Unusual Bagua

[SimonM]

So about two weeks ago I went to the temple half way up Feng Shan and practiced Taiji with a few locals. After the Taiji practice the old priest who (I think) lives at the temple started doing some Bagua. However it was markedly different from what I have seen before.

One of the instructors at my school in Canada did Bagua. He would move slowly. Every step would be placed mindfully, walking a nearly perfect circle. The body movements would be carefully co-ordinated; much like one would expect in Taiji.

The old priest on the other hand practiced rather differently. He walked the circles quickly; his movements were still fluid but seemed erratic and almost haphazard at times. It seemed less deliberate, less mindful.

Was one person practicing incorrectly? Were they just practicing different styles of Bagua? :confused:

[TenTigers]

From the little of Bot Gua I have learned, and the slightly more that I have seen, I can say that Bot Gua is played faster than Tai-Chi. You might practice it slow at first, or if you are specifically concentrating on your structural alignments, but on the whole, it is played quicker, sometimes blindingly fast by pros.
All Bot Gua SHOULD look different-even from the same school. I know I am stepping on toes here, but if you look at Dong Hai-Chuan's teachings, he taught his Bot Gua concepts to people who already were masters in their own respective styles, which were then incorperated to form thier own personal expression of Bot Gua. Theoretically speaking, I should then one day have a Hung Kuen Bot Gua! :D

[sean_stonehart]

I've seen people here in the States & in China walked the unerring, perfect circles & then seen them walk the random haphazard circles that look more chaotic than anything else. From what little I've gleaned by practice, reading, talking, watching Bagua is that a circle is a circle & sometimes a new circle will start in the middle of another circle.

A former teacher of mine said when referring to bagua & the like ...

... be the center of the circle, walk circle around the center.

:)

[Judge Pen]

The little bit of BaGua that I've been exposed to has been very specific and exact about the circle walking and the location of the steps along the circle. It is played faster than tai chi, but not like an external set. But that's just the basics--I imagine, like everything else, there's a free form aspect of the training at the advanced stages. Perhaps that's what you saw?

[Ray Pina]

Could even be the exact style, no?

Sometimes I walk the circle to practice nothing but my kicking. Sometimes I walk the circle focusing on nothing but twisting my arms, torso, legs, everything, for internal. Sometimes I walk the circle with applications in mind but not very often. Sometimes I walk the circle backwards.

Same person, same style but to the person who doesn't know what I'm focusing on it must all look very strange.

[cbishop]

it's my opinion that backward walking is an advanced practice. can't even
get those EF phuckers to comment on it though. when my training brother
saw me walking backward he asked if i was doing aikido!!!

circle walking is a training method. it's like a pushup.

is there a 'real' pushup?
is there a 'right' way to do it?

i don't think so. i think that you find benefit from performing different types
of pushups that work different muscle groups.

my bagua teacher taught us to begin walking the circle very large (radius)
and very high and relaxed. we would begin concentrating one by one
on the details and adding to the practice till we were mud stepping very
deeply and precisely and performing spinal wave with each step. a long deep
walk (with perhaps some palm changes) would slowly turn back into a halfhazard
prance around a very large and relaxed circle.

i think it's best to try it all out. fast, slow, high, low, front, back..etc
analyze what you're doing sometimes, and then pay no attention at other times.