What makes your solo training sessions?

[bailu]

Hi guys,
Just wondering, what do you guys do when training away from the dojo/kwoon/dojang and without a training partner?
Are there any specific things that go into your home workouts?

For me:

Main-stays: (Mostly Tai Chi based)
Wu-Xing Zhan Zhuang (5-form standing post)
Yang Tai Chi long form (holding postures)
Xing Yi 16 Exercises Neigong
9-Circles Neigong
Bagwork (focusing on full body connection & Jin training + expression, rather than just wailing on the bag)

Supplement exercises: (only sometimes training these aspects)

Xing Yi:
San-ti Shr
Pi-Quan
Beng Quan

Bagua:
8 Mother Palms
Single Palm Change
Double Palm Change
Dragon Serves Teacups
Yin Yang Palms

So, what about everyone else?
When there's noone around to train with, what do you work on?

[bailewen]

For me, that's most of the time. I've been in a bit of a slump lately but I think that it's just end of the school year enuii.

Ideally (and really not so uncommon, slump or not):

Morning Taji practice. 1 set that takes from an hour to an hour and a half depending on my mood.

Evening Baji.
3-5 Sets XiaoBaji
3-5 Sets Dabaji
1 Set of Dabaji with breaths-about 20 minutes for this one
3 sets of sword
3 sets of spear
Jingang Ba Shi - individual moves, maybe 20 - 50 reps each.

That's about 1 1/2 hours right there, especially when you include stretching out a bit between sets of pausing to do a little more creative work in the middle.

Occasionally I will add 1/2 hour or Xingyi 5 fists or Bagua circle walking but only if I'm feeling peppy enough to get out and practice a little on the early side. These days I seldom get both morning and evening workouts in. Meh. Another 2 weeks and I'll be on summer break again.

[WVMark]

Most of the time, form is secondary to function. Most forms can be utilized for solo training as the form itself is not the focus. Forms are MA specific while building a martial body is formless and MA-less.

Some of my solo training:

Spine being pulled upwards from a hook in the head, which naturally tucks the chin (not a forced tuck) while spine stretches/pulls downwards. The higher/lower I can get without tension in the body, the better. Des the form really matter? Whether I stand still in a "tree-hugging" pose or with arms straight out to the sides, the concentration/intent/imagination of the spine work should still be there.

Right hand to left foot and left hand to right foot. Identify and strengthen those pathways. Whether standing still or moving, that crossing of the body without tension in the body is worked/practiced such that same side movement is eliminated.

Open/Close of the legs where one knee goes up/back while the other knee goes in/down.

Using the psoas region/connection to lift the legs with minimal quad muscle usage.

Removing tension from the body.

Keeping the shoulders from getting disconnected. Keeping shoulders as if they were being pulled in to the spine and then down the spine.

Moving from the spine rather than initiating movement from specific areas of the body, especially shoulders and hips.

Contradictory forces.

Spirals.

Lines of intent/imagination.

Free rotation of upper body and waist around the spine.

And of course, using a physical form for all the above does include weapons work. But, weapons forms must adhere to the principles of the solo training. Going through a weapons form while having dedicated weight all on one side isn't training the principles, but negating them.

As I've learned in kali, stick trains knife trains empty hand, but it usually applies to external martial movement or skills. Those solo training drills are practiced and they adhere to the principles. Good weapons forms/drills/kata will work to develop those principles, not against them. You then get both, working an external martial movement while building the internal martial body. Good martial systems work both.

Solo is but one part of three for training. Another part is partner work. Partner practice is where you build the martial body and external skills under varying degrees of pressure. The third part is freestyle where someone is actively trying to get the better of you in some manner. Using a purely external boxing example as it's the easiest to portray, solo training is bag work and shadow boxing. Partner work is sparring (where someone is still coaching you on what to do). Freestyle is the competitive fight against an opponent who wants to KO you and win. All three parts can be going on at the same time. No one ever stops learning, stops training, etc.

[edededed]

Mostly, when I can, I do something like this:

Bagua:
Walking
Various exercises
Spear exercises
Maybe one random routine

Xingyi:
Standing
Various exercises

I'm not nearly as disciplined as Bailewen or others, but I've lots of excuses ready Like no time because of work, etc...

[kshurika]

xingyi wu xing stance training, fixed-step forms, moving-step forms and linked forms at least 1-2 hours every day. I can do 4 hours on my one day off.

Heavy bag training 3X week.

Animal forms whenever I can (but I'm a little slack here).

3 1-hour privates/week.

Iyengar hatha yoga every day.

[johnwang]

- equipment training.
- running.
- kick combo.
- knee combo.
- punch combo.
- elbow combo.
- lock combo.
- throw combo.

The reason that I prefer to train combo instead of solo move is I can double my training and force me to train my "set up".

[bailu]

The reason that I prefer to train combo instead of solo move is I can double my training and force me to train my "set up".

I like that

[DeusTrismegistus]

I need to do more of the combo training.

For me its based on mood or things I just feel I need to focus on. It could be standing qigong, standing taichi exercises, stepping patterns, single movement line drills from taichi, xingyi 5 fists, other forms from my teachers system. Sometimes bag work but I have to go to the gym for that and haven't been much lately.

