Training Background

Below you will find summary and detail of my martial arts training background. I am primarily interested in the practice of traditional internal martial arts and classical Japanese martial arts, which I continue in the Pacific Northwest.

Mark Raugas

Seattle, WA

Summary

Qualifications

  • Hōbyōkan: chuden menjo, 2018.
  • Hōbyōkan: shoden menjo, 2016.
  • Yin Cheng Gong Fa North America: lineal disciple, 2015.
  • Capital Katori: mokuroku, 2008.
  • Midtown Yoga: 200 hour yoga teacher training, 2007.

Training History

  • Yin Cheng Gong Fa North America: 2005 to present.
  • Hōbyōkan: Jikishinkage-ryū: 2008 to 2016.
  • Gao Lineage Bagua: 2004 to 2014.
  • Aikidō: 1989 to 2014.

Detail

Internal Martial Arts

☵ Yin Cheng Gong Fa North America (YCGF) is the Chinese internal martial arts organization led by Zhang Yun laoshi, lineal disciple of the late Grandmaster Wang Peisheng. Bagua, Xingyi, and Taiji as taught in North American YCGF are my primary martial arts practice.

I began training under Paul Cote in Maryland in 2005 before traveling regularly to Pittsburgh for additional instruction. In 2015 I became a formal lineal student of his teacher, Zhang Yun. My two sponsors were Paul and Clayton Shiu.

Zhang Yun and his senior students are excellent sources of instruction in Baguazhang, Taijiquan, Xingyiquan, and Tongbeiquan. Several training groups are listed on the YCGF Group List; in addition, there are activities in Pittsburgh, PA and Bellingham, WA I can recommend.

Koryū

☵ The Hōbyōkan led by David Hall at the National Institute of Health, maintains practices of Shindō Muso-ryū jo, Yagyu Shinkage-ryū heihō, and Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu. I studied Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū at the Hōbyōkan until moving to Seattle in 2016. I received a Hōbyōkan chuden menjo associated to that practice in 2018.

My sponsor into the Hōbyōkan was Michael Heiler, who now practices Takamura-ha Shindō Yoshin-ryū and has a dojo of his own. I can also strongly recommend the dojo of his Shinyokai sponsor Doug Walker in Portland, OR.

Aikidō and Kempō

☵ My first martial arts practice was in traditional Shukokai Karate in Elizabeth, NJ. From 1989 to 2005 in NYC I practiced a self-defense oriented form of aiki-jujutsu that was a mixture of Aikidō, Nippon Shorinji Kempō, and elements of Daito-ryū. There was a lot of debate online when I discovered my teacher was misrepresenting his lineage. I would have been much better served by training in traditional Aikidō or Daito-ryu with a connection to Japan when I went to university.

I began training in traditional martial arts in 2004 when I started a study of Gao Lineage Bagua with Bob Galeone. His experience as a senior Aikidō student of Kanai and Saotome was of great help to me as I made the shift from Aikidō centered practice to Chinese internal martial arts. I was introduced to Bob by Ellis Amdur who leads Araki-ryū torite-kogusoku and is a shihan of Tenshin Bukō-ryū; some of his writing can be found at Kogen Budō. I have contributed two articles to his site.

☵ From 2005 to 2015 I trained at a Katori Shinto-ryū study group hosted at Capital Aikikai, a traditional Aikidō dojo in Silver Spring, Maryland. I reached the level of mokuroku as well as practicing the entirety of the kata maintained in this line of the art.

Because most of the teachers and students were aikidōists, and the class was conducted in a modern manner, I look back on my practice as a much better form of aikiken and aikijo than what I first learned in NYC. Training in Gao Bagua helped debug a lot of what I had been taught in NYC, and conversations with Clyde Takeguchi, Bob Galeone, and other Aikidō teachers while I spent time at Capital helped me better contextualize and understand the aikidō I had first learned.

I continued to work on Gao Bagua and Aikidō with my friend Ben Lawner in Baltimore until he moved to Pittsburgh in 2014. We called the result of our combined practice Gassankan Jujutsu.

Yoga

☵ I studied Vinyasa Yoga as a complement to my rock climbing and martial arts practice at Midtown Yoga in Baltimore. There I completed a 200 hour teacher training led by Kim Manfredi in 2007. I then taught yoga in Baltimore as a Yoga Alliance certified instructor, before moving to Seattle.

☵ I practice Buddhism alongside Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga. In 2011 I attended the Kalachakra for World Peace in Washington, DC held by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. There I took refuge and made bodhisattva vows. I have been fortunate to study with additional teachers since that time.