The Chen trigram Lion system interlocking palm of Yin style swimming body eight trigram interlocking palm. That’s a mouthful, but it is descriptive on purpose. So let’s break it down.
Baguazhang or eight trigram palm/fist as we all likely know is a martial art based on the I-Ching or ‘the book of change’. There are eight gua’s or trigrams that make up this style of martial art. Chen is the trigram representing heaven, within the art this trigram takes the shape of a Lion. Lion’s are often used to symbolize royalty, majesty, or power, sometimes all of the aforementioned. The image of heaven is to be above all, the father of the trigrams, it sits at the head of the table as the most Yang or masculine in nature. Interlocking is the strategy deployed by the Lion system, meaning that interlocking the hands (or techniques) is its main method deployed to defeat your opponent. Your techniques should be so well knit so as to leave little to no opening for your opponent to take advantage of. Simply put, a strong offensive is the best defense. Swimming body references ample use of body methods. Lion system utilizes the waist as the main body method for generating powerful strikes with an abundance of stopping power. The force created by the lion system is a bit on the longer side when compared to other trigrams, it should seek to have an abundance of explosive strength and hit with a hard solid power.
This trigram is an excellent choice for those new to the art as there is less need to worry about what the opponent is doing. Practitioners mainly rely on one’s own technique to overwhelm, overpower, and strike down your opponent. And strike down it does. Heaven occupying the position above uses an abundance of strikes aiming downward onto the opponent. Raining down blows from above. This means gravity is on your side and the opponent is placed in a position of having to resist against the natural forces. Like a force multiplier you sit down as you strike, or sink in stance, bending the knees and stepping down as the strikes lands. This adds your body’s weight into the strikes. Larger framed and taller practitioners are able to use their body’s natural shape and size to their advantage here. Additionally imagery associated with the Lion as an animal adds to the personality of this system. In nature a lion first pounces onto its pray and then seize them to administer a killing bite.
Lion opens its mouth. This is the name for the turning posture as well as the main standing posture for the lion system. The posture is held solidly and full of force, evenly distributed throughout the body. You must also put the correct mental elements in as well as physical. “Both the arms are held out with extreme force”. The lead hand contains the first four attack methods, namely: sweeping, cutting, chopping, and hooking; while the upper hand contains the shocking, blocking, seizing, and grasping forces. Within the the 8 attack methods the arms contained a multitude of more defined qualities such as rolling out, wrapping in, drilling forward, and pulling back away. As well as contain differing degrees and combinations of scraping, filing, turning over, contracting, pliant or soft strength… the list goes on.
This is not an exhaustive list of requirements, nor was it meant to be anything other than an introduction to the finer points a practitioner should try to incorporate into their training of the posture and mentality of the lion system.
Standing is stillness, turning the circle is stillness within motion. The moment action takes place you should be like a lightning bolt, instantly moving and turning, twisting and whirling with both contained strength and explosive power. This is where the lion opens its mouth, and in this instant the result of years of hard training, thousands of hours are manifest, or the lack of serious training will be evident.
I believe there are reoccurring themes within this art that place emphasis on specific elements deemed of the most importance. These elements reveal themselves over many hours of training and contemplation. Hidden in plain sight, or maybe these elements are revealed on the individual level. Much like the I-Ching and the casting of coins to reveal answers so specifically designed to be able to, even having been written thousands of years ago, provide insight into current conditions.
Here I introduce the basic elements of the snake system. I will be putting together some of my favorite snake combos in the coming weeks. I’ll try to also upload some run throughs of the applications as I am able.
Here I discuss using the rear hand to directly attack and open the opponent as opposed to the first two methods that address a more responsive role, responding to the opponent by rushing or withdrawing. Here we will initiate an attack in order to cause and utilize the response. Soft and leaning strikes are introduced as well as the method of turning the back.
In this clip I explain how the withdrawing attack method specializes in stepping and how that can be utilized based on the forms and direction changes of the bear system. Drilling these short combos can be beneficial to those new to the art as a way to get familiar with the different systems and strategies. Drilling these combos can also benefit more seasoned practitioners by giving them an idea of how to apply the art in real life situations.
Yin style Bagua is first a combative art. Unlike many traditional arts these days we study strictly for combative use. YSB contains no watered down flamboyance as is found in many other traditional arts in current times. Training of Yin style Bagua is strictly for self defense and is taught as it has been handed down to us from the practitioners who came before us.
Dong Hai Chuan passed down the art of Bagua to Yin Fu, his greatest and longest studied student, to whom this branch of Bagua is named for. Yin Style Bagua differs from other styles of Bagua in many ways. Yin Fu passed his art on to Men Baozhen, who in turn taught Xie Peiqi. Dr Xie trained He Jinbao fully in the combative aspects of this art. All these practitioners hailed from Beijing, where He Jinbao resides to this day. He Jinbao teaches workshop across the United States and Europe annually. There are many study groups in the States that train regularly and come together to attend these workshops throughout the years. ...
Tomorrow our group will be running the interlocking shooting form, from 2024, as well as introducing the new form Matt Bild just uploaded to the Facebook group page, the turning the back shooting form. Should be a blast. Finally have a temperate day here on the east coast for a change.
Slight departure from the snake content but this is what the group studied yesterday. The following post is from the group Facebook page:
Training Lion system yesterday in our study group. Focusing on the different uses of the waist to generate force in the strikes. Moving with the waist, moving against the waist, and expanding the waist.
-The rising sweeping strike was used to emphasize the waist moving with the strike.
-The inward sweeping strike was utilized to place emphasis on the method of the waist moving against the strike.
-And lastly the upright chopping strike was used to emphasize more of a dropping or expanding usage of the waist.
First we started with a stationary strike drilling method to work on the waist and the arm/strike coordination. We then added in a step, using the triangle stepping in place or an advancing-withdrawing type of one step drilling method.
This allowed us to add in hand-foot harmony to the already used hand-eyes and waist-strike coordination. Thus turning...
