Baguazhang styles?

Doreatha Kjellsen: they really closed to Tai Chi family and the Gao style system is referred to as the Gao Yisheng branch of the Cheng Tinghua system of Baguazhang. Essentially, Gao Style Bagua is a unique subsystem. The Gao style system, because of Gao's own martial progression over time, can be found to have a number of different permutations, represented in these various lingages. All are valid examples of Gao style Bagua because they all represent Gao Yisheng’s progression as a martial artist. Gao was refining and creating sets until he died. He changed his straight line, pre-heaven and weapons sets more than once in his life but at its core it is a complete Baguazhang system.Gao style divides training into two categories: pre-heaven (先天) and post-heaven (後天). Pre-heaven training includes walking the circle and practicing changing palms on the circle; this material is similar to that found in the other Cheng styles. Post-heaven training consists of 64 linear! palms (六十四掌) said to be passed down by a man known as Song Yiren (宋益仁); these palms are unique to the Gao system.Many Gao style practitioners can be found in Tianjin (lineage of Liu Fengcai and others), Taiwan (lineage of Zhang Junfeng), and Hong Kong (lineage of He Kecai)....Show more

Azzie Trembly: look for a GOOD TEACHER. that KNOWS what they are talking about and actually teaches you. many teachers get aggrivated if you don't "just listen" and do as they say becasue they themselves just learned that way without learning any real application. if they don't know how to explain it then how can they teach you. if they don't have patience to explain it, then they are masking the fact that they don't know it. if your teacher doesn't allow you to question and test it, he is likely not teaching you anything at all. you should find a competant teacher that trains with RESISTANCE. if your teacher says "never spar" or "bieng soft" or "circle walking and forms"! are enough- then they are afraid to and probably have not tes! ted thier art. the techniques should work on you no matter what resistance you give- in bagua particularly, your teacher should know how to apply each of the palms and be able to do so (or teach you to do so) against a fully resisting opponent. the kind of opponents you will be able to use techniques against in real life are the kinds you face in class. if all you do is face compliant opponents in class- then your technique will only work on the outside when people are co-operating with you to let you get the technique. obviously unless you are on "dancing with the stars" your opponents will not be co-operating with you. EDIT: bagua1 is an optimist, IMO, 1-3 out of 7 instructors is a very high number of competant instructors. I live in a big city. the numbers will undoubtedly be higher in a large urban community. Personally if you live in a suberb and have no access to a large urban area- I wouldn't even bother trying to find good internal instruction without first having s! ome basis by which to judge by as if there is no other practitioners in the area, there are no safeguards to prevent someone from just "making it up" from books, movies, etc....Show more

Corey Rohleder: The three main styles are Yin Fu, Zheng Dinghua, Liang Zhenpu. Each style has several variants or subsystems which include Gao,Nine Dragon,Fu,Shi,Fan,Sun,Dragon,Cheng,Jiang and several others. Each tends to focus on slightly different things such as power,speed,evasion,deception, some have techniques that are more circular or linear. The beauty of Bagua is that it is built on an UNDERSTANDING of the PRINCIPLES of the system, once that is done you can make any style you study YOUR OWN (i.e. make up your own techniques) and it will still be effective and it will still be BAGUA!...Show more