see what I mean.  Your arm might be solid as rock, but your shoulder is a little too forward, so it’s a little compromised, as are the opposing muscles on your back, and so on down the chain to the ground.  The effect builds as it goes through the body, until you crumble to the ground like a bag of bones.

The muscles are what hold the body in correct posture or “structure.”  If the muscles are pulling the bones out of balance, or not providing enough stability in certain areas, your structure is compromised, so is your ability to create, transfer, or absorb force or power.

I just wanted to make a comment about this, without going into excruciating detail.  There is an excellent overview of the most common postural deviations on exrx.net, here - http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Posture.html#anchor3102554

I highly recommend checking yourself frequently for any of these deviations, and then making the necessary corrections in your training to correct them.  Your Bagua and strength conditioning, not to mention your body’s muscles, joints, and nervous system, will thank you!

Josh

Yesterday (Saturday) we spent quite a bit of time working on a certain aspect of application and principle. We talked a bit about having seen this idea before in other arts and I mentioned having seen Chuck Liddell using and teaching something similar. A student also mentioned seeing Rocky Marciano using the technique as well.

Here’s a video I found on youtube with Chuck Liddell teaching his version of this concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqf42bsTXnY

And, for what it’s worth, you’ll also see this concept in our bagua houtian later.

Hope you all are enjoying this and getting a lot out of it!

Best, George

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld3ek8i9pT4

Nonetheless, it is good to learn from other people’s mistakes, rather than having to suffer through our own. Learn the consequences of being an asshole:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXlFSXvVV7k 

Circle on and train well!

George

Anyways, here’s Luo Laoshi, with Huang Borui, Eric Liao and Scott Hoffman in the background practicing…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogCIL0pJ1CE

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH89qHE68as

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r–Y9sMVhbY

Don’t let this happen to your partner or to you…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkh5H02Iw2M

It shows Su Dongchen demonstrating fighting tactics against 3 opponents. You’ll notice the baguazhang coming out in this video as he defends, attacks, lines up and breaks down his “attackers.” It is an unscripted demo, but these are his students, so no one is getting killed or maimed.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v1sK5zBRbec

As far as I’ve seen, it’s probably the best video I’ve seen on the Internet of fighting against multiple attackers. Check it out!

After that, PRACTICE!  Go to class tonight!  Have fun!

As usual, I’ve been thinking a lot about conditioning, the purpose, the method, the madness… I just want to put up some food for thought in this post.

Training with Weight or External Resistance - this is primarily good for increasing maximum strength.  If you’re adding weight beyond what your body weighs, you’re going for max strength.

Bodyweight Training - Ever try a 1-legged squat?  Have you seen the Steve Cotter vids George posted?  You can achieve incredible levels of strength through bodyweight training.

Specificity of Training Stimulus - the more specific the training stimulus, the less additional weight you’ll use.  Using additional weight in a specific movement usually results in a confusion of the nervous system for that movement.  Essentially, you’re taking a movement you’d usually perform without any resistance (or with significantly less resistance), and adding resistance to it.  Adaptation of the body is EXTREMELY specific to the imposed demands.  E.G. - giving a baseball player a weighted bat - their swing speed slows down, and their CNS records this stimulus, resulting in confusion during actual play.  OR - Shot-putting with heavier-than-competition weight shot.  Same thing.  The movement cannot be achieved explosively, and the only thing gained is a muddling of the movement pattern firing sequence.

General Strength - that being said, general strength gains, when used in conjunction with skill-specific training, can have a very high carryover to performance.  E.G. - Heavy Squats.  As leg strength increases, the ability to generate force from the legs will increase, usually regardless of the “skill.”  You must integrate the strength with the skill, however.  Another example - Reverse Lunges with High Knee Raise - this is a more specific strength movement, but, being weighted, is still focused on gaining strength in the legs.

Isolation Exercises - Don’t waste your time - Grip strength is important to combat athletes.  Some would recommend wrist curls.  But why?  For wrist strength, wrist curls might be ok (though there are better options…see below).  But wrist curls develop the wrist flexors (flexor carpi), NOT the finger flexors (flexor digiti).  Should you use a “gripper?”  Maybe, if your grip is very weak starting out.  However, a better option is to challenge your grip during your conditioning, by doing exercises like pullups, chinups, dumbbell or kettlebell work, etc.  As far as the wrists go, work with a heavy staff.  Be sure to hit every angle.

