"We once again have the luck and pleasure to welcome master Luo Dexiu for two and half days of seminars in Nimes.

Master Luo is internally recognised for the depth and quality teaching of internal martial arts. Despite the variety of subjects each seminar shares a similar structure built around forms and their martial application. From this point of view these workshops can appeal to all practitioners of martial arts, whatever your style or level of experience. So please feel free to pass this information on to anyone who might be interested."

Multi-level workshops with master Luo Dexiu

September 24-26, Salle des combats, Stade des Costières, 123 rue de la Bouvine, Nimes

Friday 24th

18H- 22H Xingyi monkey form

Saturday 25th

9H30-12H30 Pre-heaven circular Bagua forms 4 and 5

14H30-17H30 a study of straight line Bagua forms from the first line

Sunday 26th

9H30-12h30 sticking hands

14H30-17H30 methods of self defense for common situations

Prices

Week end + Friday evening :110 euros

Week end : 90 euros

One day: 50 euros

half a day : 35 euros

To reserve a place and help with our organisation please send a deposit cheque for €30 to the following address, and do not hesitate to contact us for further information.

Association Yizongbagua

1360 chemin de Camplanier

30900 Nimes

06 85 64 75 03

yizong30@gmail.com

www.bagua-nimes.fr

For lodging in Nimes…

auberge de jeunesse de Nimes : http://fuaj.net/homepage/nimes/   
Hotel Kyriad : http://www.hotel-kyriad-nimes.com/
Hotel première classe : http://www.premiere-classe-nimes-centre-gare.fr/fr/index.aspx
Formule 1 : http://www.accorhotels.com/fr/hotel-2270-formule-1-hotelf1-nimes-ouest/index.shtml
Hotel Ibis : http://www.accorhotels.com/fr/hotel-0629-ibis-nimes-ouest/index.shtml
Holiday Inn : http://www.holidayinn-nimes.com/fr/hotel-holiday-inn-nimes-gard-camargue-sud-france.php
Hotel des Tuileries : http://www.hoteldestuileries.com/
hotel Majestic : http://hotel-majestic-nimes.com/
Hotel de provence : http://www.provencehotel.net/

As the working pace slows down in Paris you find more opportunities for the important things that you've been putting off

Between July 20th and the 28th you can take part in a special series of fitness sessions to develop your fitness, energy, vitality and joy in movement.

It is for you if you want: 

• to boost your fitness, strength and flexibility 
  
• learn new exercises and a new approach to your health and fitness 
  
• develop exercise habits that will help you thrive through your life 
  
• exercise outdoors with interesting people 
  
• make Paris your personal gym! 

This will not be 'gym' fitness which pushes your body towards an arbitrary 'ideal' shape, but exercise that you can integrate into your daily schedules. This will be functional movement that does not require special equipment or special clothes, but prepares you to move through the challenges both of ordinary life and exceptional exceptional emergencies.

We will use a mix of natural movement, martial arts, yoga, qigong and of course the built environment.

We will meet 7 times, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday: Check times and locations for each day:

Individual sessions will include:

• fitness 
  
• quality of functional movement 
  
• awareness and aliveness 
  
• mental habits, attitudes to exercise and diet 
  
• flexibility and range of motion 

While I will encourage you to engage in everything in each session, you will always have the choice as to to what you do or do not take do. Wear comfortable sports clothes you can sweat and get dirty in!

the price for the whole programme is €108, or €20 for each individual session.

The dates and meeting points of the sessions are

July 20th 19H15-22H30, 15 Quai de la Gironde (Body in mind –  Bring a notebook).

July 21st, 22nd 26th, 28th 19H15-21H15 Jardin de Tuileries 75001 Paris, 

July 24th, 25th 19H00-21H00 Parc de la Villette, 75019 Paris – possibility to stay for open air cinema afterwards

meeting point Jardin de Tuileries

Meeting point Parc de la Villette

Afficher meeting point Parc de la Villette sur une carte plus grande

On July 20th at 19H15 I will hold a seminar that looks at these questions.

