Teesside Dragon

04/05/2026

In this week's training sessions we shall begin working our way through 30 different finish-offs to Wadoryu's Kihon Gumite no. 1. It should be be lots of fun!

18/03/2026

At the recent seminar we had a look at Yin-style Bagua's Phoenix system. This contains 8 striking methods, each of which contains 8 examples, ie 64 strikes per level. The following clip is a brief look at the Whirling Dodging strike, which is usually grouped with other strikes or take-downs.

18/03/2026

Devon seminar March 7&8 2026. Many thanks to all who attended.

15/03/2026

For those who attended my seminar in Devon last weekend, courtesy of Sanyou Martial Arts and Sakura Martial Arts, many thanks for your very warm welcome and interest in the areas we covered.
On Saturday we had a whistle-stop tour of the 5 Elements and 12 Animal strategies of Hebei-style Xingyiquan, relating them to similarities in karate.
On the Sunday we looked at the 4 pillars of Yin-style Baguazhang (standing; turning; striking; changing) in the Dr Xie Peiqi lineage, and in particular the 8 striking methods of Phoenix system. There were many 'light-bulb' moments.

For anyone wishing to explore further I can recommend the following links:
for Hebei-style Xingyi - the Mu Shin Martial Culture website and Youtube channel of Byron Jacobs. Byron is a national coach in China and has some excellent instructional material and a very detailed book.
For Yin-style Bagua I recommend yinstylebaguazhang.com which has a lot of excellent material and a Youtube channel with many clips of He Jinbao in action, such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw9QrxdRgDI Anyone wishing to explore further the trigram systems of Lion, Phoenix, Dragon or Bear will find superb instructional material from Dr Xie and He Jinbao on the Association for Traditional Studies/teachable website.

We practise these methods at our weekly training sessions at Teesside Dragon in Wolviston, Billingham.

Neil

Yin Style Baguazhang is an art of striking while moving. It employs intricate kicking, throwing, and grasping techniques which are set up by strikes executed...

04/01/2026

Our weekly training sessions resume this week on Tuesday 6th 7.30pm-9.00pm with more Bagua, Xingyi and Wado technical analysis and application.

21/12/2025

Our last training session of the year is on Tuesday 23rd, 7.30pm at Wolviston Community Centre, and via Zoom with our friends in Devon.

Now is a good time to take stock of the past year:
We've welcomed new members and also delighted in the return of some old friends - each bringing significant skills and experiences to our study group. We also hosted a very enjoyable seminar here for our Devon colleagues who made the long trip up to the North East to train with us.

We began the year with our continued deep dive into Yin-style Bagua's Lion system striking methods and then moved on to the study of the Phoenix system which is much closer to our existing training method. Phoenix also fits really well with our previous (and on-going)studies of XingYi's 12 Animal sets. All of this has added to the richness of our club's 108 1:1 drills.

For 2026: we'll look to more of the same and also explore some of Yin-style's Dragon system and a return to WadoRyu's Kumite Gata.

Season's greetings to all our friends, everywhere. After Tuesday we'll have a week's break and then resume on Tuesday 6th January. Enjoy!

15/12/2025

The dates for Teesside Dragon Martial Arts sessions at Wolviston during the next few weeks are :

Tuesday 16th December 7-30-9pm - normal session
Tuesday 23rd December 7.30-9pm - normal session
Tuesday 30th December - No Training
Tuesday 6th Jan 2026 7.30-9pm - normal session
then each Tuesday thereafter for the remainder of the year or until further notice.

03/09/2025

In last night's session we looked at Sun Lutang's simplified Bagua form and how Single Palm Change is highly adaptable and features within several of our Club 1:1s.
We went on to practise some of the double stick drills that show the same methods.

06/06/2025

A reminder that there will be no Tuesday session at Wolviston next week (10th June).

15/04/2025

Another follow-on from our seminar: in this clip from He Jinbao's London Intensive a few years ago we see Transforming, Removing and Chopping integrated with advancing and withdrawing steps.

Withdrawing footwork used to set up strike attacks. At the Yin Style Bagua, London Combatives Training Intensive