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Why Stick Training?

The basics:

  1. Fun
  2. Hands change together
  3. Feedback
  4. Extend senses
  5. Conditioning

Starting over

Submitted by michael young on 2024-07-18 13:50

     I've been gone from the community for a while. Having gone through a series of traumatic events over the last few years my body has also gone through some very significant changes. Engaging with the training is often a very frustrating experience in the sense that I am often comparing my experience of my body with what it used to feel like. Those two things are nothing alike. My body is uncomfortable to be in at ll times and there are certain patterns that are locked in and make feeling anything other than that pattern seem impossible. Practically a reversal.

5 Martial NeiGong

  1. Dragon Extends Claws
  2. Crane Strikes Down
  3. Tiger Draws In
  4. Monkey Reaches Up
  5. Snake Coils Out

What are Your Thoughts on Rest and Recovery?

Inside the Brain: Unraveling the Mystery of Alzheimer's Disease, an educational film by the National Institute on Aging.

The amount of energy needed for Internal Development is tremendous. Physical yes, everyone assumes that it will be arduous and bitter, but the mental requirements exceed, by far, the body part of MInd-Body Training. Rest AND recovery is essential. I have a specific program of self-care that helps students' understanding of active and disciplined recovery, not just hitting an arbitrary sleep duration target.

How Sleep Flushes Neuronal Tissue - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glymphatic_system

 

What Is Fascia and Do We Train It?

Fascia Forum topic

I teach that fascia is important. If you break it, you suffer greatly, so follow instructions.

Student asks,

"Can you do things with the fascia? Can you fight with the fascia, can you feel the fascia? etc"

I answer,

"Everything you do relies on the fascia, but you can't manipulate it directly. Besides, the indirect experience of the fascia doesn't feel anything like how the anatomy looks."

Why Don't You Talk About Qi?

I do talk about qi, and FaJin, and other esoteric phenomena. However, only as an aside to the training methods that actually produce the effect. For a number of years there's just no point. After a certain stage of development, you will come to me and say, "There's this feeling that I get. What's up with that." I will answer, "Oh, that's not important, keep training exactly as directed." Later, at another stage, you will tell me, with some confidence, what it is.

Two columns

Submitted by pchou42 on 2023-11-09 21:26
Inky sketch of shift and side thrusting routes

Today I was doing what I am calling the modified planking. Just leaning forward against something in a seated position. When I do this I feel like I am able to better feel a stretch on my back that I cannot feel standing vertically nor do I feel like I have the ability to sense these stretches doing the normal planking.

Closing out Standing

Submitted by ian wesley on 2023-09-14 10:32
Light Switch On with reflections

I started standing back on April 12th.  Looking back on that time I am both stuck by how much progress I have made and how much more work I have to do. I have been through a few "seasons" of feelings about my practice.  At first I was very excited and progress was quick and easy.  My body was changing quite quickly and I was feeling better almost every day.

Provoking step and neck

Submitted by pchou42 on 2023-08-16 17:28

Yesterday I was doing the exercise with the stick where we do the provoking step and chamber and then step back and switch sides and repeat. I didn't notice the feeling while doing the drill but after I stopped I felt like my neck in the front and around the collarbone area felt like it had been worked or stretched out a bit. But today I am feeling some soreness in the back of the neck around the c6-c7 area. Just wondering if that is something expected. I thought the provoking step was about the breast bone and ankles and the chambering about pulling the breast bone back to the center.