Bagua: "the Single Palm Change"?

Do you have any pics of this tec?
How do you do it?

~K~
the super-duper supreme

Hey Kristoffer,

There are pictures available in books and on the web at various Baguazhang sites. However, even to see it performed in person might be a little confusing, as it is part of a formalized set of movements known as Circle Walking. The physical movements of the Single Palm Change act as a kind of template on which we may hang multiple combat applications. There are numerous applications of it, so simply looking at a static photo of it being performed is probably less than useless (one practices it solo, with no partner).

I suggest you find someone who teaches Bagua if you really are interested. There are also quite a few videos available which demonstrate how the movement is applied in combat. People on this forum may attempt describing it for you in words, but I suggest that you may not come away with much more understanding of it than you have now. Find a teacher. :

thanks,

~K~
the super-duper supreme

Most primary bagua "forms" are actually eight "palm changes" executed while circlewalking. A palm change is a brief (or sometimes not-so-brief!) series of movements. In presentation, the palm changes can vary significantly across bagua styles, but there tend to be some common principles. In particular, the single palm change is the most fundamental of the lot, so tends to be highly conserved across styles.

Note that in some styles, the single and double palm change are seperate from the eight palm changes (for 10 total).

The footwork of the single palm change I have learnt goes like this... First you are in your circlewalking posture: if you imagine a circle, you are standing at some point along it's circumference with your hips facing forward along the circle. Your rear foot is just outside the circle, pointing along it's length. Your front foot is just inside the circle, twisted noticably with the hip to point near the center. You are nearly 100% backweighted. As the single palm change starts, your front foot continues it's twisting movement to pull your body forward; your rear leg arcing around so that you are standing pigeontoed, legs waist-width apart, facing the center of the circle. Your weight is on your "front" leg only momentarily, and sinks heavily back into your "rear" leg as you enter the pigeontoed stance. Your empty leg (was your front leg) now twists to point outside the circle, similarly pulling your body around to a pigeontoed stance facing OUTSIDE the circle, only this time your weight stays on the "pulling" leg. Now your waist swing toward the inside of the circle (in the direction of your empty leg), swinging your empty leg along with it so that you are in the circlewalking stance facing opposite to the one you started in.

The handwork is like this: The circlewalking stance has a twist so that your shoulders face the center of the circle though your hips face it's circumferance. Your back arm is stretched out towards the center and your forward arm is rounded like a guard: palm towards the lead arm's forearm. As your body is pulled into the first pigeontoe (facing inside), the movements pull your guard hand down to a position like resting on a chair arm, and your lead hands is pulled into a heavy palm slap of your guard hand's upper forearm. You could picture this like a low block with that slapping hand ready to grab something of your opponent's. As your foot begins to twist out of this first pigeontoe, the twisting results in a snapping palm-heel strike into the center of your circle with what was your guard hand (the one in the chair-arm position). This motion continues, your body pulling your arms around so that when you settle into the second pigeontoe, your arms are crossed lightly in front of you (not actually touching or touching your chest). You could imagine this as if your striking hand has grabbed your opponent's wrist and has yanked it across your chest while you pushed him off balance, and now you can break his wrist with your shoulder or other hand, or you could guide your other hand up along that snatched arm, for a fingerspear to the throat. Anyway, from here, the swinging of the waist raises the arms up briefly (actually pointing upwards) and then swinging down into circlewalking stance.