September 2026 Newsletter
Hello students,
First off - Happy Birthday to Kaia, Jane and Dianne this month!
We're also celebrating milestones in training and a big congratulations to Jenni on 5-year anniversary and Kaia with 6-years anniversary with the school! We're incredibly honored to have your trust in our school.
Here's our calendar for this month:
Morning Taiji: No class on Sept 7 and Sept 30 (only 7 classes this month)
Evening Taiji: No class on Sept 7
Beginner Gongfu: No class on Sept 7
Kid's Gongfu: No class on Sept 29 (Sanda this month)
Advanced Gongfu: No class on Sept 29
Hopefully the studio starts to cool off; students are still allowed to train without uniform tops for this month.
ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY GIFTS
For students that have been with the school for at least one year, you should have all received a new classic Chinese gourd water bottle. If you have not received one yet, please let Shifu or your instructor know. We'll be continuing with more anniversary gifts in the upcoming months.
GOOD LUCK AT GOLDEN STATE/WORLD WUSHU TOURNAMENT 2026
With the most of the videos recorded needed for the online competition portion, please wish our athletes luck as they head out to California this weekend to compete in-person at the World Wushu Tournament. Li Jie will be leading Li Pin, Li Gong, Kaia, Jared, Vy and Mike as they will all be representing our school. Last year we made a bold statement that Utah finally has strong gongfu representation, and we know they'll all continue to make us proud! 加油!
THE LORE OF BAGUA ZHANG
Lately, the morning Taiji class has been learning Bagua Zhang. While other students have had the opportunity to also learn it, we haven't taken the time to understand the lore behind it. For the kids, quick references in today's culture - Aang (Avatar) and Neji (Naruto) fight with a Bagua Zhang style!
Bagua Zhang (八卦掌), or “Eight Trigram Palm,” is one of China’s traditional internal martial arts. One of its most recognizable features is its circular footwork, where practitioners constantly walk, turn, and change direction. But why the circle? To understand Bagua Zhang, we first need to understand the Bagua = 8 Trigrams. These eight symbols come from Chinese philosophy and represent different qualities and patterns found in nature:
☰ Heaven ☷ Earth ☳ Thunder ☴ Wind ☵ Water ☲ Fire ☶ Mountain ☱ Lake
The trigrams are also connected to Yin/Yang and the 5 Main Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.
These aren't simply symbols or elements to memorize. They represent different qualities of nature and different ways that things can change. Water can flow around an obstacle. A mountain can remain still and stable. Thunder represents sudden movement, while wind represents gradual movement and influence.
The Bagua is closely connected to the I Ching, or known as the Book of Changes - a very well known and extremely old book in Chinese literature. If you've taken the time to read it, awesome (it can be a hard read but it's very interesting.) The I Ching isn't simply about predicting the future. It looks at patterns of change and how circumstances shift, giving us a way to think about how we respond to those changes. And this is where the philosophy connects beautifully to Bagua Zhang.
In Bagua Zhang, we don't always meet an opponent's force head-on. We learn to change angles, redirect force, move around an opponent, and attack from unexpected positions. The opponent moves, so we move. They push, we redirect. The technique changes because the situation changes. This same Bagua symbolism also appears in Feng shui where the trigrams are used to understand relationships between direction, space, nature, and people. While Bagua Zhang and Feng shui are different practices, both reflect a broader Chinese understanding of balance, movement, and change.
One of the greatest lessons Bagua can teach us is that when circumstances change, we change. That applies just as much to life as it does to martial arts. Sometimes the path we planned doesn't work out. Sometimes our abilities change. Sometimes we face something we weren't expecting. Being strong doesn't always mean forcing our way through.
Sometimes strength means knowing when to turn, when to slow down, when to redirect, and when to take a completely different path. We don't fight the change. We learn to move with it. That's what makes the circle such a powerful symbol. You may be moving in a completely different direction than you were a moment ago, but you are still moving forward.
In gongfu, as in life, the goal isn't to control everything around us. It's to develop the awareness and ability to respond when things don't go according to plan.
-Shifu
HOUSEKEEPING & POLICY ITEMS
ALL STUDENTS - when not wearing a uniform top, you must wear an official school shirt. Please use the school store to purchase one.
The Fei Yue website for school shoes is still down - please use Amazon as your source for the moment.
Please try to keep our area clean - meaning don't leave behind personal items or water bottles. Keep those in your locker.
Parents - please share these newsletters with your kids. It's a great way to connect with their training and ensure they're learning the same things the adult classes are learning.
Friendly reminder - no discussion of politics at the school, please. We're a safe, neutral zone and always will be.
SCHOOL SCHEDULE
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