palmchange bagua zhang

Luo Dexiu's annual seminars in London this summer of 2009 were absolutely amazing! A great turn out and friendly atmosphere of hard work and attention to detail. This year the focus overall was on structure and detail in the Houtian line 7 - (Ye,Ji,Diao,Lou,Beng,Zhuang) - 'Swing the Body and Insert from Behind palm' from the circle Baguazhang - Tai Xing from the Xingyi - . A seminar or two on fighting / training methods kept us all sweaty and alert as Luo demonstrated some clear and affective techniques. There were many happy expressions of amazement!

The Bagua course will focus on the Gao style syllabus material in a way suitable for levels from beginner to well-experienced. We will train several different ways of Circle Walking, and variations of Single Palm Change. This year we will continue with and expand on Bagua Sticking Hands, as taught by Luo Dexiu, which aims to develop "supple supportive strength", lively, sticky hand movement coordinated with the body and footwork to control distance, timing and position, and which can show how many of the hand techniques in the application forms can be used at close distance. We will work on variations of some of the training methods, increasing the ways of practicing the same movements. There will be review of the Sword form. And finally, the set of Swimming Body Palms, and their evolving into free-flowing improvised movements, will be a special focus.