May 3, 2009 by george.

In its most simple sense, baguazhang likes to take things and play with them. The art is based on the attitude of play. You can play with forms, you can play with opponents and training partners, and you need to play with the tools of your training.

A simple example of playing with a “tool” in training is taking one basic form or fighting principle and varying it in a number of different senses. Doing this as a deliberate process allows you to get to the essence of that form or principles jin. You must take it apart so that you can see what it is, inside and out, and so that you can learn to put it back together in any form you want. Take our first houtian straight line form of kaizhang, or opening palm, for example. From the basic template, you can learn to practice it long for the training of power, or short for the expression of power. You can apply it with either hand, on either the inside or outside of your opponent. You can apply it driving forward or while retreating. You can use it to overwhelm or to flow around the strengths of your opponent. You can use it to enter high or low, or to force your opponent’s center high or low. You can step straight in or at angles around the opponent. You can strike with a palm, as in the basic form, or with a slapping hand, a fist, your knee, your elbow, etc.

Another example of a practice in baguazhang that used to be common, but that I don’t see often anymore, is that of free-flowing creative circle walking. Using the circle as a template and letting the jin flow out of your body, your mind and your consciousness was a common method of play in baguazhang when the art was first being disseminated. Beyond our own Yizong group, I have seen it practiced before in a couple Beijing bagua schools - I’ve seen Ma Chuanxu and Yang Kun do this personally, but it unfortunately does not seem to be as common anymore. And when it is done, especially in the West, it is often painfully obvious that it is being done too soon, without the foundation work in place. When the jin are not part of your body/mind, what comes out is just sloppy arm waving, not part of the art of Baguazhang.

Taking the basic essence of a thing and changing it big and small, forward and back, right and left, up and down, and more… this is the base of how we play in bagua. In a sense, the core jin of the moves we are trying to express is what is sacred, everything else is in flux, in change, in a state of play.

More later.

Posted in Baguazhang, Training, General Info | 5 Comments »

May 3, 2009 by george.

All martial arts are abstract from the real thing. There is no perfect imitation of what is chaos - a violent encounter. At best we try to imitate, to take aspects of the whole and train these.

Many martial arts take a single aspect of the whole and specialize in that. Brazilian jujitsu is reknowned for its ground grappling expertise. Judo, sambo, wrestling, shuai jiao for their skill in standing grappling and throwing. Boxing for its fists. Baguazhang is an attempt to take a look at the whole and what binds the pieces together. At its essence, it provides not only technique and methods of building skill, but an overarching paradigm with which to understand the chaos.

Like I say often in class, there are many aspects wherein Baguazhang tries to take the big look at things, and train not just a part, but the whole. Not just ABC or XYZ, but A through Z. You can see this in the forms wherein the body and mind are taken through a full range of motion and led to open the joints, the tendons, to make strong the bones and muscles, and to make clear, focussed and fully aware the mind/intent.

To train the whole still requires one to take it in pieces. Baguazhang will take different aspects of the whole pie and train them separately as well as together. Furthermore, this is often done to balance the training as well. Sometimes we will train in one direction, only to switch gears at some point and train in the other. There are times when we train for speed, others for power. There are times to train for light, others for heavy. Etc.

Again, these are all things that we hear in class everyday. Is it understood intuitively? Do you emphasize it in your training?

More later.

Posted in Baguazhang, Training, General Info | 4 Comments »