How do you step in the circle? Ba Gua

[Appledog]

Tang Ni Bu is Wading through mud, like what you would do in a Rice patty. So there’s a couple of things that this means. If you don’t want the mud to suck your shoes off, then you need to lift your whole foot up, not heel first. And there’s the idea that each step needs intention, since you’re balancing on one leg, while carefully bringing your other foot forward, then carefully placing it. It’s slow to make progress.
Baguazhang doesn’t want the feet to come very high off the ground, so it just hovers slightly above the ground. If someone is practicing in grass then it looks like their feet are sliding. So some people slide their feet now. It’s okay if you’re on something slick and wearing just socks. But once you put on shoes with tread and turn on rough ground, then when trying to force it to slide you gradually begin to jam your patellar tendon up into your knee with each step.
Heel to toe is called Ziran Bu- just the way you naturally walk. You never exaggerate the heel coming up. It’s just the way you want to Turn in a Circle until you learn the Mud Step where you want to try and pick the foot up flatter and hover it, then place flat. Which slightly and gradually begins to stretch your achilles tendons.
Regardless of how you walk, you want to start developing one of the 8 requirements- Grasping the ground with your toes. The feet are like hands. You can’t grasp something in your hand if it’s already in a fist. You have to pull your fingers open and spread them. So the important part of this requirement is that you’re pulling your toes back and spreading them in every step. This not only strengthens your calves but also protects the tendons and ligaments where they connect to your knee, just in case your feet are getting jammed into the ground.

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Your posts are always a joy to read but, "you gradually begin to jam your patellar tendon up into your knee with each step." -- I don't understand what you mean. I can't see how touching the ground with your foot would do this when lifting it up and putting it down wouldn't.

[D_Glenn]

The exact mechanism of it I don’t know, but basically when you point your toes and outstretch your foot, the patellar tendon is activated and stretched. If your toes encounter resistance against the ground, then it feeds back up into your patellar tendon, which isn’t designed to take force like that. I did it this way for roughly a year and I could already feel an issue with my knees. Then I met Dr. Xie and switched to a Natural step. He told me about the patellar tendon damage that he’d seen in Bagua people doing the sliding step.

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[Appledog]

The exact mechanism of it I don’t know, but basically when you point your toes and outstretch your foot, the patellar tendon is activated and stretched. If your toes encounter resistance against the ground, then it feeds back up into your patellar tendon, which isn’t designed to take force like that. I did it this way for roughly a year and I could already feel an issue with my knees. Then I met Dr. Xie and switched to a Natural step. He told me about the patellar tendon damage that he’d seen in Bagua people doing the sliding step.

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Well that's really cool.

It's interesting how people figure some things out. I figured out spreading the toes was important, but I didn't really think about the patellar tendon. So now I guess I learned something. I definitely aim to come and learn from you guys sometime

Well, as I mentioned before my teacher's mother was involved with baguazhang. As it turns out my teacher has been secretly teaching me some baguazhang changes but has hidden them in some special sifu sets of tai chi. Since baguazhang has come up here and some liu yunqiao and other videos have been posted. I see the intersection clearly. It excites me. I have a feeling I would like baguazhang but I do not have a lot of time left

[everything]

there is always today.

this is why "mother palm" and 80/20 rules are so interesting. 80% of results or returns always come from 20% of the most important, foundational inputs or investments. the question then becomes what are those inputs? most people are wasting their time (and hence their lives) doing a lot of work (or not) on the other 80%.

[D_Glenn]

…Finally, he said, Bagua violates rules of stability because when the opponent attacks you want to be unstable, loose, and mobile, yet still connected. When you contact, the slightest touch moves you, collapses you. In that same movement, you move from unstable to stable, much like taijiquan or Xingyiquan, and often you will attack, but other options are available.

The first rule violated by most circle walking is to never place the feet in a T. These lines do not have to be perpendicular. I teach this as the “Taiji Ski Rule”. If you wearing taiji skis, it’s OK to cross the skis (paths of the feet), but you never want a ski on one foot to touch the other foot, in front or behind. This creates great instability. Try it. Stand in a T-position and have someone push on you in any direction. You’ll fall right over.

Other taijiquan rules violated are twisting the spine, allowing the wrist to cross the centerline, and allowing the palm to go above the eyebrow.

The taijiquan rules of stability are gone into more in depth here. http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/taiji/xiaojia.html.

My question, Is the idea of walking to elicit instability just the understanding of this teacher, or is it a Fu style thing, taught in a few styles, or is this generally taught universally in Baguazhang?

Imo it’s a universal thing. The practice itself is constantly forcing you to resist a force that is pushing you to the side as you’re trying to walk a narrow path. It’s kind of like being on a skateboard. Where you need to resist imbalance in all directions. Also different Bagua mother palms, for reasons that I can’t explain, will cause the feeling that you’re falling out of the circle, and you have to lean inward to resist it. While other postures make you feel like you’re being pulled into the center and you resist by leaning outward.

In Baguazhang that instability is conditioned by imagining that you’re always walking on a hiking trail where all the roots of the surrounding trees have become exposed. Something is always there to trip or twist your ankle. We also want to always be stepping. Even if it’s just taking a step that moves an inch. We step at even the slightest movement that an opponent makes. Fixed feet Push hands competitions are completely counterproductive to us. We lose as soon as the match starts.

[Reggie]

TwoCircles -
D_Glenn - Thanks I liked your Xing Yi vid BTW,

Regards the Fu Style I think you have taken an individual lesson about something specific
an applied it as fundamental principal of Fu Style. I mean - yes - correct but not overriding rule.
There is definitely rooted walking in Fu Style.
OP - Please add rippling step. This is a Fu trait. It is mud stepping with added wave motion
using the lower torso as the leading point and landing on the forward foot - no up and down allowed
knees rubbing as the leg comes thru. A big gap can be covered allowing position behind the opponent
in one step. It can be done on ice and they say you will never fall on ice again after it is mastered.
The T-step thing - this is the foot work of the Gua - no? Single palm change?
I practice this every day waiting for my java at Starbucks - mud step/midstep/turning
Once turned I check for new mud step lead foot to be straight out in front and the yang back foot to be
a perfect 45 degrees. The turning step is a cross link to Shuai jiao type footwork and can gain the center
while getting 90 percent of the weight to do a throw. Luo Dexiu can show this. Feet are not actually crossed.
John calls it inside hook sweep step - it is the same step.