PHILOSOPHY AND PROCEDURE OF TRAINING
Chi flow
Question
Since practicing I have had many benefits of practice like overcoming asthma, haven't been sick/had a cold for at least 8 years, much happier than before and having a lot of energy.
Despite that, there are still some physical blockages which I wish to overcome.
My practice in general is as follows. Sometimes I miss morning or night.
Morning: Chi kung and chi flow 1 out of 2 times. Iron Wire, chi flow 1 in 2 or 3 times
Evening: Chi kung chi flow, Stance training 20-30 mins (All stances but I end when I start to feel more than minor discomfort and do some short chi flows in between), Chi flow, leg stretching, Sequences and sets 30 mins, end with chi kung chi flow.
Night: 5-10 min of Small Universe and end with chi flow.
I am training so I can use my kung fu for fighting and intend to enter competitions. I go to MMA class once a week to get used to sparring with and understand how the MMA people fight. I do feel that I need to increase my internal force/ presence of mind/ solidness and agility of stances/ stamina in order to win against good fighters.
Can you shed some light to improve my practice? Should I practice less? Would I get more result from practicing more? What type of practices/ skills should I focus on? To get more result in breaking through blockages and also sparring.
Is training for fighting (especially force training) contradictory to breaking through blockages?
I understand that past masters practiced 8 hours a day including 2 hours stance training without chi flow. How can they manage such a thing?
I understand there is gradual progress. But in the past I tried to increase my stance training for example by increasing by 1 minute per 2 weeks in order to stand in Golden Bridge for 20-30 minutes. It seemed to aggravate blockages, getting angry, tensed and negative thoughts occasionally in daily life. Is it positive or negative? I discontinued that type of training just in case.
Jas
Answer
Although yours are personal questions, the answers also apply and are very beneficial to many people. I shall address your questions point by point.
>> Since practicing I have had many benefits of practice like overcoming asthma, haven't been sick/had a cold for at least 8 years, much happier than before and having a lot of energy.
Congratulations. Considering that nowadays many people are sick, depressed and lacking of energy, your achievement is remarkable.
This shows not only you have been practicing correctly but also smartly. Thousands of chi kung and kungfu practitioners have been practicing correctly according to what they have been taught for much longer time than you, but they remain sick, depressed and weak. They have not been smart.
They are not smart enough to realize that their practice does not give them the benefits it is supposed to give. They are also not smart enough to learn from the best available teachers, whose fees may be higher but eventually they will get better returns for the money and time spent.
>> Despite that, there are still some physical blockages which I wish to overcome.
This is natural. There are also emotional, mental and spiritual blockages which may be more important but which you may not be so aware presently. The cleansing which clears blockages, as well as building and nourishing which will make you stronger and better, are cyclic.
You need not do anything extra or special. Just carry on with what you have been practicing, which has brought you remarkable results, then let the benefits come naturally. In chi kung terms, this is yu-wei followed by wu-wei.
>> My practice in general is as follows. Sometimes I miss morning or night.
Don’t worry or intellectualize on it if you occasionally miss a session or two. So long as your practice is regular, it is very good.
>> Morning: Chi kung and chi flow 1 out of 2 times. Iron Wire, chi flow 1 in 2 or 3 times.
Your practice routine here in the morning, and the other two in the evening and at night are good even without any changes. But I make some suggestions to make them even better.
You can skip the “chi kung” exercises at the start but go into a chi kung state of mind, have a brief and gentle flow, then proceed with Iron Wire. Follow with chi flow. If practicing Iron Wire every day is too powerful, you can interspace with exercises of a similar genre, like One-Finger Shooting Zen and Triple Stretch. The whole session takes about about 15 minutes.
>> Evening: Chi kung chi flow, Stance training 20-30mins (All stances but I end when I start to feel more than minor discomfort and do some short chi flow in between), Chi flow, leg stretching, Sequences and sets 30 mins, end with chi kung chi flow.
Reduce your training time from about an hour to about 30 minutes. Instead of performing all the stances, just perform Horse-Riding Stance or Golden Bridge for about 10 minutes. Once a while you can go over all the stances well for a review. Follow with leg stretching and subsequent chi flow for about 5 minutes. Then practice a set and some sequences followed by chi flow, which will take about 15 minutes. You can rotate the other sets and sequences around the ones you choose as your specialties.
>> Night: 5-10 min of Small Universe and end with chi flow.
This will ensure you have good health and vitality beyond a hundred years.
>> I am training so I can use my kung fu for fighting and intend to enter competitions. I go to MMA class once a week to get used to sparring with and understand how the MMA people fight. I do feel that I need to increase my internal force/ presence of mind/ solidness and agility of stances/ stamina in order to win against good fighters.
