Tag: Greater Seattle Area

Accepting New Students — Bagua Iron Palm Starting in June

Iron Palm Training Equipment

Bagua Zhang Iron Palm & Iron Body Training

Starting in June, we will return to Bagua Zhang Iron Palm and Iron Body training.
This practice is integral to Bagua Zhang practice, and we will be covering Bagua Zhang’s approach to these training methods.
If you have trained Bagua Zhang with us previously and want a refresher or introduction to these training methods, please respond to this post/message to confirm and register.
Here’s the list for the equipment you’ll need for your Iron Palm training.
In all, the equipment is relatively inexpensive and easy to acquire.
Iron Palm Training Equipment
Equipment needed:
  • canvas sand bags, 3: approximately 1’ x 1’,   DIY made from denim (used jeans), mail bags or bank money bags, or canvas tool bags from a hardware store; double-stitched to avoid tearing/spilling; 1 filled with grain, another filled with sand, another filled with either polished gravel or steel shot/bb’s
  • Barrel, large vase, or Tall kitchen trash can: 10-13 gallon, round is best but rectangular or square  is fine;
  • Cheap grain, 50 pounds: either rice or feed-corn, to put in trash can and canvas bags
  • Mung Beans: approximately 3-5 pounds to mix with grain in trash can (good for skin)
  • Cedar balls: pack of 100, to mix with grain in grain barrel/can (to keep away insects)
  • Concrete Cinder blocks, 2-4: for base, platform and weight training
  • Concrete patio stones, rectangular, 2-4: 16” x 8”, for base, platform, cover for barrel/can, and weight training
  • 2 staffs and/or 2 escrima sticks
  • Iron Hitting Ointment (Dit Da Jow, 跌打酒 – Dié Dǎ Jiǔ “Fall- Hitting Liniment/Wine”) from an apothecary in Chinatown, or Wing Lam Enterprises  https://wle.com/collections/training , or Black Belt Herbs http://www.blackbeltherbs.com/ , or Dr. Dale Dugas https://www.daledugas.com/
Iron Palm Training Equipment
We will be focusing primarily on Iron Palm Training methods during classes for the month of June. We will be discussing this topic in more detail and how it integrates with other aspects of Bagua Zhang training!

 

Accepting New Bagua Zhang Students at the Mace Martial Arts WuGuan! 🐉

 

Bagua Zhang Demo video from June 2022

 

We have space for a couple more in-person students for group classes at our new WuGuan, message us if you’re interested in learning Bagua Zhang Kung Fu!

 

◊ Saturdays 11am-12:30pm
◊ Sundays 11am-12:30pm
◊ Thursdays 7pm-8pm

 

at:
Towns at Riverfront
Everett, WA
United States

 

Please RSVP to all classes you plan to attend, to confirm location and schedule.

 

Space limited to 5 students per class for in-person training — please message ahead to confirm your spot!

 

We also have times available for private lessons if the group classes do not work for your schedule.

 

For students joining remotely via Zoom, we can host classes for up to 100 participants on our Zoom account.

Share the Wisdom! 🙏🏻

Referral Discounts: $20 Discount off 1 Month’s Membership Tuition fees for referring a new student to enroll in classes, and a $20 Discount to the new Student that you refer for their first month! 

Register for Mace Martial Arts Membership online

 

At Mace Martial Arts, we value the sanctity of all life, celebrate diversity, cultivate peace and justice, and accept students who are interested in learning how to improve and protect themselves. We have a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry and will reject any potential or current student who bullies or discriminates against others based on ethnicity, religious beliefs, or gender/orientation. 

Breathe Life into your Practice — New WuGuan Opening Saturday, April 23, 2022! 🐉

 

Breathe Life into your Bagua Zhang Kung Fu Practice — in every aspect of training — the deeper and longer your breath the better! 🐉

 

This will enhance your focus and whole body awareness for more invigorating exercise, and encourage you to breathe more vitality into every aspect of your life, to be more aware, connected and fully engaged!

 

We often find that shallow breathing is both a result and cause of stress, tension, pain, withdrawal and fatigue.
I see this reflected in both martial arts and in my massage practice — most people have very shallow breathing, and as result are distracted and disconnected from their bodies and what’s going on around them.
This is why I encourage my massage clients to breathe deeper to release tension and pain, and inspire my martial arts students to to breathe deeper to be more present and aware, as well as to reveal their potential and empower them.

 

Consciously focused deeper breathing is the critical bridge that helps build our awareness of ourselves and taps our potential for healing, growth and creativity. Consciously focusing and coordinating your breathing with your movement is the most obvious and powerful secret hidden in plain sight, because it’s an aspect of life most people take for granted and ignore.

 

Some of the most essential lessons in training martial arts is enhancement of awareness and sensitivity, both of oneself, one’s environment and in relation to others.
Proprioception is the awareness of ourselves in relation to our surroundings.

