Notes on the First Months of Baguazhang Training

Looking back over the past few months, I wanted to note some impressions I had of B training and how I have reacted.

On the first night, the instructor spent much of the time looking at our gait, and other body positioning type things, and in me it was my feet pointing outward and also a skating motion to my walk.

The most useful to me was visualizing that we are being pulled by our belt buckle. This idea immediately pulled my hips in, and there was a definite noticeable difference with the walk. I felt taller and other subtle bits, that I could not pin down but definitely a feeling of being taller. I found myself each morning, night--especially when I was walking the dog in the dark practicing.

We had a lot of snow in February and March. As I walked the dog--who I noticed moves straight and with great ease, usually following his nose-- I made a real effort to walk with the leading belt and correcting the toes. On the way out for the walk, I was very deliberate. On the way back, I continued, but took note of my footprints in the snow and where they were aligned.

Here's the most memorable thing from the first session though, and the one that really peaked my interest. He had all of us stand next a post in the center of the room and push against the post. Of course as pushing made my body tilt backward, as I was pushing horizontally. Next he had us push the pole a second time, but this time upward at a 5% angle. While very slight, it made all the difference, as the force of pushing kept aligned with the feet on the ground and there was no rocking backward.

This tiny detail clicked with me. When I first started teaching--about my first 10 years--I was a middle school and then a high school wrestling coach. I had wrestled when I was a kid, and through high school, and then I continued to wrestle AAU freestyle, as a hobby of sorts while in college. When I first started wrestling, I lost all of my matches--maybe for the first two years. Then we worked under a coach who really understood the sport, and he pointed out tiny details to us in practice--often things like a slight adjustment of the hips or perhaps in controlling an arm or a shoulder, a slight adjustment . But this small positioning things made all of the difference, in the physics in the leverage or in the body's center of gravity. Anyway, the bottom line was these details--with practice-- made the moves work in a match. And all of a sudden, we stated winning matches.

Similarly, with my high school wrestlers , at some point, with corrections of important details and with practice, they would suddenly put it together and be able to execute moves in a match and score points. And, just an aside, this was always one of the joys I remember about coaching, seeing something click, seeing them change, progress and be so please with themselves. I recall one in particular. This kid was my 98 pounder for all of his years of high school. He actually had some growth problem that he stayed so small. His doctor was talking about growth hormones for him. But even as a senior, he'd weigh in with his boats and coat on an still never move the scale. Anyway, he was one that one day it clicked. And when he was a senior I recall he won 11 matches. Now he also lost 11 matches. But it was a real joy to see him find a measure of success. That was a lot of years ago. Just an aside: The last time I saw him, he was a paratrooper who was training people to jump, and ripped with muscles. Not real tall, but very macho. I remember telling him that I wished that 98 pounder who never weighed 98, could have seen just a glimpse of his future.

So for these reasons, this small detail of 5% made a lot of sense, and made me believe that there was something to learn here.

Chingachgook