While training to win free sparring competitions and restore the glory of kungfu is a noble aim, the first priority is to enrich your life and the lives of other people. Having good health, vitality, longevity, mental freshness and spiritual joys, as you have mentioned at the start, is evidence that you are progressing in the right direction.
I am sure you will win free sparring competitions if you follow, not just read about or listen to, the strategy I have explained. If you still haven’t got access to the secret webpages I have specially posted for those interested in winning free sparring competitions, please request the access particulars from any member of the Free Sparring Competitions Committee.
Joining a MMA class is a supplement, not a necessity. Your objective should not be to learn how MMA practitioners fight or how you fight using MMA. Your objective is to have opportunities to spar with them using your Shaolin Kungfu, not using MMA techniques. This would be difficult in a MMA class because you would be obliged to use MMA techniques
If you have opportunities to spar with martial artists of other styles, you don’t have to join a MMA class or any class of other martial arts. In fact, joining such classes will be detrimental to your aim of winning free sparring competitions. You will be learning and applying techniques which you are not good at, against opponents who are already expert in these techniques. You need at least a few years to catch up -- when you already have a superior art to use against them. In my free sparring analogy, you are using knives and sticks against expert fighters of knives and sticks when you already have guns.
We are very lucky. We have an amazing opportunity in your siheng, Kai. Request him to conduct more workshops with opportunities to spar with martial artists of other styles, and encourage more people to take part in the workshops. But you must use kungfu skills and techniques in your sparring against these other martial artists.
Many people in our school, including some instructors, still do not realize this though they honestly think they do. They know, in theory, that they should use combat sequences, but when they spar they use individual techniques. But at least they don’t bounce about and use kick-boxing. The next essential step in the path to win free sparring competitions is to progress from technique fighting to sequence fighting.
Stance training
Let me share with you a secret of masters. It actually does not matter what martial arts your opponents are trained in when fighting in a competition. Once you apply your combat sequence effectively and relentlessly on them, they have no chance to use their MMA, Muay Thai, Kick-Boxing or whatever fighting techniques they may be good at!
Of course, you must be very well trained in your chosen combat sequence, including covering yourself very safely and bridging the gap effectively when your opponents retreat. Shaolin combat Squence 10, White Horse Presents Hoof, and Taijiquan Combat Sequence 5, White Crane Flaps Wings, are excellent choice. If it is not allowed to kick an opponent’s groin, Taijiquan practitioners can use a thrust kick instead of an organ-seeking kick.
If you just repeat and repeat your combat sequence effectively and relentlessly on your opponents, they will be unable to defend against your pressing attack, simply because they are not used to this type of fighting. This situation will last for at least 2 or 3 years. But when our practitioners keep winning competitions using this strategy, others will be used to it and will be ready with effective counters. If you use the same sequence but attack them with individual patterns, instead of continuously as a sequence, they will whack you like a punch-bag.
Right now you have sufficient internal force, presence of mind, solidness as well as agility of stances, and stamina to win free sparring competitions. You don’t have to train for another six months to prepare. Enter competitions now at a local level, and as you gain confidence and experience progress to international levels in six months.
>> Can you shed some light to improve my practice? Should I practice less? Would I get more result from practicing more? What type of practices/ skills should I focus on to get more result in breaking through blockages and also sparring?
Choose Shaolin Combat Sequence 10, or any combat sequence you like, placing importance on safety first and chasing after opponents effectively. Enter a free sparring competition, and just apply the sequence. It is simple, direct and effective.
You don’t have to add more time to your daily practice to prepare for free sparring competitions. Just incorporate the sequence into your daily routines.
Focus on quality, which includes wise use of strategies like the one I have advocated, and you will achieve more results in breaking through blockages and sparring as well as other benefits in less time. Being cost-effective is a hallmark of our school.
If you attend the Xingyiquan at UK Summer Camp 2013, you will learn a Xingyiquan sequence that is so bafflingly simple yet exceptionally effective in today’s free sparring competitions. It employs the same principles as I have been emphasizing all this while, but the Xingyiquan techniques and footwork are even more simple, direct and effective. In fact I had an aha experience discovering this fact when preparing myself to teach Xingyiquan.
>> Is training for fighting (especially force training) contradictory to breaking through blockages?
It depends on how a practitioner trains. For most people, training for fighting, including force training, is contradictory to breaking through blockages. The injuries sustained in sparring as well as tensing their muscles in their force training and sparring practice increase their physical, emotional, mental and spiritual blockages.
