Ba Gua Training Tips #3: Engaging the Upper Body

More Basic Circle Walking

When I last wrote to all of you (far too long ago, I know) we spoke about the Bagua basic walk from the ground up to the legs. This time we will address the rest of you—torso, arms and head. Please refer back to Ba Gua Training Tips #2 if you need to catch up.

Torso:

So, once your hips are sunken, your knees are bent, your ankles are loose,  your weight is back, and you are “doing the walk” you can adjust the trunk. The lower half of your torso will follow the hips. In other words, your Dan Tien ( the point about 3 finger widths below your navel, roughly your center of gravity) will act as one unit with your pelvis. As you walk a circle your Dan Tien will stay smoothly oriented over the Line of the circle. If you imagine the circle you have chosen to follow with your feet (one inside and one outside as you walk) also represented by a hula hoop of the same size hanging in the air at waist height, the hula hoop would be the track that your Dan Tien slides around the circle on. Sorry for the labored imagery, but this concept is a little hard to get across in writing.

The upper half of your torso will twist in toward the center of your circle. The hips and lower torso follow the circle perpendicular, while the upper torso (including the ribcage and shoulders) twist into a position more parallel to the perimiter of the circle. You are not trying to disconnect the lower and upper torso, so the orientation should transfer smoothly from bottom to top. The muscles of the lower back and stomach should be held in, or firmed up, but not stiff and clenched. This may seem weird at first, but adding in the arms will help it all make sense.

Arms:

We’ll start off with the part that connects the arms to the torso, the shoulder. The most common mistake beginners make here is to “bunch up” their shoulders, letting them ride up toward the ears. The shoulders should remain down and relaxed on both sides of the body. Moving on to the elbows-both of them should hang down as well. Watch that the extended arm in particular does not rotate outward at the elbow joint.

Key concept alert! Separating one arm from the other should be done in terms of which arm is inside (your circle) and which is outside (your circle), which changes as you turn, rather than right and left. In fact, try to apply this way of thinking to all your limbs and to which way you change direction when you turn. You will either have to turn toward the center (inside) of your circle or turn your back to it (outside) to change direction, and there are different techniques for both. We are getting a bit ahead of ourselves here, so just try to start thinking inside and outside instead of right and left.

So, all that behind us, the outside arm will hang down to cover the leading side with the armpit open enough to hold but not drop or squeeze a chicken egg. This should place your elbow a few inches out from the body. The forearm is held parallel across the inside of the body, reaching toward the other side, with the hand and index finger pointing upward towards the inside elbow.

The inside arm is extended, shoulder and elbow sunken, towards the point at the center of your circle. At the same time your upper arm and forearm should feel lively and “up”, and you should feel like you are stretching the arm outward—especially through the tricep and downward side of the forearm. For those of you who have been reading up on the classics, internally stretched—externally bound.

The inside hand, the one addressing the center of your circle, deserves close attention. Different styles of Ba Gua employ different hands, most commonly the “willow palm”, but in Gao style we favor orienting the palm directly to the center of the circle. The Tiger’s Mouth (the area betwen the thumb and indx finger) is opened wide and the palm is expanded to it’s maximum width as well, resulting in a wide open but somewhat cupped palm. This helps with the previously alluded to sinking and stretching feeling.  Just imagine (or better yet, try it with a friend) that your palm is cupping someone elses chin from the front. More on that in a bit.

The Head:

Keep the head up and the eyes alert. Focus your eyes through the open Tiger’s Mouth of the inside hand at the center of your circle, or on the middle finger of the inside hand. For forms practice the middle finger is a great crutch for balance’s sake, but for application practice the Tiger’s Mouth is a better frame for intent.

The skull itself should rest upright on the spine with the crown pressing up and the chin slightly down. This applies to every martial art that I have any experience with, and Ba Gua requires it. As mentioned in a previous blog, Ba Gua specializes in movement through crowds, so  keeping the head and torso upright and resistant to bumping and pulling is crucial. If you have oriented the rest of the body correctly your crown should still be roughly centered between the shoulder blades, with the chin going a bit towards the inside shoulder.

Putting It All Together:

Some of the readers who have experience with Xing YI will realize that what we have basicly done is twist up a San Ti stance. In the image below I demonstrate the basic posture that we hold at the end of circle practice. It is the Ba Gua version of San Ti; it idealizes the core pricipals of the art. Try it out. And, if you have that “friend” I mentioned earlier, have them stand at the center of your circle and let you push (gently but firmly) up under their chin. If you can keep that position and feel the force of your push (and the return force from the pushee) travel through your structure to your outside leg and foot, going straight into the ground, you will know you are on the right track.

Well, I am running over my self imposed (and pleaded for by friends and family) 1,000 word limit. I will try to do this more often so I don’t have to do it so much, if you follow me. In the mean time any suggestions, comments, or questions are welcome, and next time we will get into one of the trademark attributes of Ba Gua: Change.

Input please?