The Way of Least Resistance

At the start of this year (I'm not sure when) an article I wrote about my last trip to Taiwan was published in Australasia's leading martial arts magazine, Blitz. I'm really terrible at these sorts of things and somehow didn't even remember to buy a copy! In any event, it is now available on-line, so you can read it there. The article is edited down from the one I wrote (I can, as one fellow told me recently, get a bit verbose!) but it is more or less intact. In it I tried to layout the essential flavour of the trip, the nature of the training and the experience. It became apparent that, as always, words really are inadequate for describing such a life-changing event. So I'm afraid that I have ended up with rather more of a "itinerary description" than anything else. Still, I hope my readers will find it of some interest. I'd like to thank my senior, James Sumarac, for inviting me to write the article and for giving me the chance to come to...

While I am on the topic of the internal arts I thought I'd share with you my notes for the seminar I'm holding tomorrow on the Chen Pan Ling "swimming baguazhang" system. Background Baguazhang (Pa kua chang) or “8 trigram palm” is an ancient Chinese martial arts system that belongs to the internal (neijiaquan or wudang) school. Baguazhang is said to be a physical manifestation of the Yi Jing (I Ching) – the Book of Changes, one of the ancient Chinese classics attributed (in part) to Confucius and strongly influenced by Daoist(Taoist) thought. Legends trace the origins of Bagua to Tung Hai Chuan (A.D. 1798-1879) who is said to have learned this art from an anonymous Daoist monk in the mountains of Kiangsu province. Shifu Dan's teacher Chen Yun Ching’s lineage (as depicted on the left) traces directly back to Tung via three different sources. After becoming famous in Beijing, Tung was challenged by Kuo Yun Shen (known as "Divine Crushing Hand")...

I've just come back from 4 days of intensive training with my teacher, Chen Yun-Ching, at the Wu-Lin Retreat in Victoria. The official course was held from 7 to 10 January 2010. I flew out on the midnight flight of the 6th and managed to grab 3 hours sleep on the 3 1/2 hour flight (I told them not to serve me dinner and breakfast!). My flight landed at just after 6 am and just over an hour later we pulled into the driveway at the Wu-Lin Retreat. No sooner had I put my bags down than I saw Master Chen, who beckoned me onto the floor for Chung Yang Sword practice (James and Master Chen's niece, Xiao Yi, were practising a tiger hook sword form). A couple of hours (and some considerable sweat soaked into my long trousers and shirt) later, I thought I'd have a shower and lie down. Master Chen was going into town and would be away for most of the afternoon. However as luck would have it, my good friend Bill Mioch turned up and asked if I wanted to revise the xingyi kun (the s...