“Silky Suit Brigrade”

One of my favorite Bagua blogs is authored by one of Bruce’s students. You can find it by searching for “silky suit brigrade” on Google. If you keep the double-quotes, you should only get one hit.

Among some of the other rants is humorous commentary on “arm waving versions of Ba Gua Zhang”. When I watch video of someone performing Bagua one of the most important things I watch is how the legs move in relation to the hands and body. So many practitioners emphasize only the hands. The better people use the waist and hands well, but more often than not they are coordinating their movement (coordination requires muscle control). Few seem to really connect and far fewer seem to move the hand and foot together.

This is important because it tells you whether someone is using the whole spine for their Bagua movement. This is one of the differences between Bagua and Tai Chi. Tai Chi is organized around the lower tan tien. The body is divided in halves (upper/lower, left/right, front/back) and balances the halves like yin/yang pairs. Bagua is organized around the entire spine acting as a unit in very distinct ways.

Anyway, read the rant.