Basic Training - Bagua

[nianfong]

the first one. the second one is physically supporting someone.

[FLoating_Lotus]

Sorry, took a bit longer to reply than I thought.

Its Sun style bagua that he is teaching us. Well its really a very slow going class as the other students are 15-20yrs my elder. So most of the class is qigong, but I could sneak some extra lessons out of him I bet and also he does this on the side. Its not a full time thing for him, but he is the only person in the state that I know of that is teaching some bagua. (yeah sucks here)

Maybe there are some books you guys can recommend that could supplement me in learning some of this?

Thanks for the response so far this is great. Forget how much knowledge is around here.

[edededed]

Don't go the books route, there is too much variation between baguazhang styles to be sure what books would be helpful to you. Just concentrate on what you have learned, and practice that!

Of course, if you must buy books, buy books by Sun Lutang, as that should match more or less what you are doing

Having just one person in your state teaching bagua is not that bad - in my old state (NJ), I couldn't find a single person when I was there...

[Haoran]

Yes, one very senior Master in our style told me.

"Out of the Neijia world there are few who practice Bagua and Within Bagua there are few who do it well."

To practice bagua correctly is very difficult and demanding. Not so many are willing to hang with it.

So, as such, there are few around who teach Bagua, even in China (outside of Beijing).

[SPJ]

Yes, one very senior Master in our style told me.

"Out of the Neijia world there are few who practice Bagua and Within Bagua there are few who do it well."

To practice bagua correctly is very difficult and demanding. Not so many are willing to hang with it.

So, as such, there are few around who teach Bagua, even in China (outside of Beijing).

agreed that Ba Gua has a good tradition in Beijing.

There are many aspects or wide spectrums of practitioners. So each substyle does focus on some aspects. Such as Yin, Shi style would be fast strikes/kicks.
Cheng style would be more about throw/shuai jiao. --- so it really depends on a particular teacher and what he or she focuses on.

[meeks]

Ok, Fuzhu is :
辅助【fǔzhù】 assist; supplementary; auxiliary; subsidiary.

that one.

I don't see anybody so far mentioning the importance of knowing what your training objectives are first. This will provide the single most useful set of guidelines for determining what you will want to practice, regardless of which style of Baguazhang you are presented with.

Chris's pimp hand is strong when he 'nails it' - everyone is looking for something different.

[Buddy]

QFT!

"I've browsed the boards before and seems like this is the best place for IMA discussion."

[meeks]

one thing that was always important to me was finding an instructor that taught 'the elusive' jin every book talked about but no teacher (or same author) ever taught. It was always "that's not important" or "that's just marketing for a book...it's not real" etc... one teacher even went so far to say he couldn't teach 'jin' understanding to me because I wasn't chinese - despite the fact that he didn't teach his chinese students this either (although his skill was above all else).

Finally I happened across an instructor (no longer concerned about 'jin') and during my first class he was all about that. I learned more in 3 weeks from him (every day) than I had in 6 years. it made everything else look like forms training despite all the techniques I knew. IT CHANGED MY LIFE in my world on gong fu. At this point, after understanding it, it really doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore, and in fact, the understanding of proper jin is quite simple - once you 'get it'. *gasp...I've reached enlightenment...* (disappears like the ancients on Stargate SG-1)

anyways I know a zillion martial arts guys (or at least I used to) and teachers and I've only met a couple that really have an understanding of jin. Usually the first sign they don't 'get it' is they're locked on the idea of fa jin this and fa jin that....

[Haoran]

LOL.. yeah, I've heard the Chinese Connection thing before too. If you're not Chinese then you can't get it. LOL....

It takes a willing, capible teacher and a student who wants to learn and work hard... That's it.

I'll have to be honest, I've never sought out the elusive Jin creature. However, I was told by a senior in our system that standing ZZ (Bagua ZZ) is useful for developing Jin. When I'm ready for it I'll seek it out.

Meanwhile I'm just practicing.