Well, you knew it had to happen and it is: I’m taking the blog down. I’ve moved the content back to my old site so you’ll be able to view all the posts there:

http://chessman71.wordpress.com/

Please redirect your readers and links to that site as this one will be coming down to make way for my new webpage. I expect the change over to happen in a week or so. Unfortunately, the comments didn’t make it for some unknown reason.

If you want to keep up with the latest with me, check out my new blog at Formosa Fitness:

http://formosafitness.pixnet.net/blog

I just passed my personal training certification with NASM, one of the top personal training certs you can get, and I’m flying to Malaysia tomorrow to become a certified kettlebell trainer under Steve Cotter. I’m very excited about all the changes and look forward to keeping all of you as readers at my new blog.

So long and thanks to everyone!

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Meditation gets you this relaxed awareness too but wihtout that experience, it’s difficult for people to grasp what’s going on. So people begin to get drousy and space out.

What I’ve found helsp to center them is squat breathing. Place your hands by your side in a standing position. Do a quarter squat abd bring your arms up from your sides in a big arc to over your head, making a big inhale as you do the movement. Then audibly exhale through your mouth as you lower the arms back to the sides. Do this three times quickly and very deeply.

This oxygenates the body and wakes it up. The mind becomes focused because of the breath.

Try it out the next time you feel yourself spacing out.

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One thing that came up in the discussion was that opening a small business based on honesty as espoused in his dad’s books will take time to bear fruit. And what keeps you going in the meantime? Faith.

Faith isn’t something that we talk a lot about in business but I think it’s very important. You have to have it. Luckily, I’m not the only one that thinks so. Business ultra-guru Dan Kennedy talked about it in his No B.S. Business Secrets book but that’s the only explicit reference to it I’ve seen so far.

A business as an act of faith?

Not something you hear about much.

Scott pointed out that running a small business isn’t like school or other endeavors like sports. In those areas, you make your best, most supreme effort and you’ll often get an A or first place. The path to success isn’t a mystery. In business, you make your most supreme effort and often fail. Maybe no one even noticed the effort. That’s because the product turned out to be a dud, someone else beat you to the market with a lower price, your ad was faulty, who knows? Most of the time you won’t even know WHY it failed, it just did. The path to success is very unclear.

This takes an awful lot of getting used to. You have to try a whole bunch of stuff before you find out what works. Will you find what works? Faith, again.

Can I get an amen?

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I’m taking The Martial Artist’s Guide to Taipei down tomorrow. This is your last chance to get it so order now!

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So the last time Mike was here, he and I had several long talks about studying CMA in a couple of the local watering holes. We went to one of these places  in the afternoon and had a few too many Long Island Ice teas so we stayed later than we thought we would. Mmmmm…..long islands……

Anyway, we decided to stay for dinner and ordered some hamburgers. Or so we thought.

Some of the places in Taipei are pretty cosmopolitan, or so they think, and pride themselves on their ability to speak English. And it’s usually okay but occasionally it gets interesting. This time it was interesting.

I ordered for both of us and the waiter insisted on speaking English to me so I obliged him and spoke back in English. Locals like this because it gives them language practice and face — by speaking English you acknowledge the effort they have put in unlike you speaking back to them in Chinese which says “why did you bother.” So I told him that we would both like the hamburger.

So ten minutes later what does the waiter bring out? Two hamburger buns with grilled HAM on them.

Mike was incredulous and we both informed the waiter that we wouldn’t eat this stuff. But I saw right away that the waiter had taken our order for HAM-burgers literally — a mistake that language learners sometimes make. I told him in Chinese that we would like “hanbao” and the waiter got it, although he was embarrassed.

Mike and I had a good laugh and ordered more drinks. What a great day.

This is how I will remember him.

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For those who may not know, Mike Martello passed away yesterday in Belgium. He was only 42 years old. Sorry but I don’t really know what else to say. I’m overwhelmed by this. Rest in peace and my condolences to his family.

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Because it’s going away. That’s right. This will be the last week that I’ll be selling it. Monday, June 8th will the last day. Get it now before it’s gone for good. Please check out the “my products” page above for more details.

The Guide represents something that I was trying to do at one time and I’m going in another direction now. So I’m not interested in updating it or continuing to offer it.

Frankly I’m a bit suprised that other Guides haven’t popped up for different areas. A MA guide to Beijing or Shanghai should sell very well indeed I think. Tokyo is dead give away as well.What about Thailand?