 

This kinesthetic awareness is sometimes referred to as our “sixth sense.” Most of the physical training in martial arts — partner drills, basics and supplemental exercises, forms, equipment training and weapons practice — enhance our sense of proprioception. Distance, balance, timing (our timing and coordination with an opponent’s timing), reflexes and connection are all aspects of proprioception.

 

Interoception is our awareness of our inner processes.
Interoception encompasses all the physiological tissues that relay signals to the central nervous system about the state of the body. Disconnection from the body’s signals and internal states may be related to anxiety, depression, PTSD, autism and other disorders.

 

The internal training in martial arts — standing and sitting meditation, Qigong, silk-reeling exercises — moving from the inside — develops our sense of interception.
Our inner-awareness, or interoception, informs and enhances our sense of proprioception.

 

 

Deeper breathing invigorates us, increases our focus and awareness — linking our awareness of the inside and outside of our bodies — as well as our awareness of others and our surroundings.

 

An often overlooked aspect of “Internal” Martial Arts training is inner-work: meaning working on your emotional and mental health and well being. This is in fact one of the most important aspects of our training. Chinese medicine has long recognized the interconnected relationship between balanced emotional states and specific internal organs.
Mental and emotional trauma affect our bodies, just as physical trauma can affect our mental and emotional well-being.
We will be discussing this topic in more detail in future articles and classes, stay tuned!

 

 
 

New WuGuan Opening this Spring! 🐉 

Work in progress — almost finished!
Classes returning at our new WuGuan opening this month, on Saturday, April 23rd!
Since moving last November, we’ve been busy settling into our new home and renovating our garage into our new WuGuan. Five busy months later, we are excited to return to training together!

 

Bagua Zhang Classes are held on
◊ Saturdays 11am-12:30pm
◊ Sundays 11am-12:30pm
◊ Thursdays 7pm-8pm
at:
Towns at Riverfront
(Please register for classes for address)
Everett, WA
United States

 

Please RSVP to all classes you plan to attend, to confirm location and schedule.

 

Space limited to 5 students per class for in-person training — please message ahead to confirm your spot!
For students joining remotely via Zoom, we can host classes for up to 100 participants on our Zoom account.

 

As the mask mandate from the COVID-19 Pandemic lifted on March 11th, masks will be optional for in-person classes. Students will have the option of wearing a mask in classes with the expectation that other’s choices will be responsible and respectful. Proof of vaccinations are strongly encouraged but no longer required for students with medical exceptions. 💉🦠😷

 

At Mace Martial Arts, we value the sanctity of all life, celebrate diversity, cultivate peace and justice, and accept students who are interested in learning how to improve and protect themselves. We have a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry and will reject any potential or current student who bullies or discriminates against others based on ethnicity, religious beliefs, or gender/orientation. 

24-7: The Key to Mastery 📆, Bagua Massage 🐉, Grand Reopening Lunar New Year of the Tiger 🐅

24-7: The Key to Mastery and Kung-Fu 📆

What’s it take to be a Master? 

 

What does Kung-Fu really mean? 

 

How long do you have to train, and how often until I get a black belt/sash? 🥋

 

Will Kung-Fu make my eyebrows grow? 😳

Belt ranking systems are very recent in martial arts history, first instituted just over a century ago by Judo founder Jigoro Kano to help students learn with a structured curriculum, originally just with white belt ‘Kyu’ grades and black belt ‘dan’ grades; karate schools in Okinawa and Japan adopted Judo’s belt ranking system in the 1920’s and soon proliferated to other martial arts, and added a rainbow of colored belts afterwards. 🌈

While a few Chinese martial arts have very recently adopted belt ranking systems, most still don’t, where ranking has historically been structured around familial hierarchies.

In the last 50 years, the mystique of “black belts” has been widely blown out of proportion in popular culture — what was originally intended to be a measure of learned skills over years of grueling practice — has in some instances become the delusional projection of a few teachers’ inflated egos and exploitive marketing gimmicks. 🤑

The key is to realize actual Mastery is a path — not a destination, belt color or certificate.

Nor does Kung-Fu require 6 inch eyebrows.

 

Once you take a step down the path, you realize Kung-Fu is a lifestyle, a prerogative of living artfully — progressively learning, growing and polishing yourself to discover how your art is reflected in all aspects of your life.

 

When do you start? 
 

 

Now.

 

How often should you practice?

 

Start with carving out a few minutes every day to build a constructive habit — eventually up to a few hours a day — but the real goal is to practice “24-7”.
Every minute of every day.

 

“How is that possible?!?” you ask?

 

The “secret” Key to Mastery, and Kung Fu, is to creatively find ways to practice your art in every living moment.

