Baguazhang
Only careful, sensitive
and skilful effort can achieve enduring results.
(I Ching)
Martial history
The founder of baguazhang (Dong Haichuan) was a bodyguard in
the Imperial court.
Baguazhang is the sister art of tai chi chuan, and focuses upon stepping and
change.
Characteristics
The baguazhang training involves:
8 mother palms
Circle walking
Direction changes
Form/8 palm changes
Form application
Partner work
Freeform self defence
Students are encouraged to move,
flow, adapt, respond - spontaneously and calmly.
Baguazhang is particularly effective for applying chin na and shuai jiao.
Jiang Rong Qiao
Our school practices the
Jiang Rong Qiao style of bagua, which is
martial in nature and also good for health.
Baguazhang/bagwa/pakua means '8 trigram palm'.
It is a style of kung fu based upon the
I Ching.
Application
Baguazhang addresses the experience of combat in a different way to tai chi
chuan.
The student avoids direct confrontation by circling around
the opponent or by encouraging the attacker to circle around them.
Momentum and flow are used to overcome strength. The aim is to draw the attacker
out of their centre and off-balance.
Bagua trains the student to adapt, change and improvise.
There are no fixed techniques, with the exponent preferring to respond to the
demands of the moment rather than force an outcome.
Counter-attack
Baguazhang employs three areas of skill for defeating an opponent:
Shuai jiao (grappling)
Chin na (seizing)
Jing (energy expression)
A baguazhang student must be
competent in all three areas of skill.
Why learn baguazhang?
We teach baguazhang as an extra to tai chi. We
do not mix and match.
Why bother learning a second art?
It's fun
It's hard
It is sneaky and deceptive
It makes your footwork smoother
It improves your spatial awareness
It works well against multiple opponents
It challenges you physically and cognitively
It encourages spontaneity and improvisation
Any student who wants to put in a
little extra practice time between lessons can learn baguazhang.
When do we teach baguazhang?
Baguazhang is taught to
black belt students, although we also offer one monthly beginners class.
Feedback
Sifu Waller has received feedback from his baguazhang students:
I find the syllabus is well-structured and offers carefully designed and
enjoyable exercises which aid application of the palm changes. Learning the
purpose of each of the movements gives a real insight into overall strategy
of baguazhang.
In addition to creating an accessible website containing information
relevant to learning baguazhang, Sifu Waller also takes the time to explain
concepts in detail in class with the added benefit of being able to
demonstrate how these principles can be applied martially.
The emphasis on evasive movements in baguazhang has been particularly
helpful in overcoming my tendency to freeze-up during self-defence scenarios
and instead I'm learning to relax and respond.
Although the underlying principles are similar to tai chi chuan, baguazhang feels
very different. Adapting your mindset to take into account multiple
opponents is difficult but very rewarding from a martial perspective.
Bagua is proving to be a great opportunity to escape from the trappings of
individual techniques and instead concentrate on realistic improvisation of
self-defence applications in high-pressure situations. I particularly
appreciate the focus on deception and evasion.
(Dominic Hine)
I think that bagua is fantastic. I see it as an honour to be taught
something so detailed and deadly. Every new starter [including me] has
different ideas about self defence and martial arts. This exceeds all
expectations you could possibly come up with.
Learning baguazhang at this stage in my tai chi chuan experience is unexpected. I
am getting to see aspects of shuai jiao and chin na that would only be
possible much further into the tai chi chuan syllabus. It can be rough depending
on what is being taught, but it is never over the top. Pain within an
application usually comes from being tense.
(Barnaby Baron)
After some months of questioning and reflecting on the true nature of
internal martial arts I was recently, along with a number of Sifu Waller’s
students, given an energetic and skilful introduction to the world of
baguazhang. My first reaction was it’s everything I thought it would be, and
clearly so much more.
To be on the receiving end of an application of bagua from Sifu is to be
permanently cured of any lingering doubts as to its effectiveness as a
profound martial skill. I certainly harboured those doubts coming as I do
from a background of predominantly external martial arts. (Where’s the
flamboyant stances, where’s the crack of the gi as you snap out a gyakuzuki???)
But as I gingerly picked myself up off the floor after a particularly
enlightening application from Sifu those doubts have died away like the echo
of a scream from someone on the receiving end of ‘cavity press.’