I can tell you that people will buy a guide like this if you offer quality writing and keep it up for a long while.  So if you’re in a position to write a guide for those areas, I would highly suggest checking into it.

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Get the news out about your school today.

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THE name in functional strength training, Vern Gambetta, has a great post up on mental toughness training. Is it a waste of time? Is it just a reason to hurt people?

I’ve participated in many trainings that were designed to instill mental toughness, in martial arts and the army. I’m of two minds about such stuff.

The rationale is that they are supposedly designed to make you see that you’re capable of more than you think. You can go further than your current mentality permits.

From this POV, this kind of training does work occasionally but it should be very occasional IMO. Why?

Because for the most part it’s just hazing. You see, the flip side of this is the “team” seeing if you’re willing to push the edge. Are you willing to break yourself for the group? Maybe the answer is yes or maybe no.  But at this point in my life, I have no patience for crap like that.

Let me tell you a story. A friend of a friend was in training for the SEALS. This guy got stuck in some situation, I forgot what it was, but he was hurt and if he had continued with the exercise he would have broken his neck and been paralyzed from the neck down. Apparently everyone was in agreement on that point. So he rang the bell and got booted from training. As he was in the hospital, an instructor came to see him and told him he should have continued. “But I would be paralyzed!” he said. “Yes,” said the instructor, “but you’d also be a SEAL and that’s the kind of people we want.”

Hmmmm……be a paralyzed SEAL? No thanks. Guess I’m not that tough either.

But then take the case of Su Li-wen, Taiwan’s 2008 TKD Olympic contender. I applaud her efforts and she showed a lot of mental toughness. So what’s the difference?

For me, it’s the difference between training and the “event.” Breaking yourself in training IMO is stupid. It’s not the event. If someone gave their all in combat or on the playing field at the Super Bowl, then it means something. But for someone to break themselves in training because that’s what the culture or team desire is ignorant. We remember the Spartans because of what they did at Thermopylae, not the training they went through.

I do a very ocassional gut check in training. That’s enough. But I don’t condone most mental toughness training. It’s usually poorly disguised hazing. If you want to test mental toughness, then compete.

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Time for something new. This is Formosa Fitness, my new blog that I’ll be updating everyday with kettlebell and martial fitness info. So what’s going on?

I’ve come to a bit of a dead-end in some ways.

First, the name Formosa Neijia isn’t working. At all. As a business name, I’ve not once had someone look at my business card and know what it meant. NOT ONCE. And it didn’t matter if it was foreigner or local, Chinese speaker or not, not one single person has understood it. I thought that would be an opportunity to explain what I do but it hasn’t worked out that way. They’ve been puzzled every single time even after the explanation. When something is so clearly broken then it must be fixed.

The name Formosa Neijia has become a part of who I am and breaking with it is hard to do. But no one other than my fellow martial arts fanatics knows what it means. Native Taiwanese martial artists usually don’t know what it means and even a translator friend of mine was puzzled. The puzzled looks are killing my business and my enthusiasm.

Second, the blog content from Formosa Neijia does not drive my business. Not in the least. It’s not what I expected. Needless to say I can’t afford to keep spending time in ways that don’t further my business.

Third, I’ve said just about everything I want to say for free. I can’t keep putting my best ideas up on the blog. I need to direct that material into paid articles, books, DVDs, and into my students. I’ve already started some of those projects.

Fourth, 99% of the stuff I feel I have to share these days doesn’t fit with what the Chinese martial arts community is talking about. I keep saying that becoming a school owner and businessman has changed everything for me. I no longer share the fascination with martial technique, lineages, “taiji for fighting” or whatever else has been rehashed a million times before. I’m in a new phase of life now with new interests.

There are so many lessons to learn from running a business. You learn all kinds of things about yourself and your shortcomings. But I don’t feel free to share any of that here. It’s not what the blog was about, and that original intent is now choking me. I feel constrained by it.

Finally, the new blog will have a new identity and reflect the direction of my business: martial fitness. Kettlebells, fitness, and how taichi/qigong fit into that milieu will be the new focus. Posts will be in Chinese and English. Those of you who read Chinese will get a kick out of my crappy Chinese writing. I never thought I’d be writing in Chinese so come have a laugh.

For now, I’ve decided to keep Formosa Neijia up and running, and let it be the international face of my business. But posts here will slow down dramatically as I shift to the Taiwan face of my business. The local people will be the ones buying my goods and services so obviously that will take the bulk of my time.

