A Few Misconceptions about Baguazhang
William Tucker and Luigi Zanini
CIRCLING:
The first misconception is that Bagua in combat involves circling an opponent in the same way that we do circle walking practise.
WAIT FOR OR INITIATE ATTACKS?
The second misconception is that you always wait for the other person to strike first. Tactically you want to be free to either respond to or initiate an attack.
FIST OR PALM?
One over-generalization is that Bagua techniques only use the palm or open hand, and not the fist.
CIRCULAR OR LINEAR?
Some people assume that Bagua movements, either solo or partner, are always done in a circle. Most styles of Bagua, especially comprehensive systems, contain drills, sequences, and whole ‘forms’ that are performed linearly for developing certain techniques, skills or qualities of movement.
This is a summary of an article that I wrote for Tai Chi Chuan and Internal Arts – the magazine of the Tai Chi Union of Great Britain. For the whole article see http://www.taichicaledonia.com/resources/Bagua-Aarvo-Luigi.pdf