Dave Meikle Cheng Shi Bagua Zhang Demos

[meeks]

This is what I've got the guys doing the 2nd week of class....keep in mind I haven't trained my bagua in about 6 years so the connection might be off. Keeping it slow for the camera and for the new students here...

tuo tian zhang - 1

tuo tian zhang - 2

tuo tian zhang - variation 1

tuo tian zhang - variation 2

da mang fan shen 1

da mang fan shen 2

pi quan 1

pi quan 2

You can check out the gallery as it grows here:
cheng shi bagua zhang videos

[edededed]

Very interesting, thanks for the videos!

Looks very similar to some aikido I did several years back, but with more twisting (and more offensive, I guess).

Tuotianzhang - looks like kokyunage (iriminage)
Damangfanshen (?) - looks like shihonage
Piquan - looks like ikkyo

[meeks]

well, you know...everyone 'knows' that aikido came from bagua, right? (kidding)

tuo tian zhang has soooo many techniques - these are just a couple of them, and yes, when I studied aikido all I thought was 'this is just like tuo tian zhang'

the shihonage we learned was quite different than this variation of da mang fan shen (great serpent overturns body). while it does involve a pivot in the stepping while attached to the arm, that's where the similarities end. also, there's many variations of da mang fan shen against a kick, a 2 hand grab, from behind, from an arm bar....

pi quan is basically the same as ik kyo - 'this' variation of it... just keeping it simple for the noobs...

[Dmitri]

Nice movement.

[shawnsegler]

links no workee for me

[meeks]

just did a server reboot while you were trying to access...

[JessOBrien]

Nice work Dave! Glad to see you are back onto teaching and training, sometimes a break is just what you need to get back in the game..

I am very glad to see that you've done both Aikido and Ba Gua. I have done both as well and I think they share some great attributes. Of course CMA is superior.. hahah...

Jess O

[C.J.Wang]

Meek:

Is Aikido your main style? It seems that you are applying Bagua in a very Japanese Jujitsu/Aikido fashion.

[somatai]

Meeks....nice clips, but it looks very technique focused, is this just an aspect of what you work or what? I have been impressed with you writings on body method in the past and wonder how you incorporate that into what looks like "waza" ala aikido?

thanks,
Derek

[Mut]

Like the mats Meeks, are they kiddies play mats?

[meeks]

Is Aikido your main style? It seems that you are applying Bagua in a very Japanese Jujitsu/Aikido fashion.

15 years bagua vs about 2 years aikido - no...I'm a bagua guy. These guys are only 4 lessons in so we're starting off with extreme basic stuff, which means 'lets practice things from a grab for now' vs 'lets break limbs'

nice clips, but it looks very technique focused, is this just an aspect of what you work or what? I have been impressed with you writings on body method in the past and wonder how you incorporate that into what looks like "waza" ala aikido?

yes - it's technique focused... I don't dig on forms without strong understanding of application within. currently they're all working on tuo tian zhang and various applications within it, plus a few other items thrown into the mix. my branch of cheng style bagua (Xu zhen biu/wang wen kui) is very joint lock/throw oriented rather than chopping/striking that I see in other branches of bagua. These guys will work on about 10 techniques for the next 3 months or so, while practicing the palm change in tuo tian zhang in a straight line (learn the techniques understand the varieties of potential jin in the form) which is where the majority of this set of techniques come from. circle walking will be introduced a bit later when they have integrated the understanding of connective forces (jin) and can demonstrate to me that understanding - this helps to ensure no one's simply holding their arms in the air and walking a circle - I let other 'bagua' schools in Vancouver teach that empty forms stuff... you know, where everyone's a master or grandmaster and each student wears silk.

This beginner's level is broken down into joint locks, take downs, throws, then strikes (last). After these 4 lessons I wanted to put a couple of guys online with a couple of techniques to demonstrate that it's not a school where the teacher is awesome and the students all suck....it's the opposite...I suck at it, but the students are kick ass. I firmly believe these guys should be able to fight and dominate with bagua within 3-6 months of starting.

as for shen fa - it's subtle in these techniques since we're doing 'huge movements' rather than tiny moves....look at the pi quan vids. In the beginning they practice 'step off the line and cut across'. Eventually it's a simply twist of the torso and the guy goes down... but I'll wait about 6-8 weeks of practising huge moves on that one before saying 'ok, now do it this way'. If you look at da mang fan shen you can notice that at no point I'm I ever really moving my arms from the position directly in front of my centerline - that's all shen fa directing my opponent around me and to the ground.... I also need to utilize 'sui ji ying bian' (follow gauge neutralize transform) which means I'm limited by his velocity, weight and resistance to how much speed is necessary and how much force. If you look at the last video where the student does it, you can see he does it more linear because the shen fa is not there yet - he's relying more on his footwork than his torso.

Like the mats Meeks, are they kiddies play mats?

Walmart or Canadian Tire - $16 for a 4 pack, 2' x 2'. Beats $50 for a single mat, 30" x 30" at the martial arts store.

I hope I've answered all the questions accordingly. I welcome any other questions about how/why I'm doing stuff in the vids or in class, and hope that not all my answers will revolve around 'because the school just opened and they're all beginners to bagua...'

[Chanchu]

looks good Meeks!

[somatai]

thanks meeks

[neijia_boxer]

i enjoyed the clips - short, sweet, and how they looped. good show!

[meeks]

I used a regular digital camera, then a free software called DVDVideoSoft which converts mpg to swf files for embedding in the HTML. file size conversion is about 8 megs down to 600kb. looping is automatic.


At the suggestion of a friend of mine, I've redone the gallery slightly so it displays on the same page as the menu now - no more clicking back n forth.