The result was a comprehensive, new style based on mobility and the ability to apply fighting principals while in constant motion. Baguazhang after all began as a Taoist meditation and health practice - it's enough to ask of it - maybe it's not about turning it into fighting at all, but simply about using it in training the body, which it does very well.This martial art was developed by Dong Hai Chaun, a skilled fighter who is said to have combined his extensive martial expertise with Daoist circle-walking meditation exercises. Another example is yoga - I use pigeon pose from yoga to work my piriformis, psoas and gluteus maximus muscles - it really has helped my martial arts practice immensely - protecting my back, improving my flexibility, my alignment, my kicks, my stances and my balance - but it's not a fighting technique! Likewise, I don't use chi kung or circle walking to fight, I use them to train my body so that at 64, I can practice martial arts and not hurt myself and be my best. It's brilliant in what it does for you - but circle walking is NOT a fighting stance - you can be pushed over very easily - it's a training exercise. I have received powerful benefits from circle walking by adopting this very position and spending time in it - essentially walking North while rotating your upper body West, then reversing - it's designed to work your core and your legs and develop independence between upper and lower body. Kung Fu Wang says regarding the picture of circle walking above - "No matter how you may stand, the 90 degree angle from your foot line will be your balance weakness." Absolutely true - you can see it. Since joining this forum last week, I see this one question behind almost every thread - does it work in a real fight? OK - I started this thread but am now wondering if as with so many martial arts styles - there are training techniques and then there are fighting techniques.
I would truly value and appreciate any information, advice or shared experiences from baguazhang practitioners. The more martial arts become about the UFC and 'what works in a real fight in the street' (nothing wrong with either) the more rare it is to locate the more advanced expressions of something like baguazhang in the form of actual fighting techniques or even fighting forms as practice.
And I know a Navy Seal isn't going to use this kind of movement in a life or death match, but this turning from the core that is the feature of baguazhang generates such power, that I'm always looking for its advanced manifestations and rarely finding them.
Despite some wire work and dramatization - in the film, The Grandmaster - Zhang Ziyi's movements in the match with Tony Leung in the first 15 seconds are certainly expressing true baguazhang as are her movements in the snow at the end of the film - she was taught by Ge Chun Yan, a master of the art - so this makes sense.
Its reputation for increased health and longevity has proven itself to me beyond a doubt, but it seems to be rare in terms of actual fighting - at least in video form. Wondering if there are any baguazhang practitioners out there who use this incredible art in the form of actual fighting techniques? I'm 64 and I've been a practitioner of baguazhang's circle walking practice for a couple of years now and am amazed at what it's done for my core, balance, breathing, independence between upper and lower body, proprioception and more.