Hine Institute - Learn Baguazhang

In tonight's Bagua lesson I completed the learning of the sixth circle and practiced the circle walking in the opposite direction.

I also concentrated on footwork and posture of my back and arms.

At the end of the class we did some two hit Kuo Shou to help improve our fighting skills.

Tonight we added on to the 6th circle in our Bagua class and covered the moves:

•    White Snake Spits Out the Mushroom (one legged stance)
•    Fierce Tiger Leaves the Cage
•    Angry Tiger Puts Out its Claw

These are interesting moves which continue the two-fingered hand posture style.

At the end of the Bagua lesson we did some Pile Standing / Chi Kung exercises which are known as Neijia or 'Internal Family' Pile Standing / Chi Kung exercises.

The position of the body is with the back straight, and the chin tucked under. The tongue should touch the roof of the mouth.

The hips should be tucked under with the feet one shoulder width apart. The knees are to be bent so as to obscure the view of the toes.

The hands should 'embrace the ball' with elbows dropped and the hands about heart-height.

Under the armpits you should imagine a ball between them the size of an orange in order to help to practice not collapse them - if you block the Chi then the practice is pointless.

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.

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.

In Bagua this evening the students in my group (1 year experience) completed the 5th of the 8 Bagua circles.

They say that Bagua is the hardest of the three internal martial arts to learn, but the easiest to master.

It is a very technical martial art which requires a great deal of attention to detail.

We finished the class with some Bagua 'Chi circulation' exercises which help move the Chi around the body in a free manner.

As the student progress the sense of feeling the Chi increases and the very action of the Chi circulation exercises promote health and vitality in the body and mind.