As a general rule when Sifu remarks ‘Hey, this will make you laugh!’ I have
come to understand a particularly vigorous application is approaching! It is
in these applications that I am beginning to recognise firstly the skill and
depth of Sifu’s learning, and secondly how my own learning skills and
experience are woefully inadequate to the task of learning bagua and tai
chi.
It’s certainly sobering when after all those years of training, facing Sifu
I feel about as effective as an old lady throwing marshmallows.
Sifu is constantly stressing relaxation. As I was reflecting on this it
occurred to me that watching Sifu perform bagua is for me like trying to
read a book without my reading glasses. Once I learn to relax everything
will become a little clearer.
I feel very grateful to Sifu for an introduction to a form of martial arts
that as I understand it is not that widely available to western students in
its authentic form. And, as Sifu recently pointed out bagua is part of the
black belt syllabus, I feel he has generously presented us with a wonderful
opportunity.
It is also I suspect in my own case something of a double-edged sword. As
part of the Mc generation I am as guilty as anyone of wanting everything
now, and being very demanding in terms of my own needs, of looking straight
to the highest teaching and grasping after it. It’s interesting to reflect
after the introduction that this is clearly the opposite approach that is
required by a martial art like bagua, and then it follows that an
introduction to bagua at this time may simply be utterly beyond our
capabilities. As Adam Hsu says in his book, The Sword Polishers Record,
‘kung fu literally means time and hard work, there are no shortcuts.’
Certainly bagua cannot be seen, as perhaps it could be argued some other
aspects of martial arts are, as simply another medal to pin on the chest of
ego.
For those of us who’ve been involved in martial arts for some time, and have
some experience of Chinese arts and teachers, I feel we can be confident
that with Sifu we have stumbled upon a treasure trove of authentic Chinese
martial arts. It’s tremendously exciting as the lineage and history is
abundantly clear in his approach. It struck me, the first time I saw Sifu
demonstrate it, that 5000 years of Chinese culture and history is somehow
woven into the lethal beauty of bagua.
Having reconciled myself many years ago to an understanding that I have no
flair for Chinese martial arts, in fact I am hopelessly inadequate and
uncoordinated, I must confess to feeling a little intimidated by the skill
required to approach tai chi and bagua. A friend, an excellent choi lee fut
practitioner, once remarked as I struggled through a set from shaolin long
fist that ‘ you look like my father disco dancing at my wedding.’ I can’t
help feeling that Sifu’s generosity and skill may be utterly wasted on me
and I should put all my energy in learning to be an expert at falling well!
Right now that would be a profound achievement.
(Graham)
There is a lot to bagua. They say that knowledge is power; well it
certainly is in this instance. But it is only worth doing if it is done
correctly. A student is never taught what they cannot understand; this is
the reason for a syllabus. Bagua has many hidden applications, ones that can
take years to find. I am lucky to find one use during each movement, let
alone the hundreds that Sifu can find. Bagua trains the eye to realise a
situation, adapt to it, and change around it and most of all, to improvise.
Respond to the situation with a calm mind but be aware of everything in the
vicinity. The in-depth syllabus teaches how to do this via controlled
situations and practice.
(Barnaby Baron)
Sifu shows that the use of bagua in self defence is very effective and
formidable. It is unpredictable for the attacker and extremely
disorientating due to the movements and stepping of the defender. It is
sneaky in its use of angles and finding openings. It offers many
possibilities for the defender to counter attack. Bagua encourages lightness
and mobility. It gets you out of the way fast and helps you deal with the
potential chaos of multiple attackers. Good for people with smaller stature.
(Rachel Waller)
I cannot fault the self defence aspect of bagua. It is fast, decisive and
unforgiving. Making a mistake will cost an opponent dearly. Applied
correctly, the opponent will have no upper hand to begin with as the bagua
student will have already acted without even thinking. Your examples of
application are comprehensive and calmly executed. Anyone not impressed by
the form would surprise me.
(Barnaby Baron)
I enjoy learning bagua. It is much more spatially challenging than tai
chi chuan. I think learning it concurrently with the tai chi chuan is helpful because it
encourages you to see things more martially.
(Rachel Waller)
Page created 31 July 1994