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.
Bagua - Monday 13th December
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.
Bagua - Monday 29th November
Tonight in Baguazhang class I moved on to commence the 6th Circle...
Before doing so I practice refining my general circle walking with one of our instructors. My steps were too large. They really need to be quite short steps - they say to use the length from your knee downwards as a guide to the distance. In our school we walk with our feet slipping flat on the ground, so that it looks like we are skimming along ice.
The first move at the beginning of the 6th Circle, after you do 'Sparrow Flaps its Wings' and 'Close Door, Hide Moon' is to draw back and then step through with a strike and then move into an interesting part of the form called 'Python turns on its back'.
This is one of those moves that use hand postures which are fascinating in themselves. In this case the fingers of the hands take the shape that is also used by the hand which is not holding the sword in the Tai Chi sword form. You then draw back your hands, almost like pulling a bow, while rolling the arm over, like a snake rolling on it's back, hence the title.
As we move on through the form we will learn what these movements are as fighting applications.
