Tai Chi Chuan & Qi Gong | Tai-Chi.me

Ba Gua Zhang

Eight Trigram Palm is a chinese internal martial art as are Tai Chi Chuan, Xing Yi Quan, Da Cheng Quan, Yi Quan...
Ba Gua Zhang is therefore also elaborated on internal principles but its practice is more centered on spiral movements, vertical axis, circular movements in space (walking in a circle), pivots and changes of direction... All theses aspects reflect the chinese alchemy of transformations illustrated in the trigrams, each one evoking a kind of energy (fire, water, heaven, wind...). These trigrams are more popularly known through the famous Yi Jing.
Ba Gua Zhang practice develops a sense of fluidity from a sequence of techniques, the ability to move in all directions, flexibility through the various torsions...
As in Tai Chi Chuan, the Ba Gua Zhang practice consists of exercises (Ji Ben Gong), unarmed sequences, also weapons (sabre, sword...) Tui Shou and other combat aspects.
To use an image, if some boxers are like hammers or flashes of lightning, then one could say the Ba Gua boxer is more like a tornado.

The Eight Ba Gua Zhang palms

Eight unarmed sequences revolving around a circle and progressively increasing in complexities.

Ba Gua Zhang | Memo on the various technique names