So evidently Bagua Zhang is well known for its circle walking and stepping between posts, but supposedly some other martial arts have this, such as Lama Pai, Xingyi (nine palace stepping), etc.
Does your martial art have circle walking or post stepping? How is the circle walking done? In some baguazhang lineages it is done with ‘muddy wade step’ (Tang Ni Bu), but what are the other type of stepping?
I’m not familiar with Xingyi but supposedly Xingyi has some type of nine palace stepping routine. Does anybody know how this stepping goes?
We practice circle walking which is an integral part of the training as well as special Zi Ran Men stepping.
Hands and feet moving as one -no beginning or end to movements.
Zou Luo Kuang
‘Circle Basket Walking’.Develops strength, balance,
speed and lightness
The purpose of basket walking is to train your body in ‘ching kung’
or ‘lightness skill’. This makes your body extremely light and
agile.
Using a bamboo basket weighing 4.5kg, you fill it with 100kg of
peebles.Balance on the basket and start to walk around it, grabbing
the rim with alternate hands as you step.
Every 19 days, remove 1.5-2.5kg of pebbles until only 15kg of
pebbles are left.At this stage, remove only one pebble per day
until the basket is empty.
If you knock the basket over in training, fill it with 100kg and start
again…
That basket training sounds cool; I think I seen that in a Shaw brother’s flick too. I read about it as a kid and wish I did that as well as the dig a hole and jump out of it, making it deeper and adding more weight.
Anyway, as far as circle walking, many styles have it but to be honest, I think they should focus more on training the correct principles of power generation (foot/hip/waist/rib/shoulder/elbow/wrist/finger) walking in a straight line first. Because I see a lot of people walking in circles but they don’t seem to have good connection … in the end, they might just be walking in circles (pun intended).
Walk before you run … straight before circle. My opinion anyway.
The mud walking step is not the only step used in circle walking.
There are others, like the heel to toe stepping pattern which is called different things in different systems. Some people call is the Lion Step and others " Immortal Man Strolling". I walk my circle as in real life and I DO NOT walk with a mud step so I avoid that one. I use that step as a way to train how to kick someone in the shins very quickly without raising the foot, just shooting it out, Jeet Gerk(arrow kick).
I think there’s many different things you can train while walking the circle, sometimes train kicking, sometimes train hang time/driving off back leg, sometimes both at the same time, sometimes coiling and uncoiling the palms as exersice, etc.
So walking like you normally walk, yes, but with the understanding that you use the hip for power not the knee. Otherwise there’s no need to train. Everyone knows how to walk regularly. Kicking the shin is no big deal. But can you kick and keep control of yourself while maintaining forward -----> momentum? Do you have the power in your leg (developed by training hang time) to change and chase the guy if he breaks to either side? .
To throw away the mechanics and the detail is to miss the beauty of what internal has to offer a fighter.
is it better to walk a straight line than a circle? seems like when you attack someone you would want to close space quickly and retreat quickly. i understand the moving from side to side quickly principle, just in my opinion it is more effective to move into the opponent quickly.
Of course my major study was karate so i may be wrong.
I believe many misunderstand Ba Gua walking when they talk about walking behind the other man. The other has to be very bad for you to just walk around them, but if they offer you an extended arm, and you know how to drive off your leg and not lose power through the hand, then you can turn them quite easily. You get behind them, but they turn for you.
But you’re right, mobility is everything. That’s why internal stresses being single weighted … this way you have the potential to move 360 degrees (push right or left, pull back/push forward). Of course, everything depends on what the other guy offers you, how you’re contacted and their size.
I beleive its most important to really get the core mechanics down first, and that’s easiest when you focus simply on them … thus straight line. When you have that, you can cut a circle’s corner and maintain a pushing angle and a driving force quite easily, it’s simply a matter of twisting the hip a bit (be careful not to twist the knee by itself!, twist the entire leg).
It depends on a lot of things - your skills and intent, that of your opponent(s), surroundings, and so on. Sometimes you want to flank the opponent, avoid their power and hit them from a position of advantage. Sometimes it’s quicker, easier, and just as effective to lunge straight at them.
