The Way Of the Body

Sorry for the absence, I have been writing out a new training program while taking a nice tour around the northwest (Thanks Orion). After finishing my trapping season it is time to move on into thorough practice of section four which is the "way of the body." Though I have practiced all of these movements countless times already, a season indicates a time of not only training the movements but really digging into the understanding of how the movement came to be.

While re-reading the scrolls given to me by my master I began to look at the reasoning behind the development of each technique. It was written by my grand master Wu Jin Yuan after he learned from Gao. Not only is it written in Chinese, but it is also an ancient encoded text that only those within the Bagua Association are able to understand. I have read it about a hundred times and finally I am seeing past the words and understanding the root meaning. Many masters would disagree with me publishing my findings for the public, but I believe that as the successor of my lineage if I do not pass this information on, the style will fade.

Thunder Section (West) 身法 Way of the Body
燕翻蓋手掌 Swallow's Reversing Covering Palm (Pre Heaven)
1.推掌 Pushing Palm (forcing palm)
2.托掌 Supporting Palm
3.帶掌 Taking Palm
4.領掌 Leading Palm (Guiding Palm)
5.沾掌 Staining Palm
6.連掌 Repeating Palm
7.隨掌 Allowing Palm (Following Palm)
8. 黏掌 Sticky Palm

What I missed the first 99 times reading through the manual is that within the fourth section lies the key to unlocking the mastery of changing movements. It explains that there are 5 different types of Bagua masters within our lineage. A master of changing motions, Yin and Yang master, a master of silent motions and two others that I have not yet discovered. (Don't worry I will keep you informed.)

I had to take the information that I learned from reading and draw out a new diagram that looks like a times table sheet. Every section represents one of the 8 elements of the gua:

Heaven, Water, Mountain, Thunder, Wind, Fire, Earth and Lake. Each of the eight movements within the section also represent one of these elements. Making a diagram I was able to pin point the personality of each movement responsible for becoming a master of change. In this section only four of the eight movements are indicated for this type of training. They fall under the axis of Thunder and Wind (Storm), Thunder and Fire (Rage), Thunder and Earth(Quake) and Thunder and Lake (Echo). I gave them all names so that I could keep from confusing them together. While training all of my other movements I have decided to lengthen my workout by an extra hour just to work on these techniques.

The first thing you may notice is that the four movements related to change are only categorized under thunder. Thunder is loud percussive like energy that is invisible to the eye. This means that every technique must be power focused but hidden within the structure of the body. These lead into four other motions from a separate section where the change takes place. Out of respect of my Grand Master I will not list the last four motions.

Of course I have only been doing this training for less than a month which means I am only scratching the surface, however through training these techniques I have grasped a deeper meaning of what section 4 represents. The "way of the body" here is not only related to the flow of energy within oneself, it also means the flow of the opponents body energy. In short, these are all grappling reversal techniques. By mastering these 8 techniques you can control the head from any possible angle of entry. I still have to run a few more tests to see if any of the techniques are safe enough to use in sport like competition. Unfortunately I think that the power generated through these motions create serious trauma on the neck and spine. More than likely many of these techniques will snap the neck with very little effort. Remember while practicing and researching lethal techniques with your friends, safety first.