 

“24-7” requires a prerogative shift to realize that every moment is an opportunity to cultivate your art and polish yourself.
This not only improves your skill and health, it also inspires you to enhance the quality of your entire life!

 

“But, I don’t have the time for ______ … 
I have to wait until _____ to start… I need to ______ first… I can’t do that anymore because _______ … I won’t be any good unless I can practice _____ hours a day…”

 

Pay attention to when your plans and goals become excuses to avoid living your life to the fullest. Small actionable steps are better than over-planning, so that you are making gradual progress to achieving your goals.
Get out of your own way!

 

Mastery and Kung-Fu is about living your life artfully, being totally present and mindful, being in a State of Grace.
Remember, there is literally no other time than the present — the past is only a memory and the future is only a dream.

 

If you work a desk job, “Ti Ding Bai Hui” (“hoist and penetrate upwards with the crown of your head”), open armpits, stretch open the joints of your body to cultivate liveliness and respiration that breaks up tedium to inspiration!

 

If you’re driving, you can practice deep breathing to calm your mind, and “Ting Jin” (“listening”, extending your senses to feel  all around you) to center yourself and enhance your awareness of other drivers and road conditions.

 

When you’re eating a meal, appreciate the feeling of nutrients re-energizing your body and mind.

 

If you are in a waiting room before an appointment, imagine a “Mini-Me” version of yourself in your center of gravity, your Xia Dantian, practicing your forms and self-defense applications.

 

The possibilities are as limitless as your own creativity and potential!
Listen to your body and intuition as you train and develop yourself.
Test your limits, push to the edge of your capacity, that you may always keep learning and growing.
Listen to your own desires, passions, cravings and needs, to set your own boundaries, and chart your own path in life.

 

Kung-Fu (功夫 Gōngfū) literally means the effort and time devoted to the development of artistic skills that translate into enhancing your quality of life on all levels.
Kung-Fu is not only some physical exercise, or self-defense training — it is how to dig deep into who you are, working through the pain, trauma, guilt, shame and sense of worth.
To work through all of these obstacles, challenges and opportunities to discover your potential, what heals and inspires you, so that you can develop your own personal talents, gifts and purpose.
To chase your dreams.
Self realization.

 

It requires dedication and perseverance to realize there is no final level or limitation.
You must face your fears and your pains and let go of all that you love and fear to lose.
Every day.
In every thing you do.

 

Lastly, while practicing, remember: follow your passions and listen to your own discernment, “Never take criticism from someone you wouldn’t go to for advice.”
Likewise, “Don’t let anyone who hasn’t walked in your shoes tell you how to tie your laces.”

 

Bagua Zhang Massage 🐉👐🏼🌀💫

 

I’ve been practicing Bagua Zhang during  my massage sessions with my clients…

 

 

“Wait – What? You beat up your clients?”

 

Well, not literally! 😜

 

As an example of my own Kung Fu path, I’ve been discovering how integrating Bagua Zhang principles with the various modalities of massage therapy I’ve learned thus far is continually enhancing and refining both my massage therapy practice, and my martial arts practice simultaneously, and surprisingly how much  it benefits both my clients and myself, reciprocally. ☯️♾

 

The dynamics of continuous flow, concentric coils and spirals, increased awareness and sensitivity apply just as effectively and efficiently to massage therapy as they do to self defense.

 

The same principles of structure and spiraling movement enhance circulation and relaxation of excess tension to melt away pain.  💆🏻‍♂️🌀

 

 

Transferring Massage Practice to Everett 💆🏻‍♂️🌀

 

“Vision is the gift to see what others only dream”

 

Since moving from Shoreline, WA to Everett, WA in November, I have recently also transferred my massage practice from the Massage Envy in Shoreline to the Massage Envy in Everett.

 

To schedule an appointment for a massage with me, please call or text the Everett Massage Envy at +1 (425) 353-5000.

 

1402 SE Everett Mall Way
Everett WA 98208
United States

 

 

 

Grand Reopening Lunar New Year — Year of the Tiger 🐅 

 

Since moving in November from Shoreline to Everett, WA, it’s taking longer than expected to unpack, we’re still clearing stuff out before we can paint and set up mats and equipment in the garage to turn it into our new WuGuan.

 

While I originally hoped to reopen in January — and although we’ve made a lot of progress, we’ve had to reassess and postpone.

 

At this point we’re planning our Grand Reopening at the new WuGuan on/around Lunar New Year, February 5th, 2022, Year of the Tiger! 🐅 🧧

 

Take care and stay tuned for updates!

 

At Mace Martial Arts, we value the sanctity of all life, celebrate diversity, cultivate peace and justice, and accept students who are interested in learning how to improve and protect themselves. We have a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry and will reject any potential or current student who bullies or discriminates against others based on ethnicity, religious beliefs, or gender/orientation.