Bagua Flavor
A exciting and humorous taste of what you might expect from Baguazhang…
Explore Walking
This is the most fundamental and important part of Baguazhang training.
Explore Walking
This is the most fundamental and important part of Baguazhang training.
Air Avatars Know Nothing About Mud Stepping
Many Baguazhang Styles Avoid Mud-stepping—It’s Difficult
Mud-stepping is a peculiar method of gaining….[doh! the why and what-for of mud-stepping is for a different article].
How-To-Mud-Step seems simple—
- Slide your weightless front-foot forward,
- Quickly step onto it,
- Swishing the old back-foot past the new back foot,
- Never pick up your back-heel before your back-toes.
It’s not a sequential order because it all happens so fast!
It’s tough at first. There’s a nnnrrghhing sense of lifting the foot without lifting the heel first. How do I do it? You’ll wonder. Doesn’t it seem natural to push from the toes?! Then you’ll fake it, pretending to not-lift the heel before the toes, gently pressing from the toes.
Many (I bet most) Baguazhang styles and even more Baguazhang instructors never bother with mud-stepping. That’s fine; many versions of Dong Hai-Chuan’s Baguazhang exist, thrive, and produce martial artists. Tension, difficulty, and lack of understanding drive folks to avoid mud-stepping.
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