Justina Revolution

I did my 5 phase routine with some loosening exercises and then Cosmos Palm followed by a rousing round of Swimming Dragon Baguazhang. I am settling into a pattern here. Morning Baguazhang and evening Xingyiquan.

My injured right shoulder is beginning to regain function. I started playing with the Xingyi long form last night not as a rote drill but as a playful form of self expression. I drill the basics faithfully and I then work on making them alive in a freestyle long form. I think this is where most of the incredibly complex forms came from.

I am going to invite my students to create their own forms as an advanced exercise. I think that is a useful thing to do. There is too much memorization and not enough art in martial arts nowadays. Learn the basics rigidly. Ensure you have good structure and sound technique. Then move into creative pursuits. Not just fighting but the creation of forms that express your temperament and ideas about the arts themselves.

I think we treat the forms of old masters as sacrosanct ancient things when instead we need to stop imitating the old masters and rather seek what they sought. If you want to be like Guo Yunshen, the Divine Crushing Fist, then you have to train like him. In Baguazhang you have eight trigrams. Drill those until you cannot get them wrong.

In Xingyiquan, you have 5 elements and 12 animals. Learn them well. You have these basic techniques. These jibengong. They are the alphabet. It’s up to you to make words and sentences.

You must have good basics, a strong healthy body, and pressure testing. Given all of these elements, you will wind up as a superior fighter regardless of the discipline you choose.