Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

We have been shooting self-defense applications for the Bagua 8 Basic Palms form for the website. This is the first form that my Bagua students learn. It helps train circle-walking and the energies of the eight palms.

This is a quick video clip that was done while we were walking through the applications for "Embrace the Moon to the Chest," the fifth section of the form.

I drove home a quick point about peng jin and the "bubble of protection" that we try to establish. It is a zone around me -- a circle -- that means trouble for the attacker if they enter it.

Bagua is a lot like a spinning wire ball. If you punch into it, you get caught up and spun out in random directions, leaving you on the ground and broken.

There are a few quick applications at the end from "Embrace the Moon to the Chest," "White Ape Offers Fruit," and "Lion Opens its Mouth."

There are three images that summarize the three main internal arts. They are simple images and do not encompass all the subtleties but still represent good concepts.

You can think of Xingyi (Hsing-I) as a wedge driving through an opponent. A Xingyi fighter explodes through an opponent and takes his ground.

A Taiji fighter is like a beach ball being submerged into a swimming pool. The ball will take your 

energy and give a bit, but there is strength underneath, and it will spring back and spin, dumping you into the water.

Bagua is like punching into a spinning wire ball. The ball catches your force and spins you off-balance, controlling your center and spinning you out in unexpected directions. It often leaves you broken by the time it spins you out.

Here is just one example. My opponent punches. I intercept the punch, wrapping my left arm

around his punching arm. At the same time, I begin spinning to his outside.

I hook his right arm and continue to spin. At this point, I ca...

Here is a short video with highlights of some of the self-defense techniques in my new ebook - Baguazhang Self-Defense: Fighting Applications of the Cheng Style Eight Main Palms Form. 

The ebook has 380 photos and descriptions of 150 self-defense applications from this one Bagua form. Each application is discussed and shown with an emphasis on internal body mechanics. The ebook costs only $6.99 and is available on Amazon's Kindle Store. Many nations have their own Amazon stores (if you are outside the US, check Amazon in your country). Here is the link to the ebook on Amazon's store in the United States.

The video was done for still photo purposes, to illustrate how each movement in the form is used for self-defense.

Baguazhang is an internal martial art that relies on circular movement, turning, spiraling, and relaxed power similar to Taijiquan.

Many types of arm locks are used in martial arts. One of the locks that we use is sometimes called "Pat the Bull." Your opponent has you in the lock and has grabbed your shoulder to make it more firm.

In the Cheng style Baguazhang form "Eight Main Palms," two movements in the section called Grinding Palm are very useful for escaping this arm lock. The movements are called "Green Dragon Swings Its Tail" and "White Snake Twists Its Body." In the form, these movements follow each other. 

Photo 6-9 shows the start of "Green Dragon Swings Its Tail." You continue to turn, stepping your right foot around into a pidgeon-toe stance, and spiral the arm upward. You continue to spin for the movement called "White Snake Turns Its Body."

When you finish, you are standing upright again.

Someone who applies force to you is often thinking in one direction. An opp...

Push the Mountain from the Bagua 8 Main Palms form.

I am putting together my 8th Kindle ebook this week on the Cheng style Bagua 8 Main Palms Form. In working with more than 300 photos for the ebook, a couple of effective techniques have become very obvious for giving myself feedback on my own movement and posture.

Videotaping yourself is one of the best ways of seeing yourself as you are actually performing the movements. We all think we look like Chen Xiaowang or Jet Li when we are doing our forms and techniques. More often than not, we more closely resemble Jim Carrey.

I recommend shooting video as you are performing a form at fast speed, then perform it at a slower pace. Both times, be as specific as you can on precision, power, and body mechanics. Then watch the video. Run it normally and then in slo-mo if you can. Ask yourself if your structure is sound, if your stances and stepping is right, if the timing of your hand movements is right -- there are a dozen things you cou...

This is a short clip from a longer instructional video on the self-defense applications of the Cheng Bagua form "8 Main Palms." It is from the section called "Overturning Body Palm." In this video, I demonstrate some of the body mechanics required for the movement "Swallow Skimming Over Water" when used to pull down an attacker.

In this section, Swallow Skimming Over Water comes after a movement of the hands out from the centerline and a kick. In part of the video, I ask my student Colin Frye not to cooperate, to show that the body mechanics work even when your partner isn't playing along. One of my pet peeves about intricate winding Bagua movements is that many of them don't work against a motivated adult male attacker. As usual in fighting, the simple techniques are often the best.

I'm currently shooting video for my membership website and a future DVD on the 8 Main Palms form of Cheng Baguazhang. Today, my student Colin Frye and I were working through the fighting applications of two sections -- Grinding Palm and Turning Body Palm. In both, there is a good deal of spinning.

In Turning Body Palm, there is a move called Yin Yang Fish. It begins with a scooping hook movement and then you spin. 

Hidden within the spin is an elbow strike that can do a lot of damage. Here is a short clip showing me demonstrating the elbow strike against a thin board and then a thicker board. Using boards in this way helps you see if you are delivering power in your techniques.

Bagua (also spelled pakua) fighting is powerful. There are many self-defense techniques hidden in Baguazhang forms. One of my favorite things is to study the way the movements translate to fighting applications.

One of the effective techniques used in Bagua and Taiji to unbalance an opponent occurs when the opponent steps toward you, or you step toward them.

In Bagua, this is called by some the "bagua foot." It's a hooking step that sets you up to apply pressure on your opponent's calf and cause them to lose their balance.

In the first photo, Kim Kruse (on the left) takes a step toward Colin Frye. She's stepping with her right foot. He hooks his left foot behind her right ankle.

In the second photo, Colin presses forward with his shin, applying pressure against Kim's calf. This causes her left shoulder to move backward and to the side.

In photo 3, Colin has taken advantage of the turning of the shoulder -- he pulls on the shoulder and Kim falls backward.

This is a great internal technique. Remember, the idea of internal kung-fu is to unbalance your opponent and take advantage of the window of opportunity that becomes available when they lose their balance.

You remain centered --...

Besides capturing and controlling your opponent's center, one of the key goals of Baguazhang is to get close to the opponent and use your body to uproot them -- unbalance them -- and put them down.

As in each of the internal arts (and kung-fu in general), there are many ways of doing this that are hidden inside techniques.

The circular and flowing forms that you see provide you with a way of practicing the body mechanics you need to practice these techniques with a partner and later, use them in a self-defense situation.

Photo 1 shows the end of the opening movement to the Cheng-style "Eight Main Palms" form. It's similar in energy to the opening of a Tai Chi or Hsing-I form -- downward energy. One obvious application is a downward block/deflection of an incoming punch.

Photo 2 shows the next move, a step-out with the left foot as both hands shoot out along the centerline with palms up. Some people may see this as simply a way to begin walking the circle in the dragon posture...

I'm preparing a series of video lessons for the online school on baguazhang fighting. Bagua is a difficult art. It requires the same body mechanics as good tai chi, and like tai chi, bagua takes many years of practice to become proficient.

A Bagua fighter has three main goals -- uproot, unbalance, and control the opponent's center. It is really not much different than Chen Taiji, but it employs a few different methods. 

For example, it is said that a Bagua fighter disappears in front of his opponent and suddenly he is behind the opponent. Of course, this makes some people think of magic, but physically, it's a matter of turning your opponent or change his positioning in some way so you are behind him.

Bagua fighting involves fast footwork, quick changes in direction, developing a "moving root," and most important--the key to bagua fighting--to capture and control your opponent's center.

This isn't necessarily as difficult as it sounds. You just need to be shown so you can begin ...