How do you train?

[CaliG]

Awhile back we were discussing people's training routines and people listed all the different stuff they do. This is a different question my question is what is your daily training like?

JW once put up his training schedule for the week and everyday it was something completely different. On the other hand there are others who just work on the same things everyday for years and years.

I go back and forth. I've noticed that if I really want to get something down it's good to spend a few months just focussing on that thing, like striking techniques then mixing that into other drills. Then at other times I'll focus on a few different areas using modern and traditional methods and I'll get different results.

Other times I'll try to get to bjj class and roll as much as I can and I'll improve in those skills, yet I may feel a little strange when I'm back to fighting on my feet playing sanda.

What have you found works best for you? How do you balance out your training for developing different skills? Obviously working on one thing neglects those other areas and working on multiple things makes it difficult to strive at one thing.

I imagine this is the key question that the top MMA fighters were able to answer for themselves, as everyone will probably be different. I'd be curious to hear how others solved this equation.

[mixjourneyman]

I practice bagua almost every day.
Current training = try to circle walk for 20 minutes (10 min basic palms, 10 min freestyle). Do 64 palms for 40 minutes.
Currently trying to do magui style circle walking for 20 minutes plus a few minutes of practicing other skills.

bjj on Tuesday and Thursday.
Boxing hand work on the bag most days for between 10-20 minutes.

In the spring and summer I tend to practice xingyi everyday, at that time I do about 30 minutes of san ti/ wu xing practice, 20-30 minutes animals and a few minutes of single movement training.

Applications and sparring with people whenever I can.

[Darthwing Teorist]

I do Zazen and some MA training (outside class) every day. Some days I can put only a few minutes, others close to an hour.

When I will have more time, I will try to have one or two days a week when I wiil be able to Unleash the Tiger.

[JessOBrien]

Go in backyard, do some qi gong and some martial arts.
Repeat daily.
-Jess O

[qiphlow]

Go in backyard, do some qi gong and some martial arts.
Repeat daily.
-Jess O

stop stealing my routine!

[Plante]

Currently trying to do magui style circle walking for 20 minutes plus a few minutes of practicing other skills.

Yeah, I've been trying too. Kills me.

Seriously, I do circle-walking daily, most of the time it is one 40 minutes session. Then I try to alternate what I do every day, much or less randomly. Palm changes, techniques, routine, etc. I try to work on everything at least once a week but it is really a natural process.

[C.J.Wang]

I practice bagua almost every day.
Current training = try to circle walk for 20 minutes (10 min basic palms, 10 min freestyle). Do 64 palms for 40 minutes.
Currently trying to do magui style circle walking for 20 minutes plus a few minutes of practicing other skills.

What do you mean by magui style circle walking? How is it different from the cheng style you practice?

[Plante]

I'll let him reply but it is quite different. Like yin and yang.

[SPJ]

In stages, usually in the period of 4 to 6 months.

in the morning, qi gong, some warming up or short sequences of moves (soft)

at evening, some bag or pad work (hard stuff).

weekends, some weapon practice.

[Muad'dib]

I usually hold stance and walk the circle. I usually only practice the first palm chance of the bagua I do. I do form, but rather than focus on X minutes, I focus on doing it perfectly (not to say that no one else is). If I am off that day, I just don't do it. If I get it for X minutes than for some reason the form breaks down, then I stop. I'd look for a pushhands partner, but I need someone in my neck of the woods who can get up and meet me at 5 am. = unlikely.

[Ian]

If you lock your dog in the bathroom for a year, it'll go crazy.

Every training session for me has to be mind-expanding. Same principles, different drills.

And plenty of partner work. If you're not doing partner work, it's not martial arts.

[benf]

Every training session is a little different. Mosty it involves me focusing on different basic exercises, or on different qualities I should have. I try to do at least a little partner work 5 days a week.

basic exercises (non-footwork) every day
footwork every other day (though this is a product of my situation rather than what I would like to do)
form twice a week
Spinning and sticky hands (I Liq Chuan training) at least 5 days a week
Spinning and sticky hands (playing) once a week.

[mixjourneyman]

I practice bagua almost every day.
Current training = try to circle walk for 20 minutes (10 min basic palms, 10 min freestyle). Do 64 palms for 40 minutes.
Currently trying to do magui style circle walking for 20 minutes plus a few minutes of practicing other skills.

What do you mean by magui style circle walking? How is it different from the cheng style you practice?

Plante is really the expert on this, but I'll try to explain it.
Andrea Falk has been teaching bagua that comes from Ma Gui at her seminars for the last few years. The style has a unique kind of circle walking that involves the feet and legs pulling the rest of the body along with it. It has a somewhat unusual posture that makes it so that the entire torso gets a good workout every time you take a step. The walking is meant to strengthen the whole body and create a really solid internal power that can be expressed in moving like you would during the circle walking and forms. Its very different from Cheng style (which is still my main thing) in that Cheng style builds up much different qualities. The normal thing I think of bagua guys as being as fast and slippery, with hardness as an important afterthought. Ma Gui people develop a really heavy hardness and in the basics training at least, focus more on that than on the "swimming dragon" type of body movement.
The two palm changes I have learned in this style closely resemble Cheng style in outward appearance, but the actual dynamic of dragging the body along is very different.
Maybe Plante can talk more on this subject, since I've only been to a few seminars with Andrea on the subject.

[Plante]

You summed it up quite well. The goal of circle-walking is to develop whole body power and to be able to apply that power continuously in any of the techniques, changes, routines, partner work. The power that results from this training is hard and heavy, much like a tank...

[Darthwing Teorist]

This morning I took 10 minutes to review the kicking techniques that we did last night. I will try that from now on: whenever it is possible, to review the next day, or the next few days whatever I learned in the last class.