If you've seen it, great. If you haven't, check out my post on the blog I made for our study group concerning circle turning practice: Yin Style Bagua -- Knoxville: Turning the circle, keeping it real. As the day went on, I thought more about what I wrote, and I have more to say about it. Since I feel that what I have to say about it is more personal than "official," I'm saying it on this blog instead of on the group training blog.
I would like to keep it real about turning the circle. I don't think I see enough of that these days. Instead, I see school after school that use baguazhang like a carrot: it's the advanced or "black sash" training reserved only for after years of training in something else. I see schools picking out bagua techniques, pulled from their roots, and say that they train baguazhang instead of using bagua-inspired techniques. That's fine, if that's what you want to do, but this post is about keeping it real.
If we want to keep it real about turning the circle, it has to go like this.
Circle turning practice is the foundational practice of baguazhang.
This applies to all baguazhang of all styles, all branches, all the time, everywhere. Baguazhang is the art of striking while moving continuously in a circular fashion. Some people like to take this from this art or that from that other one and create their own system. That's awesome; good for them. They might skip to the fighting skills or the applications practice and ignore the foundations. Call it what they will, what they're doing is not baguazhang at that point.
If we're going to be real about turning, then we have to go a step further and say this:
If you aren't turning the circle regularly, then you are not practicing baguazhang.
Really, to keep it real, we can go a lot further with that point. Circle turning is not a short, transitional activity between sets or techniques, although it can facilitate a continuous practice of various other aspects of the martial arts by filling that gap (a unique feature of baguazhang). Circle turning is a foundational practice in its own right. That said, it should provide development. That said, it should be difficult to do. That said, it should have layers of skill to be able to do it well, each more refined and precise than those before.
What does all of that mean?
First, if you're not turning, you're not doing baguazhang.
Second, if you're not turning with fighting intent, you're not turning correctly.
Third, if you're not putting strength into your turning, you're not turning correctly.
Fourth, if you're not turning for a long time as a single continuous practice, then you're not turning the circle.
It means that if you do not meet these requirements, then you're not training baguazhang.
It means that turning should be a stand-alone activity that can, but does not have to be, combined with other aspects of the art, and it should confer massive amounts of physical and "internal" (whatever that means in this context beyond health) development.
It means that you should be sweating hard when you turn, aching and getting sore from it.
It means that if you're turning in a relaxed, limp fashion, you're bullshitting yourself.
It means that if you cannot clearly see how the activity is martial, then you're not doing it right.
It means that if you've given turning a try and think it's a silly use of time for a martial artist, then you didn't get it.
It means that twenty or thirty continuous minutes of circle turning practice is a minimum standard for development and the recommended training daily practice allotment for beginners in the art, an hour per training day with some sessions lasting upwards of several hours being standard for more advanced practitioners.
This is what it means to keep it real about turning the circle. If you're not keeping it real about turning the circle, then you're not practicing baguazhang, plain and simple.
9 comments:
Well put. And a timely reminder that I ought to get back on the circle. I've been slacking off too much lately.
Hi
I am just getting up to the 30 min a day mark and am definitley seeing the benefits in all parts of my practice.
2 questions:
1. why is the foot placed flat and not a natural heel to toe walk.
2. Did you find that the pain in the calfs was worse than the arms, I am turning a fairly tight circle though.
Nice work on your practice, Rob. Sounds like you're making progress and doing something right if you're seeing the benefits. Let me see what I can do with your questions really quickly here.
1. This is a major thing that I struggle with, so I think about it a lot. It seems to me that it's because you're practicing the martial use of the leg. When I step in martially on someone, using the hooking or swinging open step, or even just an advancing leg, I get the best result when my whole foot lands evenly. Additionally, I expect it has a lot to do with cultivating stability, which is the first of the six descriptive terms of the art (and how it should be practiced and used). It changes your entire use of legs and thus body weight to land with a flat foot, and it really encourages being stable with the footwork. There's no point of compromised balance involved.
2. I haven't had much pain in my calves, specifically meaning the backs of my lower legs. I get a lot of tension in the outside of my legs (the peroneal region) when I turn a lot, especially in a tight circle, but it's not worse than my arms or my quadriceps. Usually, though, the outsides of my lower legs are the most sore when I do a lot of turning over an extended period of time. My hips also sometimes get quite uncomfortable when turning a tight circle, but as I've been much more regular and dedicated with my turning practice over the last several months, that's essentially diminished.
When I turn a lot, I wake up almost every day with sore/tired forearms, hands, and the outsides of my lower legs. Quadriceps are probably next, and shoulders after that. If your neck gets sore, you're doing something wrong, just to let you know.
Just a couple of points from my perspective.
1. I think putting the foot down flat really is a structural/stability issue. Bagua doesn't continuosly root as in tai chi, it has a "moving root", as you're trying to train being able to root in an instant for a strike and then change, not stay stuck in place.
2. Related to the first point, putting the foot down flat is crucial to doing the shocking strikes well. Most Lion strikes have basically two forces: the directional force that moves the limbs (like in doing the forms at learning speed) and a following force (power coming from the waist). The shocking strikes have a third force, which is kind've an echo or reverberation, and is multi-directional. It goes down into the legs, and if you put your foot down flat at the time of the strike that force can be re-directed back into the strike. If you don't put the foot down flat, or are late in doing so (split-second delay in natural step), the force is dispersed at best, and might bounce you back or cause damage to yourself at worst. Anyway, that's just what my reading suggests.
3. From my own practice, my best advice is that consistency is most important for circle turning. It's better to turn for 25 minutes everyday than to turn for 1 hour once a week.
4. Do a lot of standing strengthening. It really will increase your body's ability to turn for longer periods of time.
5. If your lower legs are that sore, make sure that you are primarily turning using your waist, and not twisting your legs too much. It should feel somewhat as if your legs are actually walking forward in a straight line, and that it's just the turning of your waist that keeps you on the circle.
Just a bit of advice based on my own practice. Hope it helps.
Good points, Ryan, for sure. To expand your #5, the vast majority of any twisting of the leg happens at the hip, not the knee or ankle. The whole leg should turn outward or inward as a unit, and that should occur smoothly and at the right time. With the Lion System, you'll be turning with a wheeling stepping action, so the step is very round and low to the ground. Try to get the whole leg involved, and that might help your calf issue.
Alternatively, if your calf muscles proper (gastrocnemius and soleus) are the sore ones (i.e. back of the lower leg muscles), then you might be doing something odd with your step just as you pick your (rear) foot up from the ground. You may be putting too much strength into a springing force with the toes, which is, apparently, somewhat appropriate when turning the Rooster System, but not when turning Lion. In Lion you should be naturally lifting the rear foot to take a step, not pushing off with it, and your weight kind of hangs slightly back over the rear leg, being pulled forward a bit, if you follow me.
Hi
I have solved the issue, i was putting a lot of emphasis in pushing off from the back leg, which sounds like is a rooster requirement but not in the lion. I turned without that empahsis and didnt find the same calf issues.
About the foot landing down flat, I think I`m not getting it fully.
Looking at He Jinbao turning the circle, I can pause on almost any frame and see that the heel touches the ground first, and then the rest of the foot.
Does "landing flat" means that the heel, toes, and middle of the foot all touch the ground at the exact same time, and fully parallel?
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