Bagua Zhang Prinicpals

[Yoshiyahu]

I was wondering if any could share the basic principals of Bagua?

Also when you practice how many of them to you focus on at a time?

[mawali]

1. close with the enemy
2. through a combination of qinnah and shuai with foot and hand combinations
3. straight line to finish despite circleing as degree of changing (actually as the enemy changes), with knowing how to stop his change and keep yours
3. all MA have the above methods but how do you enforce?
4. hard to quantify. each individual consciousness determines which art MAY be better. The functionality in circling is subtle and is one part. conditioning can allow you to cut through any BS art, even baquazhang.

i started with TKD, did some karate (Okinawa) doing taijiquan (consistently) and do baquazhang circle walking when i feel lazy. i integrate alot of concepts/principles keeping in mind both taijiquan and paquazhang practitioners rarely exhibut skill but they do performance. the few who do martial taijiquan and baquazhang are few and far between. how did i get some skill? i watch learn/integrate, never go to a gunfight with a stick and run like hell, if necessary.

[Boston Bagua]

why not stick to things you train in?

No offense but you seem to post more than train.

[uki]

understand the three points within a circle and you will understand the art of walking in circles to move straight ahead.

[dimethylsea]

Gao Bagua Principles......

Qing。清 Qing Liang Yi 清两仪 Understand Yin and Yang
Ming。明 Ming san Jie 明三节 Clear the 3 sections
Qi。齐 Qi Si Shao 齐四稍 Work the 4 ends together
Quan。全 Quan Wu Xing 全五行 Use all the 5 elements
He。合 He liu He 合六合 Coordinate the 6 harmony
Gu。顾 Gu Qi Xing 顾七星 Take care of the 7 stars
Lian。连 Lian Ba Gua 连八卦 Connect the 8 Gua
Bei。备 Bei Jiu Gong 备九宫 Keep the 9 palaces

[Yoshiyahu]

This is great...thank you for your sharing...

There was one who seems to be a bagua man but he did not share an principals?

I wonder if he has any?

[KTS]

basic bagua principal? CHANGE.

might i ask what you mean by basic principal?

[Yoshiyahu]

basic bagua principal? CHANGE.

might i ask what you mean by basic principal?

Excellent post!!!

[KTS]

well, if u arent being sarcastic, thanks. but, change is really the base for bagua.

bagua zhang focuses on fluid movements from strike to clinch to throw, and generally in that order. very fluid with not much repositioning needed to change the circumstance to be much more favorable for the BGZ fighter.

bagua, at it's heart, is pretty simple in nature and concept. that simplicity is what gives rise to more complex movements in an easy, fluid manner.

the fact that bagua doesnt just focus on one technique ending with either success or failure and then having to use another technique, is part of what makes it a special art. it was made, developed, and continues to develope with adapting and changing in mind. principals are more important here than training one movement for one or two purposes. and one movement flows into the next with ease once you get the "hang" of it.

in bagua, a strike is never "just" a strike.

ability to change is at the heart of BGZ.

hope that helps ya.

[3DeeMonk]

Look up www.BaguaKungfu.com for more details and other links to elite Bagua Professionals.

For some tips...Yin Style to be specific...is based on trigram system consisting of 8 Animals. They are:

1. Lion (Father)
2. Dragon
3. Bear
4. Phoenix
5. Rooster
6. Monkey
7. Snake
8. Kirin (Mother)

Yin Style particularly usually focuses on tight circles of providing a full 360 movement around the assailant within four steps (thats if he doesnt fall within the first step!). Other Bagua styles are 6 to 8 steps...making the circle larger and having more in-between steps around your opponents.

Most practitioners can only learn one animal (mostly Lion) or at least focus on one animal to attempt to perfect it. It is rare to find a Bagua Master that knows them all. So far I have only found He Jinbao and Kuan Wang to currently posses all knowledge of all animals or at least able to practice all eight animals. Each animal has about 56 or so forms! Then when you hybrid them together, you now have an ingredient of something magical and unexplainable. Which allows you to be extremely adaptive and able to frequently change to many positions on demand. Since its so hard to accomplish all 56 forms of each animal accurately, most of the time, there are only four main animals taught to the public - Lion, Dragon, Bear and Phoenix.

Each characteristic of the animals are genuine and build up organs internally and aid in establishing stronger joints. Also, there are techniques to build up the central sulcus (center of the brain) to accept blows to the top of the head and methods on tucking in your man hood to endure crotch strikes! Certain techniques emphasizes on making foam in your mouth to keep you from being dehydrated in long duration battles. The science of it all has a natural phenomena and can lead to a Kundalini experience (receiving the all seeing third eye...extra sense of wisdom and more).

Normally it is best to find a disciple of He Jinbao before you would interact with the grand carrier himself. Training is very hard if taught correctly and usually when you meet He Jinbao, he would expect you to do the lion circle for over an hour at minimum....not really having patience for the beginner.

There is so much to explain and so much to be taught that responding to forums would never be enough. Check out the link and if you have questions, I see if I can answer them the best to my knowledge. If not....I have a close knit instructor that does have all the answers regarding to Bagua. So Enter the Circle and visit BaguaKungfu.com and http://www.yinstylebaguazhang.com/

The more you learn of the internal science of Yin Style Baguazhang, the more spontaneous and unpredictable you are as a fighter. We all can agree, the most dominant fighter is one that is unpredictable, specially when he circles behind you!

3DeeMonk
www.BaguaKungfu.com

[Ray Pina]

How has this changing art changed, or evolved/developed, to remain relevant as we approach 2010?

What are folks doing and working on?

[Boston Bagua]

changing when needed.

also training with modern weapons as well as the the tradition BIG weapons to develop whole body power and coordination.

Baguazhang is based on being able to adapt to whatever situation you encounter.

[Lee Chiang Po]

understand the three points within a circle and you will understand the art of walking in circles to move straight ahead.

Just an observation, but this is sort of a contradiction. I watched a video of a young man walking around a tree. First one way and then the other. What would be gained by this?

[dimethylsea]

Just an observation, but this is sort of a contradiction. I watched a video of a young man walking around a tree. First one way and then the other. What would be gained by this?

The act of movement done according to bagua principals is very valuable for building a specific sort of balance in motion.

The actual martial art portion of baguazhang is generally encapsulated in the change of direction from counter-clockwise to clockwise or vice versa.

This direction change is similar or the same as a change of lead hand or lead foot in more linear arts.

Depending on the complexity of the change a bagua person may rotate 360+ degrees in the process of a change.. which provides a challenge for balance and all sorts of neat options for throws and power generation.

[dimethylsea]

How has this changing art changed, or evolved/developed, to remain relevant as we approach 2010?

What are folks doing and working on?

One thing that has changed is the "prior experience in another martial art" recommendation has shifted. Now in the West we are getting students who may have bagua as their first martial art.. but they may already be adept at some other classical art (like dance) or one of the "new body" methods (like parkour).

I encourage this trend myself. I want all the freaks to do bagua. It's the best way to encourage diversity and the survival of the stuff.