Booyah! Bagua paired circlewalking clip!

[Braden]

http://homepage.mac.com/mancheta/imovie.html

Updated the site and we got this gem.

[Mr Punch]

Cheers Braden. 'D never seen it before.

[Souljah]

very nice

[Lisa]

Nice clip. I'd read about it before, but never actually seen it.

[Braden]

Some info...

Solo circlewalking is the fundamental exercise of all styles of baguazhang. Simply enough, you walk in a circle with your torso twisted to face the center, while trying to conform to a variety of postural requirements. There are a number of different footwork methords (in terms of how you actually take each step) which can vary significantly between lineages. Typically, a student will learn a circlewalking set with eight different arm positions. Direction is changed most simply with what are called inside or outside changes. You see inside changes on that clip. Outside changes are a bit sketchier (they are done when your inside foot is forward) and often you'll see, like in this clip, someone taking a quick step and an inside change rather than doing an outside one. 'Palm changes' are baguazhang's version of form-work, and consist of slightly more complex ways of changing direction.

For paired circlewalking, just walking the circle with someone is quite fun and a good practice. In addition to all the stipulations of solo walking practice (which is actually quite challenging done right!), you have to match the pace of your partner, and also execute directional changes instantaneously when they do. Your partner may speed up, slow down, stop, and change directions spontaneously. In addition to this, there's a certain kind of pressure you must keep at the point of contact. You don't just touch, you have to keep a springy 'ground path' up constantly to stick to your partner. If you're not firm enough, you won't be able to follow him, and he will surprise you with an attack. If you're too firm, you give your partner a handy point to control you with... if you look at the clip, you can see the potential to 'hinge' at the point of contact and elbow your partner in the face; or perhaps simply push them off balance.

This is the simple way, and the practice can increase in complexity up to free-form sparring. Some of the first common additions are: to introduce jabbing - to thrust the forward hand straight at your parter's face. Often the defense against this is simply to take a quick step - a good 'slipping' practice. Also to introduce rotational hinging: keep the point of contact, but rotate your arm to strike low if you are high... your partner must stick to you, rotating his arm similarly to cover, this is done in motion. The inside and outside changes become templates for any kind of attack. Simply doing an inside change is a direct striking method - if your partner 'changes' at the same time, it defense. It's a fun and safe exercise to execute such an attack as a strike or push at your partner's extended arm, causing him to practice fading that side with your energy in concert with extending the other side (eg. still a simple inside change; but the yielding/striking aspect is a staple of bagua applications) Of course, since you are joined, it's likely that you'll grab him with the joining hand as it retracts, to pull him into the incoming strike, which is something else he'll have to deal with. Incorporating the eight basic palm shapes into this practice provides a method of exploring all manner of strikes and joint locks to the arm, all within this basic template.

From here, you get more complex. You can start using moves from the palm changes (or from anywhere) instead of, or in addition to the basic directional changes. You can also 'cross the circle' to execute any kind of attack. And there are kicking and leg jamming exercises as well.

The basic idea first and foremost is to train the idea of - always move. Generally speaking, so long as you move and react in this drill, you'll do fairly well.

The clip shows two inside changes - the first in it's simple form, and the second done as an attack. You can see in the attack, the extending-arm comes up quickly from underneath to grab his partner, while the retracting-arm executes an attack to the head while it retracts (which becomes a sweep to his partner's arm to open up his guard), then as the extending-arm becomes fully extended, it becomes a high attack, and the same step he would normally take stepping out of the directional change becomes a low attack.

[Nichiren]

Was that Baqua cirlce walking??? I thought it was some kind of western polka dance????


/Cheers

[TaoBoy]

Hey, when I was in China I took a photo of an old guy practicing in Bai Hei Park (Beijing). It was great to watch him.

He marked the ground free hand with a brush and water (you can see the bucket in the background).

Take a look. (http://www.melbkungfu.com/gallery_china2001_si01.htm)