does anyone here practice bagua?

2 busses?

holy holy.

me thinks you need a bicycle

 

How long would that that you and would it be safe?

 

That sounds like a good deal,getting a lot of 1 to 1 work with the instructor.

Sorry about the weather.Practice lower basin mud stepping, I guess.

I remember walking and hitching to classes-the worst part was the walk home-about 8 miles,mostly uphill!Wouldn't hitch at night,and not much traffic on those roads anyway.Good for the legs,tho'.

 

Newsflash- looks like the class is folding, only 2 students booked in!

 

awwwww lame! I hope you get your bagua in some other way.....?

 

Not unless you have a few years in some other real Chinese martial arts.

A few years at Tae Kwon Do will probably not do it.

 

Have you advertised or was this "word of mouth"?

 

Not a very big population and half of them are hippies

 

Intice them with organic stuff and incense

 

I practice Sun Lutang Baguazhang even though Hebei Xingyiquan is my primary art. I went and tried other martial arts and kung fu styles and came back to the internal arts.

 

i bet youve got superpowers

 

I wish I had the opportunity to. I've found one person that teaches during the day ("Don't these people have to work?" "No."), and one person that's highly suspect. Heck, I'm not even aware of a good Tai Chi school in my area that has a good martial bent to it.

 

Has anyone heard of a guy called roy Jenzen who teaches Bagua and Xingyi in Perth, Western Australia? I'm interested but have heard conflicting stuff about the guy and was wondering if anyone had any personal experience with him?

 

hi

its very tough to find a good kung fu sifu anywhere these days, let alone a good internal arts teacher who practices the martial side regularly.

 

I practice and teach Baguazhang in Boston.

Anyone from the forum is welcome to come visit.

My door is always open.

 

I have been practicing Bagua for last 8 years in Dublin with Alan Peatfield. He also teaches Xsing I and wu style tai chi. The reason why he teaches all these things together, is because each one of these arts has developed its own training methods based around the its own main internal principal: Tai chi yielding or Yin force, Xsing I expansion or Yang force and Bagua change between Yin and Yang. It is easier to get yin based principles through Tai chi, Yang base principals through Xsing I. You need to get these principals before you can attempt to learn the change between the two, which is what Bagua is all about. You can do it through Bagua alone, but it can prove to be difficult. But if you get it, it is the most effective martial arts around. I hope I will get it one day…

 

I had to travel for up to 2 hours to get to my ba gua instructor, it depends how much effort you want to put in.

 

The Bagua "circle walking" contridicts to the Chinese wrestling "circle running". When moving in circle, the Chinese wrestler will move the back leg first to avoid "crossing legs". The Bagua guy will move the front leg first which will always cause leg crossing. It's not a good idea to cross legs when you are still infront of your opponent. Not sure why the Bagua system didn't consider the "legs crossing" issue.

I always want my back foot, front foot, and my opponent on a straight line. I'll never want the line of my feet and my opponent on a 90 degree angle. It's a bad habit that I can't afford to develop. I have learned the Bagua 8 palms but I don't train it any more for the reason that I have just described. I'm a "cross training" guy (I have cross trained SC, longfist, 7 star mantis, Baji, Zimen, Lohan, white ape, WC, Taiji, XingYi) but Bagua is the only system that's not in my cross training list.

 

When they are straight in front, cross-legging is not a good idea. Once past on the side, then turn hips to effect 'cross-legging' - but attack line changes to your orientation, not theirs i.e. step past them with back foot leading, but don't turn into a 'cross' until the attack angle is yours for the taking. At an angle and/or medium distance, cross stepping keeps them away from you.

For me crossing only happens after once on an angle. In training, it all happens as one. As I aint no Wang ShuJin, I just practise this stuff, but in realirty the steps are small, and the turning or crossing is even smaller a) to prevent sweeping and being pushed over and b) not to telegraph intention.

What I have seen in Bagua (limited) - it is the back foot that moves first, not the front foot. Moving one foot into the evasion and attack angle (in one movement) that you want will always be a more energy efficient activity than a front foot evasion followed by second foot attack entry - but timing is more critical and tricky.

 

Someone said to me that Xingyi is too simple to be usefull, Bagua is too complex to develop and Taichi somewhere in between. There may be some merit in that statement, but all 3 have interesting qualities - and limitations (for me) - all MA is limiting in one way or another and conditions your gameplan.