In our case, training for fighting, including force training, promotes breaking through blockages. In sparring we emphasize safety first. While other practitioners exchange blows generously, we do not want to be hit even once. But even if we are hit many times, our chi flow clears away the blockage and damage.
Our training, for force as well as sparring, increases both the amount of energy and the vigorosity of flow. This promotes breaking through physical, emotional, mental and spiritual blockages.
>> I understand that past masters practiced 8 hours a day including 2 hours stance training without chi flow. How could they manage such a thing?
They could do so through sheer dedication. The term “ku lian” which literally means “bitter training” is widely heard in kungfu circles. It is so different from our slogan of “making our training fun”. It is no surprise, therefore, some people think that our training is a joke, if not a big lie. Their loss is that they never bother to find out our results.
When Robin was in China looking for genuine masters to learn from, he found a school where students spent 8 hours daily on zhan zhaung. They had a lot of internal force, but obviously little time for anything else.
I asked Robin how did our school compared to that school in terms of benefits and efficiency of internal force training. Robin told me it was incomparable. Robin did not elaborate which school was better, but the fact that he learned from us (and is now an excellent Taijiquan master) instead of from that school was a sufficient answer.
>> I understand there is gradual progress. But in the past I tried to increase my stance training for example by increasing by 1 minute per 2 weeks in order to stand in Golden Bridge for 20-30 minutes. It seemed to aggravate blockages, getting angry, tensed and negative thoughts occasionally in daily life. Is it positive or negative? I discontinued that type of training just in case.
Gradual progress is very important in any force training. The other very important principle is consistent perseverance. I learned these two essentials in any force training years ago when I trained Iron Palm.
Suppose a practitioner has 100 bricks with thickness ranging progressively from 0.1 of an inch to 2 inches. Every day he hits a sand-bag to increase his strength, and every 3 days he breaks a brick starting with the first one of 0.1 inch. Anyone with average strength should have no difficulty breaking a 0.1 inch brick though he may not be able to break a 2-inch brick.
As the practitioner gradually and progressively increases his strength with his daily hitting of the sand-bag, he would have no difficulty breaking the second brick slightly more than 0.1 inch thick on the 6th day. As he progresses gradually and progressively with his consistent practice he should be able to break the 2-inch brick after 303 days.
But after breaking the 25th brick, he jumps to the 35th brick instead of attempting the 26th brick, he may not be able to break it. He has not followed the principle of gradual progress.
Or after breaking the 25th brick he stops practicing for a week. When he resume his practice and attempt breaking the 26th brick, be may not be able to do so. He has not followed the principle of consistent perseverance. The longer the lapse of training, the more he loses the force he has earlier acquired.
If the lapse is long, he may lose all the force or benefit that he has acquired in his previous training. This is known in Chinese (Cantonese) as “chien kung jun fai”, which means “previous force is all lost”, a situation all informed practitioners would avoid.
If one can stand in Golden Bridge correctly for 5 minutes, it will be good result. He will have sufficient internal force for today’s situation where the standard of martial arts is low. Many people may be angry at this statement, but it is true. Being hit and kicked is regarded as normal and many martial artists are out of breath after 10 minutes of free sparring.
Instead of aiming for 20-30 minutes in Golden Bridge, it is better to aim for 5 minutes performing Golden Bridge perfectly, with total relaxation and mental clarity. In our school, “less is often more”. Don’t force yourself to increase by 1 minute after every 2 weeks. Let the increase be gradual and spontaneous.
First, yu-wei. Then, wu-wei. The yu-wei part is performing Golden Bridge perfectly, even for just a few seconds. The wu-wei part is to enjoy the practice, instead of worrying about your result. You may start with just a few seconds, but with gradual progress and consistent perseverance after a few months you will find yourself enjoying internal force and mental clarity in your Golden Bridge. And when you spar, regardless of whether your opponents use MMA, Muay Thai or any art, you will be surprised that their attacks lack force and you can see their movements clearly.
Your blockages being aggravated, your getting angry, tensed and with negative thoughts occasionally arising were probably due to your wrong Golden Bridge training. The wrong training was due to your worrying about increasing the time by a minute every two weeks, which probably caused you to tense your muscles to endure longer stance as well as be mentally stressed
As these effects are harmful, they are negative. It was wise of you to discontinue. On the other hand, thousands of martial artists are not wise enough to discontinue training where they submit themselves to be punched and kicked by their classmates or teachers.
Sequence sparring
The questions and answers are reproduced from the thread Stages of Cleansing, Building and Nourishing: 10 Questions to the Grandmaster in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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