How has your training changed you?

[BonesCom]

So I've thought about this a few times and I was reminded this morning while walking from the train. In the morning all the business type people rush off the train and start storm-troopering to work. I've noticed that even if I hang back and am the last one off the train, I usually "head the pack" of storming office-types. This got me to thinking "Wow, pretty sure I never walked this fast when I wasn't training" then I started thinking about other ways I think my training has changed me (mostly bodily, mindily a little).

What about others, I know there's the token posture change but do you fellas find you have changed the way you breath/walk/travel stairs/other day to day movement since you started training?

I always say that the changes I've noticed (increased walking speed, belly breathing, increased balance on public transport, "quick" direction changes, "reading" people intention in walking crowds) are the benefit of IMA over EMA but that's probably because I practice IMA and not EMA. Any comments/funny encounters?

Bones

[mixjourneyman]

Took up taiji, got fat....


Meh

[Darthwing Teorist]

It's all chi, James!

[cerebus]

My training has made me older. When I first began training in the Asian martial arts (Judo & Jiujitsu) I was 8 years old. Now I'm 39... Damn martial arts....

[BonesCom]

It's all chi, James!

Ahhhh!!! that's why it don't happen with EMA. Actually it can't be chi, I release too much jing into my towel...

[BonesCom]

Took up taiji, got fat....


Meh

Excuses excuses, "I assure you Dr it's the taiji"

[Michael Babin]

I took up taiji in the early 70s cause I had done a year of karate and then a year of jujitsu and both were too much damn work for an 20 year old who fancied himself an intellectual and was lazy on top of that...

Five years later, I had had several taiji teachers locally and was sure I was the cat's pyjamas in terms of my forms and push-hands...

Then I met my first real martial taiji teacher, Allan Weiss, and I had to face the ugly truth that I really knew very little in martial terms. Five years later with him and then several more years of doing escrima as well as a couple of Chinese hard styles, after that and I was sure that I really knew it all THIS TIME. I was teaching taiji by this time ...

Then I did many workshops with a host of modern experts for ten years as well and learned something about bagua and xingyi and later Sun-style taiji and began to realize that while I knew something it was hardly as profound as I had hoped though better than I sometimes feared ...

Nowadays, I am getting old and should be mature enough to lay off the martial arts, but there are still so many questions to be answered and so much to learn. The biggest change has perhaps been that I have stopped obsessing about getting "answers"/"secrets" and am putting more effort into really understanding the relevant questions.

[Daniel]

Wow, Bones...that´s a long list.

...ummm, the things you mentioned, and lately, over the past two years, my arms are now so dense I have to watch it when I´m out walking in town so that people don´t walk into them and hurt themselves, I can find the silent spaces in crowds and move into them, and I can control crowds through placing myself in various ways in them or around them.

New skills over the past few years is being able to really clearly use the energies of the Five Fists for different application-effects, working a lot more on compassion, using lu so strongly that I open doors that suck people in, and in general getting power enough in 360 degrees to really use it well in real life. A few new skills with awareness and eyes, too, which goes into my gun-skills.

I like your thinking, Cerebus. My training is obviously all to blame for getting more lines in my face. It´s probably The Amazing Speed of My Bagua Walking that did it.



D.

Sarcasm. Oh yeah, like that´ll work.

[Ba-men]

Over the years Taijiquan has changed me both mentally and physically. When I get into verbal confrontations with co-workers or whom ever, I always try to realign the situation looking to deflect the argument. Then if cornered, I get passive aggressive.

For example, I got this real whack job at work who will throw u under the bus whenever she gets a chance (she always is looking for a fight and is a huge suck up to the main boss) . . Well, I'm way past the "deflect" stage with here because she just looks for something to get u on. (I.e if someone wants to fight there isn't a whole lot u can do but defend yourself) So its passive aggressive time. I'll lead her into making an idiot out of herself in front of the boss time and time again using a passive aggressive approach. Its easy when someone's intent is to burn u at all cost. (similar to someone wanting to strike u at all cost)

And people around me have always commented on various ways that I do physical things... like how I walk, or I proceed though doors ( I use Peng Jin without thinking about it) or that I go under the chain blocking shipping receiving instead of un-attaching it. (using Xie She "snake creeps down: etc.. stupid stuff like that.. But the movements have been so ingrained over the years.. what can you do? I just do it..then think to myself "Did I just do that?"

Took up taiji, got fat....

Meh

Then you got way to much Yin in your Taji diet. (I know your joking, but to many... it is a serious problem)

[BonesCom]

And people around me have always commented on various ways that I do physical things... like how I walk, or I proceed though doors ( I use Peng Jin without thinking about it)

We have these great doors around uni that I have found great pleasure in opening with my shoulder and a torso twist. I was wondering about the movement I use and how it relates to my training. I guess it a mixture of the downward and shoulder wrapping movements of dun hou shi with a little torso twist from guo feng bang. These doors are cool, big and heavy with a spring close on them, every now and then they fair fly open... damn I'm powerful

[Wanderingdragon]

Hey Journey,
while you study The Grand ultimate, pull some of that mind intent out of your tool belt and put the hard work in aerobically.

[mixjourneyman]

Hey Journey,
while you study The Grand ultimate, pull some of that mind intent out of your tool belt and put the hard work in aerobically.

I was being tongue and cheek my friend.
I do regular cardio and strength workouts at a local karate club just fyi.

[Jeice]

Hey Journey,
while you study The Grand ultimate, pull some of that mind intent out of your tool belt and put the hard work in aerobically.

I was being tongue and cheek my friend.
I do regular cardio and strength workouts at a local karate club just fyi.

Your karate is weak.

[Brady]

It may sound stupid but martial training has had such an all encompassing effect on my life/persona it would be impossible to figure out the start and end of it at this point.

[Joe L.]

It may sound stupid but martial training has had such an all encompassing effect on my life/persona it would be impossible to figure out the start and end of it at this point.

Maybe it does sound stupid, but it more or less expressed exactly how I feel on the matter. I just can't imagine my life without the stuff, even when it varies in intensity over the years.