Superset Opposing Muscle Groups - your body naturally relaxes a muscle opposing a working muscle.  That means you can get a greater contraction in that group if you work it in direct succession.  In your conditioning, do pullups then handstand work, pushups then rows, squats then pulls (from the ground, deadlift, rdl, etc), to take advantage of this mechanism.

Sets and Reps - this is really easy.  As an exercise gets easier, do more reps or add more weight.  If you want explosive power, build strength (max and isometric) first, then do movements in which you can move explosively (clap pushups and the like).  If you want to build max strength, use weights that are very heavy.  If you want to build endurance, do as many as you can for as long as you can…not complicated.

Putting it all together - a physical conditioning program doesn’t have to be complicated.  Take the six most basic exercises - pullup/chinup, squat, pushup, row/pulling, overhead pressing, “core” work (ab/lowback) - and do them.  You don’t even have to alter the variations.  If you just focused on doing the basic version of those six movements every day, you’d become extremely strong in short order.

So, for Bagua - practice first, condition second.  After practice, go through the six basic movement circuit back-to-back, as many times as you can, or break them out across five days and focus on more reps/effort (mon-pullup, tues-squat, weds-pushup, thurs-row, fri-press, every day-core), or break them into opposing movement patterns for a 3-day split (day 1 - pullup/press, day 2 - pushup/row, day 3 - legs, core every day)…

HAVE FUN!

Since today is a GPP day, you know what to do.  Pullup burpees, five sets of 1 minute, or five minutes continuous - try to beat your previous best.

That being said, I wanted to add a few words about training, and Bagua.   Conditioning your muscles to be stronger will lend to your effectiveness at Bagua, but only if you’re practicing.  The opposite is also true.

If you are only practicing, and not working out, you might come to some difficulties.  If your body isn’t prepared for motion in a certain direction, or the forces that you (and your partner) generate during practice, you’re not far away from some kind of tear, pull, strain, etc.

Similarly, if you’re working out, and not practicing, you’re going to get your butt whipped on spar-nights.  I said before that the stronger of two equally-trained competitors will always win.  I still believe that.  However, if you aren’t equally trained, it’s anyone’s game.  Anyone who has ever watched UFC has seen the fights where the big strong guy stomps the less-conditioned well-trained martial artist (remember Tank Abbot anyone?).  We’ve also seen the well-trained artist crush the big strong dude who looks like a tank.

As UFC goes on, it’s becoming more and more serious.  You don’t see too many guys getting into the ring who are flabby anymore.  Not unless they’re dumb.  The more seriously the majority takes it, the more seriously the minority has to take it, in order to survive.

That being said - Practice!  Condition!  I’ll introduce some workouts next week (conditioning workouts) that only take fifteen minutes (a la the 5-minute pullup-burpee challenges).  If you’ don’t have fifteen minutes in your day to workout, something is seriously wrong.

Leeger, out!

I recently found a blog on sports psychology and combat sports. I haven’t yet had a chance to read through the whole thing, actually I only read the first couple paragraphs so far, but I’m guessing some of you might want to check it out.

There’s a lot of good books out there on the subject. Actually, I’ve also heard that GSP recently credited his visits with a sports psychologist for preparing him so well for his latest fight with Matt Hughes.

Anyways, here’s the link:

http://combatsportpsychology.blogspot.com/ 

“She also notes that exercising in a hunched-over position can keep you from breathing deeply, and that the improper alignment of your spine can make the workout more jarring to your shoulders and elbows.

Use a natural gait, says Danberg. And “Don’t hold the handrails because it breaks the natural biomechanics of the body. We don’t go through life holding on to something.”

If you need more stability, he says, hold with one hand and move the other arm, alternating periodically.

Saremi also discourages reading while using the cardio machines: “You’re not concentrating and getting a good workout. You’re not monitoring your progress. Exercise has to engage your head. Form is so important.”"

And then Josh C. asked: “Bagua anyone?”

Do you ever think that at some point all the Jane Fonda types, and Billy Blanks types, and Krav Maga types, and yoga types will get together and take up Baguazhang?