I understand that not everyone will want to join me over at the new blog and that’s okay. No hard feelings. If you are so inclined, please come join us.

But I hope why I’m doing this is clear — I need to earn a living. Everything that can be directed to making my business work must be so directed. Dividing my resources cuts my business and I can’t have that.

So if you want a daily update on what I’m doing, then check over there and I’ll see you once a week or so here.

Thanks!

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I’m brain dead and will likely be for a while. My head is swimming with muscle names and their origin and insertion points. With rep and set counts for a variety of client goals. I’m preparing for the NASM personal trainer cert plus a second more physical cert while teaching classes, etc. So expect some off-topic posts while I unwind.

I’ve been an anti-trekkie for a while now. I read all the books and loved the TV show as a kid. I watched the Next Gen in high school and university like everyone else. But let’s be honest — trek has been mediocre for a very, very long time.

The next gen and the other recent shows had almost done it in. I didn’t like any of them with the sole exception of Deep Space Nine, which I consider the height of the entire franchise or whatever you want to call it. I got so sick of “look, something is taking over the ship” week after week. Yawn. “Oh no. Something is wrong with Data.” Snooze.

Deep Space Nine was almost Shakespearean with the plots and long-term story line. It was the only one that took chances with the material and tried to do something new.

Many may not remember this, but the covers of the books that covered the original TV series had a bigger theme than recent material. Check this out:

And this:

Now look at this:

All the other next gen and recent books have been like this. The originals had a bigger feel to them. Something was happening on a much bigger scale. In the next gen, trek became about this little group of people. We started getting scenes of people yakking around tables. Very Clinton era, if you don’t mind me saying so.

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As ‘Fun, Watchable’

This video from the Onion sums it up perfectly. Trek had become an in-bred snoozefest about a small group of people that was enjoyed by a small group of people.

Thank goodness the new movie killed all of that off. I loved it.

No more hippie planets that heal you and allow you to bore people for the rest of your artificially extended life. No more of Data trying to become the whitest white man in the universe.

This trek movie throws all that away and starts anew. Like Admiral Pike says in the new movie, Starfleet had lost a certain quality and the new movie/crew bring that back.

Well done, guys.

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Here’s the list of forms and techniques covered.

There are 25 DVD sets with many of the forms on 2-3 DVDs.

Two of these are in English and the rest are in Chinese. Actually the two that are in English are also in Chinese — I have two copies of them with one in each language.

These are some of the best, clearest DVDs I’ve ever seen. Zhou laoshi used to work in movie and TV production and he has a keen sense of how people can learn from video. He shot these DVDs to be super clear so that you could see and then replicate every movement shown. For example, he shows every move first in a fast format, then a slow format, then he breaks it down into upper body movement (slow), and then lower body movement (slow), and finally another slow view of the move as a whole to see how it ties together. He shows closeups of small details that you might miss, as well.

Every five moves or so, he has a review section that takes you through the form up to that point so you can put the movements all together. At that stage, he also talks about applications of the moves in that sequence.

Basically, these DVDs set the bar for clarity of movement and ease of learning the material off of the DVD. They are so clear that you could easily learn these forms right off the video. I personally used them to review the material he taught me in class.

Here are several clips to show you his excellent material:

This is the Taizu long fist form one. this clip is more of a trailer for the DVD. The sound effects are part of Zhou laoshi’s training in movie production. He used to make kungfu movies and TV shows in Hong Kong and Taiwan. BTW he was the sound guy.

This is an instructional clip from the Taizu long fist DVD. Here you can see how he breaks it down.

White ape exits cave. His mantis and long fist are very good. Two of the DVD sets cover just mantis fighting techniques. He gives away a LOT of secrets behind how to apply both mantis and CMA in general on those sets.

This is an explanation of long fist applications.

Internal practice via Chen style taiji. I loved practicing this form. Loads of good stuff in here. This form of Chen is very rare, even in Taiwan but it’s very practical.

Three of the DVDs cover his version of the Muscle tendon change classic.

This is his mizongquan — lost track boxing. I loved this form but never got a chance to learn it from him. I thought this was some of his best movement.

25 DVD sets (1-3 DVDs in each set) in all and I will through in his Chinese book on the muscle tendon changing classic for free.

Price: US$400 plus US$50 for shipping. For local folks, NT$14,000 and you can come get them.

This is quite a bargain considering they run about US$100 each on his website.

I will only sell them as a set, so please don’t ask to break up the set. First one gets it.

