John Hine is a Chinese Internal Martial Arts Master who has been training for over 45 years, and runs one of the longest established and successful chain of Tai Chi schools in the UK.
In tonight's Bagua lesson I concentrated more on my footwork and getting them to flow at the correct distances with the correct weight movement to each foot, in order to carry the body around the circle in a smooth a fashion as possible.
I also reviewed the first movement of the form which is called Monkey Presents The Fruit.
In terms of adding on to my form we reviewed and polished the Python Turns On Its Back move. There is an interesting detail where the movement of the right hand moves in a way similar to threading a needle and I concentrated on getting this more exact tonight.
At the end of the Bagua class we finished up looking at some Baguazhang Kou Shou (Crossing Hands) where we focused on syncing up Heaven Palm* outer parries with inner parries, while walking a couple of steps of the circle. This is intended to get us practicing the circle walking while performing basic martial applications.
The Chinese Internal Martial arts really are unique and highly sophisticated systems that all can benefit from learning.
*Heaven Palms are when your palms face the sky. Earth Palms are when the palms face the ground.
