Smoky Mountain YSB Study Group Information

Beginning Yin Style Baguazhang in the Lion System

By Jim Lindsay

Knoxville, TN, (Smoky Mountain) Study Group

"The most important thing when studying the martial arts is not to be lazy. These skills are not easily attained. For them, one must endure a lot of suffering." - He Jinbao, 2006

The quote above, put plainly, summarizes training in Yin Style Baguazhang for beginners and advanced students alike. Laziness will not get you there, and many of the exercises and training methods are difficult and uncomfortable, sometimes to the point of painful.  The Lion System, being represented by the Qian (Heaven; Pure Yang; Three Yang Lines) Trigram of the Yijing’s ba gua (eight trigrams), is said to be the fastest road to developing the body for this art, and in that, it is probably the one that leads to enduring the most suffering on the front end. The Lion System representational posture is considered to be the most challenging of the eight, rivaled perhaps in discomfort by only one other. With a mind set with the philosophy of the Qian Trigram, though, training in the Lion System can be accomplished.  Below is a meek attempt to indicate how to go about that as a beginner.

Though there are four pillars of training in Yin Style (standing, striking, turning, and changing), perhaps the most iconic of the pillars is turning, which is the exercise of walking in a circle while holding a particular system’s strengthening posture. As it is a primary focus of the training in Yin Style, turning is of the utmost importance and should be a part of training on as nearly a daily basis as is physically possible.  The Lion representational posture is demanding, though, so listen to your body and let it build gradually.  Standing practice can help you develop the proper posture and can increase the strength of the body in the posture, so stand frequently. The best way to progress in turning, I think, is to endure each time as much you can without changing the posture or having to rise up in your stance. When you cannot hold the posture correctly, cannot stay low, or cannot endure the discomfort any longer, change sides either with a strike or a form and continue.  Attempt to maintain the posture as much as possible, shaking it out when necessary to relieve built-up tension, but doing so only when necessary. As He Jinbao has said, “Training is training, and resting is resting. Resting is not training.”  Still, after turning on each side for as long as possible a couple or a few times, hang it up for the day and rest. 

Alternatively, set a time that you’d really like to strive for and go for it, changing sides as often as needed, sometimes every few times around the circle.  Some of both types of training are helpful in building your body and pushing your envelope. Just remember, each day your body has changed since the day before, sometimes becoming stronger and sometimes holding on to fatigue.  It’s important not to get attached to the ideas like “I turned for fifteen minutes yesterday, so I should be able to do it today.”  Some days you will; some days you won’t.  Learn to let that be okay. Just do the best that you can each day, and let it creep upward as you develop. Don’t be afraid to rest occasionally too, as your body needs it. He Jinbao is fond of saying that turning is one of the best ways to improve every aspect of a person’s baguazhang, so definitely do not neglect this cornerstone of your training – the one said to be the most basic and eventually most profound training method in the art.

Striking practice is one of the fastest ways to develop the power inherent in Yin Style, and so it too needs nearly daily attention. At first, some of the strikes are very difficult, or perhaps you will find that all of them are.  That’s fine.  Like with turning, do as many as you can with your posture and technique as precise as you can make them while still putting out a reasonable amount of force.  Think about the requirements of the techniques, and slowly your body will adapt to them. For a while, you might aim for particular numbers, but this should be outgrown, as what is much more important is being able to feel when you are able to keep the proper technique and fullness in your power. The numbers will come naturally that way.  He Jinbao has said, “After you do a technique a thousand times, it can be said that you know it; after a thousand more times, it can be said that it is becoming a part of you; and after a thousand more times, it can be said that you are beginning to be good at it.”  You’ve got to do a lot of striking to develop the martial side of this art.