Contact me through email if you want to buy them: chessman71 “at” gmail.com

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This month marks the third anniversary of the Formosa Neijia blog. We’ve covered a lot of territory in the past three years, had a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but we’re still here and doing our thing.

Just want to say thanks to all the readers.

Curious: what was your favorite post over the past three years?

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One of the joys of teaching fitness and martial arts is to watch my young ones learn just by watching me. It’s amazing how fast they pick up stuff. I’ve got a feeling my little ones will be very gifted compared to other kids at least in terms of physical development.

This is my boy Nicholas’ bridge. He saw me doing it once and is much better at it than his old man. A natural bridger. I didn’t have to teach him this, he just mimicked me perfectly. They just amaze me.

My boy isn’t the only one. His little sister Rachel seems to enjoy exercise even more. She’s two. Her core strength really surprises me. She can hold the plank position no problem. She can get her butt down and hold it there even though she has a bit of a big belly (which we’re trying to make sure she maintains). Her appetite has gone down recently and we don’t want her to get too thin. I wonder if girls have better core strength from early ages. Seems they do. My boy has a lot of trouble holding this position. But maybe it’s his attention span.

His mother can do a full arc bridge on her hands but I can’t yet. Back isn’t quite that flexible but I’m working on it. I had her show it to Nicholas so now he’s working on it too. But he’s so good bridging on his head that he may not see the point of pushing up with the hands.

As a father, it’s a real joy for me to see the kids developing along these lines. I hope they build a fitness foundation that lasts a lifetime.

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Wow! I need to get this guy to do my ads. Amazing how you can take something and totally make it look like something else. Very savy. Very misleading. Haha.

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This is my newspaper ad. First time I’ve written one. First time I’ve advertised. I bought one column inch to get me started because I didn’t want to spend much money at first. Just trying things out.

So far I haven’t gotten many calls or emails. Could be many reasons: ad is new not established, newspapers aren’t the best place to advertise any more, etc. Or it could just take time. Patience………

Thoughts are appreciated. Please keep in mind this is aimed at the general public.

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I completely agree about going organic. We’ve largely done just that. And our milk comes from a great place that treats the cows very well. It costs more but let me tell you, it tastes like nothing I’ve ever drank before. It’s so rich and creamy.

So I agree about everything mentioned, but how do the recent anti-carb diets play into this? I never see that asked.

If more people do Atkins, The Zone, etc. then meat consumption will go way, way up. Won’t that feed the problem even more? Argi-corps will try to meet those consumer demands while maximizing profits.

Cutting carbs is a GREAT idea. I’m doing it right now. But if more meat is to be consumed, then the message that you need quality meat needs to be spread. That part gets left out a lot.

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I walk by the above place often. It’s about 5 minutes away from my house. I take this sign as a warning.

In Chinese, this is an old martial arts school. They were teaching taekwondo, taichi, qigong, and Western exercise of some type. “Jianshen” often means bodybuilding but it’s often used just for gyms.

This school failed at some point for some reason. He was located near a major intersection with a subway stop nearby. But maybe his place was before the subway. He had a major school — the space was huge. It seems to have taken up most of the floor.

Why did the school close? Did it fail or was it something else? He was teaching much in the same direction as me. What did he do wrong that I should watch out for? Who knows?

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So what is the hip hinge?

This is it. You hinge at the hips every time you sit. Your push the butt back and out to sit down. But we almost never do this motion unless we’re sitting or getting up. We need to learn to push those hips back!

Knee pain is common in all martial arts practice but perhaps a bit more common in taichi, likely because people can’t hinge at the hips. without the hinge, all the pressure goes to the knee because you’ve bent only from the knee — the hip can only take the weight if you’ve bent it by hinging. Otherwise, if you keep it straight, the force transfer right into the kneecap. Ouch!

The best way to teach people to hinge is with a box squat, but I can’t find a good video of that so these will have to do.

Hinging at the hips, as shown in the video above, keeps the lower back relatively flat and has the upper body work as one unit. As you sit back, you engage the other all-elusive anatomical feature — the kua. But since the kua is a new concept to most people, the hip hinge gets them feeling it and allows them to work it. As you get better, you can focus more on being relatively upright but I don’t reinforce that quality at first. The hinge is more important at the beginning.

If people are still having trouble finding or working with the hip hinge, this exercise can be useful. You can’t miss the hip hinge this way and this might be best way to introduce the concept to your friends and family who need this but don’t train a martial art, etc. Introducing these concepts to the general public would need an approach like this.

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