This is not a physical training, it will be a practical investigation of how your goals, expectations, and thinking patterns effect your health, how you exercise and how you eat, and how to change those patterns.

Over the evening we will go into how you can use your mind to 

• improve your performance 
  
• recover faster, and decrease risk of injury 
  
• maintain enthusiasm and motivation 
  
• eat healthy food with pleasure 
  
• say no and drop your unhealthy habits 
  
• develop the body that you want 

This is for you if you are training hard already and want to boost your performance, and also if you are just coasting along not quite reaching your ideal, or perhaps even drifting further and further away from it.

I will welcome you from 19H15. We will start promptly at 19H30. We will work together until 22H30. Bring a notebook. Over the evening you will

• develop your individual body and fitness goals 
  
• learn the beliefs and attitudes of regular exercisers and healthy eaters 
  
• develop your self concept to help reach your ideal body shape 
  
• build individual strategies to say no to temptations without sacrifice or offence 
  
• receive skilled individual coaching 

Naturally you will find that you are able to apply what you will learn here to many areas beyond your fitness, sports and diet.

The seminar will be at 15 Quai de Gironde, 75019 Paris and taken alone the price is €20,  it is part of the Urban Summer fitness series

The contents of Luo laoshis seminars in Paris in June this year are here!  

Luo is exceptionally clear and no nonsense in his teaching style. His explanations make the the mysterious aspects of Chinese martial arts not only understandable, but directly practical as well. He is also extremely hands on in his style so you can learn as you watch, listen and feel how he moves.

Whether or not you practise Gao style Bagua the principles that Luo laoshi demonstrates can be applied to any martial art. His quality of movement is superb, with a bewildering mix of light nimble movement, control and convincingly heavy impact.

If you want to learn a skill it is advisable to find the best example of that skill to learn from, and in martial arts Luo is a excellent model.

There are five sessions open to everyone, with a 6th by invitation only. The days can be divided into morning and afternoon sessions. Every session will have a mix of form/solo practise and application.    

Friday June 18th, 19H00-22H00, 單換掌 Single Palm Change and circle walking

These two activities form the basis for Bagua practise – we will go over the most important points in practise and use. Whether you have seen Luo laoshi teach this before you will find new material to work on. This session will be the easiest for people who have little experience of Bagua

Saturday 19th June 10H-17H30, Circular Bagua, 八大掌  Big Eight Palms

Last year we covered the first 2 of these palms. This year we will review the snake and dragon palms, then continue with the next palm changes as time allows.

1. 蛇形順勢掌 Snake form smooth force palm

2. 龍形穿手掌 Dragon form piercing hand palm

3. 回身打虎掌 Returning body, strike the tiger palm

4. 燕翻蓋手掌 Swallow overturning covering hand palm

5. 轉身反背掌 Turn the body over the back palm

6. 擰身探馬掌 Twist the body searching horse palm

7. 翻身背插掌 Overturn the body, through the back palm

8. 停身搬扣掌 Stop the body, move and hook palm

Sunday 20th June 10H-17H30 2nd set of linear Bagua:  坎八式 kan gua

These straight line forms contain many techniques for striking with the hands, and also other parts of the body.

   1. 截肋掌, chui, intercepting ribs palm

   2. 葉下藏花掌 cang, flower hidden beneath the leaf

   3. 內砍掌 kan, inside chopping

   4. 外削掌 xiao, outside cutting

   5. 二仙傳道 er, two sages preach the way

   6. 惡虎撲羊 hu, ferocious tiger pounces on shoulder

   7. 鳳凰奪窩 duo, phoenix robs the nest

   8. 進退連環 huan, advancing and retreating continuing

Monday 21st June 19H-22H00 – sanshou -sticky hands

The sanshou (sometimes called roushou) of our school is a refined skill to link and integrate different techniques. This session is invitation only.    

The seminar will take place at  la Maison du Taiji, 57 rue Jules Ferry, 93170 Bagnolet on the East side of Paris. Prices: 1 session €60, 2 sessions €110, 3 sessions €150, Full weekend €190, Weekend+ Friday €230. Discounts for regular students, students, the unemployed and teachers who bring their students, call or e-mail me to qualify.   