Particularly, since the strikes are the basis for the martial application of Yin Style, it is important that you train them with the proper intent.  Keep in mind the uses of the techniques that you’ve seen and the directions that the force naturally flows.  At first, the strikes should be trained standing still (static training method).  Later, stepping methods should be incorporated because the true applicability in the technique lies therein. In both practices, striking is a very valuable way to begin to develop harmony in your body and in your movements. When striking in a static method, for instance, the waist should govern most of your movements, as it is the power-base for the Lion system. Thus, you can learn to have your waist be in harmony with your hand. When stepping, hand-foot harmony is very important: try to focus on putting the foot down so that the hand and foot stop in their motion simultaneously.  A lot of attention is needed to this particular requirement, but don’t be in a hurry.

Train daily. I have a saying on this matter: “never zero.”  What I mean by that is that I try to get in some training every day.  For myself, I train at least the standing Lion representational posture, Lion Opens Its Mouth, daily, though for longer on some days than others.  I also try to turn daily, typically succeeding at least six days a week, though the amount varies from ten minutes or so up to more than two hours straight (n.b.: the first time I tried to turn for fifteen minutes straight failed miserably, so don’t give up!). Strikes vary widely, from doing only a few to doing a few thousand in a single day (which wears me out!).  Forms are the same, sometimes seeing some neglect and sometimes being practiced dozens of times in a day. Every day, though, there is training.  You may feel overwhelmed sometimes, like there’s too much to train or like there are only so many hours in a day. That’s correct.  Don’t try to train everything in a day. Pick a few things and work them, trying to develop particular skill and competence, even understanding, with those things before moving on to a few others a few days or weeks later. Even when I don’t feel well, I visualize, discuss with other group members, watch some of the videos, or contemplate the techniques, forms, and their uses. There isn’t a day when there isn’t training.

This is very important, actually, because classes only meet maybe once or twice per week in most locations.  If your training is only once or twice per week, then you cannot expect to get much or go far in an art this deep and vast. For me, at least ninety percent of my training is on my own and at home, which is probably in good agreement with almost everyone that trains in Yin Style the way they should be.  If you don’t have a good home practice, then you don’t really have a practice, we could say.

Finally, remember that Yin Style Baguazhang is an internal art.  While in some people these words conjure up images of fantastic abilities, those aren’t the goal or what is meant here. Internal arts use the mind actively and constantly.  In every aspect of your practice, you must think about the requirements, especially during training, but even in contemplation. The art is experiential.  You can think about Lion Posture all day and learn less than you would have by training it for ten minutes and paying attention to the forces and sensations in your own body.  The striking and forms practice are full of application as well as the proper use of body mechanics and qi.  These must be considered while practicing.  Turning is a veritable treasure chest of learning once you really get underway with it.  First, just try to do the exercises correctly, and once you feel more comfortable, start paying more attention to yourself while you’re doing them. One of the best ways to start to learn all of this as a beginner, as they say, is by doing it and constantly focusing on the requirements, all of them that you are aware of.  Hold them in your mind even when you cannot yet find them in your body, and soon they will begin to manifest for you. Consider the goals of the particular postures, strikes, forms, etc., and try to focus your mind on those goals.  If you are training hard and still can’t figure out what they are, ask. If you’re not training hard, don’t ask; train harder first.

Dr. Xie said in one of his interviews another aspect of the internal that is very important to consider: every movement has a purpose and an application, and like is taught in the Yijing, the macroscopic is contained in the microscopic and vice-versa.  For instance, the entire art has a meaning; within it, the Lion System (inter alia) has a meaning; within it, each form has a meaning; within each, each series of movements has a meaning; within each, each movement has a meaning; and within each movement, even, each small part of the movement has meaning and application. Each is a reflection of the whole and yet is its own part of that whole. I use this to mean, for now, that attention must be given to every detail and yet to the big picture as well. As they say, “off by an inch is off by a mile.”  The mind must be very active, and your training should be thoughtful, considered, and intelligent.

So, after all of this, what is the most practical advice that I would offer to a beginner in Yin Style Baguazhang?  Work hard, pay attention, practice a lot, and don’t give up.

Note: You can check out Jim Lindsay’s blog “Becoming the Lion” for additional insight in training in the Lion System.

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