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Hi Mark,
I was reflecting on your last note to me re. your training, background and goals, and working on some recommendations for you. The first question I have is how to get you to the place where you can work on frequencies of internal energy. As I understand and teach, internal m.a. represent incorporation of Taoist yoga principles and merging of energy, mind with the martial. It takes about seven pages to fully explain this, but I don’t believe internal ma. were organized as a system until the Yang family in the late 1800s--mostly based on a key development that I will address in the next paragraph.
Thus, we come to the question of the Chens and wether or not you can achieve your m.a. goals while studying their style.
Based on my experience. Internal yogic alchemy––the awareness and transformation of energetic frequencies in the body–– doesn’t develop (or at least difficult to develop) within a style that has a foot placed followed by an upper body technique that has delayed hand /arm placement. In other words, one that is based on creating a fulcrum in the mid body. sort of like what I think of most traditional karate forms.-- Don’t you find this is true of the majority of the Chen style?
I’ve included several photo series to demonstrate body stepping relationships in terms of inner alchemy and internal energy training. One is of one of my senior ba gua students in China, another is current younger graduate of our program practicing ba gua, my senior student in a sword form practice (notice the hand and foot coordinating with the sword as he prepares to step through w the sword thrust) and myself w same senior student in close combat push hands-like practice. 
 
As I mentioned above, in my experience the inner alchemy is unable to generate within a body whose movements have any sort of upper body delay. The easiest way to observe this principle is in knee position. If you can see any kind of “pointy knee,” it reflects the practitioner resting and then “swinging” over the upper body. In this scenario, internal m.a. principles are unable to develop.
The first step toward developing our close range internal power method is to develop correct vertical relationships and energetic channels. Mark, it is very important that you understand exactly what Im saying. If you dont get it, let me know and I’ll explain more either via video I’ll send to you, or via SKYPE.
regards, jb
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Hi tom and mark,
Tom didn't like the video instruction for the basic single and double change... so I made a new one...
includes overhead and side shots... I'll put it up on both your accounts in a bit... let me know if it works better.
thanks
jb
Thanks for putting up the new video ! I think between the two videos you have posted I should have enough information to work with although I'm sure that this will generate some further questions. It was interesting to hear the comments of your students in relation to their experiences of internal strength. In addtion to practicing circle walking and the palm changes would there be any value in walking the circle with any of postures from the five methods, eight gates section of your book ?
I thought that I should add that I have re-uploaded your training video on stepping methods ! You're own recommendations for circle walking seem much more natural than the stepping method that I was taught with wushu bagua and your method of mudstepping doesn't aggravate my knees as the wushu method
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Hi Master Bracy,
The softball between the thighs tip is really a stroke of genius, this change in muscle action really gives the step practise a different more connected feel and has alleviated the discomfort I was feeling in my Knees.
I am starting to work on some block standing/suspension training ! I was wondering about how the weight of the body should rest on the feet should the weight be distributed uniformly across the foot or should it be distributed predominantly to the heal ?
I also wanted to comment on the taoist breathing videos. Great overview and really good instruction on breaths 1 and 2. The mistake had been making with breath 1 is that I was not breathing low enough into the abdomen with my abdominal breathing. The other question I have is about the more advanced lumbar flexion breath ! Is this subtle breathing related lumbar flexion (mentioned cryptically in the classics) being misinterpreted by many using the classics for guidance. Is this dynamic breath related method of power generation being interpreted by some as an instruction to flex the lumbar curve in static posture with the resultant : tailbone tucking/flattened lumbar curve postural distortion ?
I also wanted to comment that the physical wave generated by this pattern of breathing (the wave passing up the spine ) as this sounds alot like the small circulation (microcosmic orbit).
Thanks again for the advice all the great work you are doing !
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I know that you are a busy man and I am grateful for the time that you spend responding to my e-mails so I'm never offended if it takes a few days. As time goes on I am seeing increasingly that I was on completely the wrong track with my former training and so your guidance is really appreciated. Thanks for enclosing the Upledger document I'll have a good read over that. Thanks also for the tip on block training I'm really going to start working on this over the next little while.
By the way, I get comments like yours re. the misdirection / lack of instructor quality all the time. Very frustrating, Tom from england who you've corresponded with says he feels like he wasted 10 years of training. I think it's probably because many teachers (in China as well as the west) haven't put the time in and in lieu of real experience and sweat, they just make it up as they go. Take for example the Taoist breathing arts training videos you recently purchased and are now working with. I learned the original system of directing pressure through the body triggered by diaphragm control from Dr. Tim Fook Chan in Taiwan in the early 80s. Through the rest the the 80s I developed / mastered the system and in early 90s began teaching seminars. Of course, I continued to refine the material. So, the system I teach in the videos are a culmination of more than 25 years of practice and research. A teacher can only teach and guide effectively if he or she has put that many genuine hours into a subject.
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