To reserve your place please send deposit of €50 then cash on day. Make and send cheques to Edward Hines, 111 rue Caulaincourt, 75018 Paris until May 25th 2010, and then to 15 quai de la Gironde, Paris 75019.

The dates for Luo laoshi's seminars in Europe and the US are confirmed. It will be a little time before the contents of the seminars are decided, but in most places you can expect a long weekend of teaching that will cover an interesting mix of Bagua and Xingyi.

For people new to Luo laoshi's teaching there are usually sessions that are easy entry points for people without much previous experience.

Paris 17-23rd June

Switzerland 23rd-30th June

Brittany/Rennes 30th June-7th July

Manchester England, 7th-14th July

London England, 17th-21st July

Israel 21st-28th July 

then off to the US

DC 29th July-7th August

Denver 14th-21st August

SF 21st-30th August

then back to Taipei on the 30th.

I will post more information as soon as I have it, including contact details for seminar organisers.

My schedule will probably let me join in with Switzerland and London – as well as Paris, naturally.

Luo laoshi will teach a seminar in Paris towards the end of June this year. I will keep you updated as we decide what Luo laoshi will cover and exactly when he will be here.

You know that whatever he teaches it will there will be an immense amount to learn.

I'll find some more video to post here as a teaser…

On Saturday April 24th I will teach a day of Bagua in Lyons at the centre of Jean-Philippe Gams who was an extremely gracious host to me when I visited Beijing in 2007.

Since JP already practises and teaches Liang style Bagua I will concentrate on general principles and practise methods rather than the specific forms of Gao style Bagua, though I will use these as teaching tools. We will cover solo training to develop your body, balance, control, rhythm and power and also partner work to develop distance, timing, sensitivity and angle. The fee for the day is €50.

In the evening we can carry on with some open mat type training and then the traditional eating and drinking

Depending on train times and weather the same is likely to be true on Sunday, along with sightseeing.

If you want to come along then send me an email or go directly to JP at www.wugong.fr

I just came back from a weekend teaching bagua for at the Shen Yi school in Valencia. It was my first time there, and whenever I come to teach somewhere new there is a degree of uncertainty… What kind of people will I find? Will they have any skill? What kind of attitude will they have? Spacey and new age, or edgy and aggressive?

What I found were an enthusiastic and welcoming group of people who supported each other in their training, worked hard and laughed. The school and the atmosphere is carefully supervised by Johan Duquet. Johan is a dedicated practitioner of Shaolin and Chen Taiji who really cares for the people who come to train with him. He was also a wonderful host to me. Johan’s Taiji teacher is Fu Nengbin, a younger brother of Alan’s teacher Wang Haijun.

I am especially glad to have spent time after the seminar exchanging with Johan. It was fascinating to see some of the similarities between his Shaolin, Chen Taiji along with the Xingyi and Bagua that I am more familiar with. The differences were equally fascinating to both of us. I think we both enjoyed the opportunity to engage in some playful push hands with someone else more interested in learning than saving face!

If you are near Valencia and you want to learn something that is both ‘traditional’ and intelligent, testing but friendly go and visit Shenyi.

Johan is seeking official recognition as the Belgium beer ambassador to Valencia, another reason to visit. I believe he deserves to be recognised as such by the Belgiian government, and varoious monastic brewing establishments soon. To support him in this worthy goal you can write to the Belgian embassy for Spain, and the Belgian chambers of Commerce in for Spain and Catalonia.

Johan is also not bad ambassador for sangria and Paella…

Does Halloween Bagua mean that you will be expected to come in full costume? Or will I be teaching the Bagua pitchfork, scythe and broom forms?

Dress code is always flexible in my classes, so skull make up is welcome but not obligatory.

We will cover a variety of training methods – sanshou, the use of multiple angles of force in applications as well as more direct use of force.

I am looking forward to it.

If it appeals to you then get in touch with Danny. We will start on Friday evening and finish on Sunday afternoon, with plenty of tricks and treats through the weekend.