Ba Gua

A while back while watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (the cartoon series, NOT the movie), I saw a short explanation about the movements the main character, Aang, uses to defend himself. It's based in reality and it's called Ba Gua, a sort of circling and avoiding martial arts technique.

Now, I'm not much for styles when it comes to martial arts, as I see them as more of a limitation than a liberation, but Ba Gua seems to embody the nature of the Jedi by forcing one's opponent to, in some sense, defeat himself.

Here's a quote from a website that I found recently:

The Ba Gua Zhang fighter continuously seeks to avoid the apex of the opponent's force and attacks or counterattacks from the opponent's weak angles. By circling around and circumventing incoming force and resistance, the Ba Gua Zhang fighter applies his own whole body power from a position of superiority This strategy allows the smaller and weaker fighter to apply maximum force from an angle at which the larger and stronger opponent cannot resist, effectively making the weaker fighter more powerful at that moment (for example, I have 10 units of total strength and my opponent has 20. I attack with my full 10 units of strength at an angle at which my opponent is only able to use 5 units of his total strength. I am, at that moment, literally twice as strong as my opponent).

In order to obtain a superior position, the Ba Gua Zhang fighter applies the basic strategies trained in the solo forms' practice, that is, circling around the opponent or rotating the opponent around oneself. The result is the same in both cases. The Ba Gua Zhang fighter avoids a head to head confrontation with the opponent's power and obtains a superior position from which to attack. Along the way, the opponent often becomes entangled in the Ba Gua Zhang fighter's limbs and loses control of his center of balance (correctly applied momentum overcomes brute strength every time). This loss of balance causes a commensurate loss of power and further weakens the opponent, leaving him vulnerable to the Ba Gun Zhang fighter's attack. Finally, the relaxed physical and mental state of the Ba Gua Zhang fighter makes it possible for him to change and adapt as the situation demands. His movements are spontaneous and difficult to predict. Fighters of all disciplines agree that the unpredictable fighter is the hardest to beat (especially when he circles behind you!).

Your thoughts?

ba gua are the taoist elements, ba gua zhang is your martial art. Things like feng shui are based on ba gua.

I have been studying Bagua for about six months now and I absolutely love it. I have studied other martial art forms, and have found Bagua very therapeutic, as I feel wonderful, rejuvenated, after every training session. The art emphasizes (among other things) interacting with your counterpart which could range from a loving hug to a devastating ass whooping. The counterparts intentions determines your interaction with them, much like Aikido. Everything we do in Bagua (at least in my school) deals with vortex type movements. We interact with the opponent spinning them down and applying strikes all the way down. All techniques, for us, originates at the waist, so it is always turning. I don't want to promote my school but I will offer this link so as to give you a great perspective. My favorite if the Kung Fu Mandalas.

http://dragongatesanctuary.com/gallery

Peace

Excellent!

I don't suppose there are any basic lessons you could share with us?

Haha! A:TLA is how I learned about it too. I saw a few videos on YouTube of practitioners in action. Looks like something I'd really like to learn, too. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it seems like more deflection and throwing than punches or kicks. Much more my style.

I love Avatar: The Last Airbender!!!! The videos look awesome! :lol: You r very lucky to be able to learn this. It makes me want to see if there is a Ba Gua teacher in my area.

@ Xiam: Much of what you see in Bagua is an illusion. The vortex movements are not deflections but strikes. The strikes are incapacitating. Until the opponent is subdude. There is also a Qi Gong element in our training which is the same movements and same fighting concepts. Unfortunatley we are taught to believe that a punch is represented by a straight line punch. That a kick is represented by a predetermined linear path. Bagua gives many oppotunities to disrupt pressure points, along the vortex path, to weakening your opponents motivation.

PloKoon wrote: @ Xiam: Much of what you see in Bagua is an illusion. The vortex movements are not deflections but strikes. The strikes are incapacitating. Until the opponent is subdude. There is also a Qi Gong element in our training which is the same movements and same fighting concepts. Unfortunatley we are taught to believe that a punch is represented by a straight line punch. That a kick is represented by a predetermined linear path. Bagua gives many oppotunities to disrupt pressure points, along the vortex path, to weakening your opponents motivation.

Well, that certainly sounds interesting.

This is my teacher and Sifu Cabrillo (Hawaii) Turn your volume up and you will hear my teachers neck. He is demonstrating the vortex in segments.

talking about martial art concepts and so forth is always fun, but the person who asked for a lesson or 2 things like that ever end well.

I love talking martial arts and about different styles, but even though there are a few stypes i am more then qualified to teach the risk of doing such a thing on the net is really not worth it.