Martial Movement Arts

I started my distance learning training from Carsten in September 2019, I've always wanted to learn Bagua Zhang.

I had always been impressed with this movement and obvious dedication to his arts and I saw that he was offering private online instructions.

So I committed to three months to see how I would like it. Carsten offered a blend of precise instruction along with understanding the need for letting a students make their own mistakes and learn from them.

It's a difficult thing to teach/learn over distance, but his very detailed videos and written feedback helped immensely.

After a few months he suggested I transfer over to his online learning platform, and it was a seamless process.

He was still able to offer his personalized instruction in the new format.

I had been looking for a quality internal martial arts teacher for quite some time, and I am happy to have found one in Carsten.

Along with his instruction, he is also a person of high quality of character, and I look forward to many years of continued learning!

"After having trained in different Chinese martial arts during my teenage and university years, I stopped training about fifteen years ago, because work, family and frequent moves from one city to another got in the way of regular practice. Now in my mid-forties, I wanted to take up a Chinese martial art again, but wasn't able to find a good-quality class close to where I live.

While I was initially quite sceptical about the possibility to successfully study a martial art by distance-learning, I decided to give Carsten's online coaching programme a try, as I had heard good things about the Yizong school of martial arts and was intrigued in particular by Bagua Zhang and Xingyi Quan.

I have now been training Bagua Zhang online with Carsten for a year and a half, starting from scratch with his "Bagua Basics I" programme and then progressing further via small-group coaching together with a friend.

I found Carsten to be an exceptional coach, who structures his training programmes very well and is able to tailor them to individual needs, and who explains and demonstrates movements, exercises and principles very clearly. His teaching covers the entire breadth of the Bagua Zhang curriculum, including e.g. basic techniques, footwork, circle walking, palm changes, linear forms, fighting applications, as well as mobility and strength exercises.

Thanks to a good combination of high-quality instructional videos and individual feedback and corrections (based on regularly sharing videos documenting your own progress), his coaching programme makes it possible to advance in the art of Bagua Zhang even without the physical presence of a teacher. One aspect of Carsten's approach that I found to work particularly well for me consists in learning movements and forms in two steps: first in their rough shape, and then going more into the details, which makes the learning experience both more progressive (focusing on the overall movement first and on the finer points later) and more active (as it allows you to figure out the movement by yourself first, before receiving more detailed instructions and explanations). The only obvious area where online coaching has its limitations concerns partner practice (unless you have a training partner locally), and for this aspect it can be very helpful to attend seminars and workshops in Carsten's school in Cologne at least occasionally.

I have made good progress in Bagua since I started training with Carsten, and I am enjoying the training very much. This also makes it easier for me to stay motivated and find the time for my practice sessions, as I am usually looking forward to receiving the next training schedule and to learning new forms and exercises (or further refining movements I already learned). Last but not least, training in Bagua Zhang has also brought me two additional benefits: First, before starting the online coaching, I regularly suffered from knee and back pain for days and sometimes for more than a week at a time. Thanks to the mobility and other exercises I learned from Carsten, these problems have now all but disappeared, and I haven't experienced any lasting knee or back pain in over a year.

Second, even though I am training Bagua Zhang at a relatively moderate intensity as my only regular physical practice, my overall physical fitness level has improved considerably since I started the coaching. I really notice this when engaging in other physical activities, in which I am now able to perform better thanks to better coordination, mobility, balance and leg strength.

In short, I can recommend Carsten as a teacher without any hesitation both online and in his regular classes, seminars and workshops. It is quite rare to find a teacher who not only has in-depth expertise in an authentic and complete system of Chinese martial arts, but who is also able to transmit his skills and knowledge in an accessible, clear and engaging manner that is adapted to the abilities, interests and learning style of the student."

"Bagua Basics online course is an absolutely helpful structured course, which divides movement sequences into helpful intermediate steps, with concrete training sequences, very extensive video material, personal video feedback and in my case a really nice learning group, which I hope will last for the following courses together.

And although it is a lot of input to "digest", it is really a lot of fun and I would not have thought that you can teach a movement art so well in a video course. Must be due to the teacher ;-) Thank you very much, I am happy to be here."

"I have now nearly gone through the excellent Bagua Basics #1 Online Course. A great introduction tutorial to the Yizong Gao Bagua Zhang Basics, covering basic circle walking, single and smooth snake palm changes, eight hand training methods and two body movement exercises.

Also included were a warm-up with mobility drills. This online course was structured in a very good way, well-supported with video clips providing both clearly demonstrated general and more detailed movement pointers.

Each week included further progressions, information and personal feedback on submitted homework - yes, you are expected to practise at home and send in video clips! The supportive online group worked really well too.

Overall, I am very impressed by Carsten's experience, teaching approach and patient delivery. A great introduction to Gaostyle Bagua Zhang Basics, highly recommended."

Working with Carsten as an online coach was fantastic and I recommend it highly.

I first trained in Bagua Zhang decades ago when I lived in Asia, but returning home to the US, without connection to my teachers, over the years I had stopped. Carsten’s YouTube videos inspired me to start again.

In his movement I saw a faithful representation of the style I loved: the Gao lineage that survives in the teaching of great Taiwanese masters like Luo De Xiu and Su Dong Chen.

Carsten’s videos are incredibly clear. His training plans and other supporting materials are very helpful. And his direct, personal feedback is always on-point. This course has gotten me right back into it, rebuilding my skills from fundamentals.

During the last couple of months I have taken a dive into the fascinating world of Chinese Internal Martial Arts. Since I’m a specialist in the art of inversions, I find it important to consistently add some other layers to my practice as well as develop some new areas that are not addressed while balancing on my hands or my head. I find it also important to develop myself as a teacher.

I find that in a way handstand as a practice resembles many aspects of internal martial arts, and making these small discoveries along the way through practice is I tweeking and beneficial.

When the Online Bagua Basics course opened a few months back I decided to jump into the water and start bending air and walk like a dragon, or at least try... It feels like I’ve come a long way, and at the same time I’ve not scratched the surface of this fascinating martial art… Thank you Carsten! I’m grateful to have returned to beginner mode under your guidance!