[Alexander]

Specific:

A Couple of standing postures for half an hour
Bagua circle walking (basic palms) (basically more of the above, but moving this time)
Bagua two forms (old palms, beginning of swimming form)
Bagua investigation (working with new movements from the forms to try against weightbag, or shadowboxing)
Xingyi 5 elements
Xingyi linking form
Xingyi animal forms

3 x week bag work


Nonspecific:

Running
Conditioning
Weight lifting

The most important thing I learned in the past year is to try things until they feel right, not until you've completed a pre-determined number of reps. E.g. I do Pichuan until I really feel my whole body smack at once. Doing things until they click "internally" is my interpretation of the IMAs, whether or not that's how IMAs actually work..haha.

[kshurika]

Alexander wrote:

The most important thing I learned in the past year is to try things until they feel right, not until you've completed a pre-determined number of reps. E.g. I do Pichuan until I really feel my whole body smack at once. Doing things until they click "internally" is my interpretation of the IMAs, whether or not that's how IMAs actually work..haha.

Full agreement here.

[mixjourneyman]

xingyi: santi and five elements. Practice animal forms enough to remember them, but most of the focus is on the elements.
Bagua: circle walking and sixty four palms (about half of the training session is dedicated to each)
Xingyi bagua: circle walking, single and double palm changes (I'm new to the style so I'm putting quite a bit of work into a couple basic things so that I can get the feeling of the style).

[johnwang]

The most important thing I learned in the past year is to try things until they feel right, not until you've completed a pre-determined number of reps.

This suggestion may not apply to the throwing art training.

One move that's in my daily training is to bend my upper body forward and kick one of my legs back up as high as I can as showing in this picture. So far I still don't "feel right" about it. Since most of the throwing posture will require that you use one part of your body to fight against another part of your body. You want to bend/twist your body to the maximum but you still want to remain balance and not falling. The harder that you bend/twist, the harder that you will need to fight back in order to remain balance. If you "feel right", you must have done something wrong.

I do Pichuan until I really feel my whole body smack at once. Doing things until they click "internally" is my interpretation of the IMAs, whether or not that's how IMAs actually work..haha.

I used to do XingYi 5 elements daily until one day that I felt whether I did it once or 100 times, my body won't feel any difference. I felt just like if I used to run 6 minutes a mile and one day that I decided to run 12 minutes a mile. My body felt so good that I could fall to sleep and my body still doing it. I replaced it with other more challenged drills that I can never do it right like "leg lift" drill instead. The Taiji "brush knee" was also one of my daily drills. I feel exactly the same as my XingYi Pichuan, it just feel too "comfortable" to train.

[Alexander]

The most important thing I learned in the past year is to try things until they feel right, not until you've completed a pre-determined number of reps.

This suggestion may not apply to the throwing art training.

One move that's in my daily training is to bend my upper body forward and kick one of my legs back up as high as I can as showing in this picture. So far I still don't "feel right" about it. Since most of the throwing posture will require that you use one part of your body to fight against another part of your body. You want to bend/twist your body to the maximum but you still want to remain balance and not falling. The harder that you bend/twist, the harder that you will need to fight back in order to remain balance. If you "feel right", you must have done something wrong.

I do Pichuan until I really feel my whole body smack at once. Doing things until they click "internally" is my interpretation of the IMAs, whether or not that's how IMAs actually work..haha.

I used to do XingYi 5 elements daily until one day that I felt whether I did it once or 100 times, my body won't feel any difference. I felt just like if I used to run 6 minutes a mile and one day that I decided to run 12 minutes a mile. My body felt so good that I could fall to sleep and my body still doing it. I replaced it with other more challenged drills that I can never do it right like "leg lift" drill instead.

Good points. I think it is probably different on some levels doing solo training for a throwing art, since your reactions inevitably depend on your opponents body weight and direction. Hard to "visualize" body weight clinging onto you.

I'm not sure if I quite understand your last paragraph, but I'd say it's a good thing that you changed your drills -- but there could be two different things here.

A) You may be doing a drill, the drill becomes easy, and you just get comfortable (bad). Sometimes I realize that every day I suck, even though I learned more. 5 years later I still suck at something, but then suddenly someone who comes along who has studied something for 1 year, and I feel like a genius. I guess it's all relative, but getting "comfortable" is never good in terms of learning. I recently have been running about 10-12 miles a week, for the first time in my life I'm a regular runner which has been great for helping my asthma. I thought I was running pitiful distances and rates (and they are), but then I started sparring with 2 people who were out of breath before I felt any elevations in my breathing rate. Because of the relative nature here.. the comparison.. I realized I sucked a little less than I thought.

or

B) You aren't getting much from the drill, or the drill has become easy/useless/not-applicable to whatever your purpose is, so you change and re-define your goals (good). Sounds like you did the latter.

[johnwang]

I like to do a "forward sweep" followed by a "leg lift". After my "forward sweep", I need to pull that leg back, rotate my body 180 degree, land that leg behind me (stealing step), and kick the other leg back up. While I'm doing all this, I'm standing on single leg all the time. I like the challenge of the 180 degree body rotation, single leg balance, and body flexibility. The feeling is different from my long fist drill, hook punch, back fist, upper cut that both of my feet are always on the ground. When I get older, my "1 step 3 punches" drill that I did all the time when I was young just no longer make me feel challenged and excited.

[AllanF]

taiji yang taiji (once 30mins)
chen taiji yilu 10 times erlu 5 times (though the temp has just jumped here and as i don't have a shady spot to practice or a good covering of hair for my bonce i have shorted the time outside.)

Single movement each exercise do for 10 mins then change 5 exercises in total. These exercises are similar to the ones Mark describes in purpose. (So is taiji taolu of course).