Advice please on practicing outside of class

[lostinseattle]

Hi,

So recently I moved to Seattle there don't seem to be any Xingyi teachers here. There are some people who used to do it and some closed practice group, but no open teachers who are really good that do it as their primary style.

How do people go about practicing their martial arts outside of class? Anybody else have this happen where they move to a new place and don't have any practice partners? How do you handle this?

I just can't bring myself to take another style (hardly even have enough time to practice all the xingyi), and the other thing is the martial arts schools in Seattle don't seem to have any open time when you can just practice techniques. I found only one, Seattle Kajukenbo, but I don't want to learn their style.

[Jiffy]

The first thing I would suggest is to be a little more open minded towards other styles. At the very least, go and visit the schools in your area and see what they do.

Failing that, then any practise at home is better than no practise at all. Try to get hold of as many books and videos as possible on your style. Get hold of a large mirror and put that in your training area so you can self evaluate instantly. I would also suggest setting up a video camera from time to time so you can * your technique. Perhaps even see if you can find a school somewhere else in the world that will allow training via correspondance (eg. Video).

Hope this helps.

[ps1]

All you can do is practice what you know. If you're advanced enough, perhaps you can find a person who would be willing to learn from you so you have a training partner.

All the ideas mentioned above are good ones.

Good luck.

[Fairfax_Uechi]

I agree with the others, first how much training do you have? If you have several years of experience you know you should be practicing outside of class anyway, and I think you should keep this up. If you haven't been practicing outside of class then you probably need to.

If you're fairly new (a year or two or less), then you might want to consier changing styles.

I also agree that if you're experienced you workout with folks from other styles from time to time.

One other thought, just don't look for commercial dojos. Search around. Talk to your old instructor and see what he says. He might be able to do some research and help you find someone that teaches out of their garage or health club. You'd be suprised.

[lostinseattle]

I'm talking about partner practice which can't be done alone, and yes I studied xingyiquan for about 5 years. It's not that I'm not open to other styles I just don't see the point in studying anything else.

Anyway after calling over 30 schools and visiting over 20 in Seattle I'm a bit tired of all of this. Most other major places have some sort of martial meetups but I have no idea why there are none in Seattle.

[cathal]

My suggestion would be to contact your previous sensei (sifu, etc.) and ask for some literature to study, even perhaps ask for some video content. Many modern systems will have a series of books and/or videos to check out. This, of course, doesn't compare to the tutelage of an experienced instructor.

In that area maybe you'll have to travel a bit to seminars, or other classes in other communities. But if that isn't an option perhaps you should consider training in another, closer school. In that event perhaps you should ask yourself if no training is better than training in another system.

[bushido_man96]

If it is partner stuff you need to work on, then you should find a likely candidate, and start training them so they can work with you. By doing this, you will also learn a lot about teaching, which is an invaluable experience in and of itself.

[jaymac]

Everyone here has given you great advice. If you really want to continue in this style, then just do it. Set a scheduled time each day (or every other day) to work on what you have been taught. Run your own workouts similar to the ones you did with your instructor. I can understand after 5 years you wouldn't want to switch, but it is really only 5 years. I took kung fu for 4 years and my sifu died. I did not want to take anything else. I was detemined that I would only stick with that style. Well "that style" was not to be found anywhere else in my area. So after 15 years of being stubborn, I joined Shotokan and I LOVE IT! Now I know in Seattle there must be other chinese based styles. If you get tired of practicing alone, look around again with an open mind.

[lostinseattle]

Actually I was looking for a school here to do some karate (I used to take Goju Ryu before Xingyi), even though I don't like it that much, but the senseis here kindof tick me off.

I'm just not very impressed with martial arts in Seattle. A lot of schools here actually got on my case personally since I wanted to spar, and a couple of sifus said they thought I had a bad character. Just because I thought that martial arts should be about fighting! But after dealing with these bozos for a couple of months, I think they have given me a bad character.

Seattle is like a death zone for martial arts. I don't recommend anybody who is used to sparring, fighting, good practices and open teaching in CMA or karate move here. They're a bunch of granola heads.