In Bagua and Tai Chi, noted teacher Bruce Frantzis demonstrates through these two important practices what is required to develop and embody high levels of chi flow. Inside the slow-motion movements of tai chi is a sophisticated mind/body/spirit practice. Derived from the I Ching (Book of Changes), bagua is unique in its circular movements, spiraling energy, and unpredictable changes of direction. Frantzis begins with an overview of both bagua and tai chi and their origins in Chinese culture, followed by comprehensive advice on how to incorporate these practices into daily Western life. Written in an easy, conversational style, the book provides an explanation of an art that is practiced by millions in China to release stress and maintain a vigorous level of health. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), the 2.3 million Americans who currently practice tai chi report improved sleep, conditioning, and overall wellness. Bagua and Tai Chi offers a gentle healing and strengthening system that will appeal to a wide audience, including martial artists, meditators, dancers and athletes, personal trainers, and anyone looking to reduce stress and increase calmness and clarity through an effective, low-impact body practice.

This clear, step-by-step guide to the fundamentals of Bagua Zhang lays out the principles, practices, and underlying philosophy of this cerebral and sophisticated Chinese internal martial art. Leading readers from the most basic precepts of Bagua Zhang practice to advanced techniques, Kent Howard draws on his deep understanding of the art and his decades of teaching to set students on a path toward mastery. While Bagua Zhang is often perceived as a complex martial art that is difficult to learn, Howard breaks it down into clear and easily absorbed principles and exercises that beginners can master and incorporate into higher levels of practice at their own pace. Numerous easy-to-follow photographs illustrate core practices such as circle-walking, post standing, and palm changes, as well as foundandational techniques of posture and alignment, fluid motion, generating whole-body power, absorbing and redirecting energy, striking while in motion, and much more. In addition to providing a solid foundation for a lifetime practice, Bagua Zhang Fundamentals also offers more advanced practitioners valuable tips on how to increase their knowledge and understanding of this multifaceted martial art.

This is the book Ken Gullette wishes he had been able to read when he first began studying Tai Chi, Bagua and Xingyi in 1987. It gets to the point, stripping the mystical mumbo jumbo away, leaving detailed, real-world explanations of the six fundamental body mechanics that everyone should know when they study Tai Chi (Taiji), Bagua and Xingyi. For the first time, these body mechanics are organized and discussed clearly, with more than 250 images and highly-detailed but simple language. If you are a student or even a teacher of these arts, you should be able to learn something here that will deepen your own insight into the arts. Ken has studied with some top internal arts masters, and during the first ten years he was teaching, he boiled down the body mechanics he learned into six key concepts. In this book, he explains them in the same step-by-step detail that he uses in teaching his students, building on each of the concepts until you have a clear roadmap of what you need to practice for high-quality internal structure and movement. As Ken explains it, "The true intent of the internal arts is self-defense. The body mechanics in this book are the starting point you need to develop the structure and internal strength that is required for the relaxed power, the iron wrapped in cotton, that the internal arts are known for. This is the starting point upon which all other skill is built." Ken has studied these arts since 1987, is a tournament champion, winning in empty-hand and weapons forms, no-contact, light-contact and full-contact matches, and he has students worldwide who have studied his DVDs and his website, www.internalfightingarts.com. Concepts covered in these pages include: the ground path, peng jin, whole-body movement, silk-reeling energy, Dantien rotation, and opening/closing the kua. From the explosiveness of Xingyi to the relaxed power of Tai Chi and Bagua, the road to internal skill is long and difficult, but very satisfying. There is nothing "soft" about these arts. They are powerful arts of self-defense. And it all starts here.

The combat techniques of Tai Ji, Ba Gua, and Xing Yi were forbidden during China's Cultural Revolution, but the teachings of grandmaster Wang Pei Shing have survived. This comprehensive guide, written by one of his students, selects core movements from each practice and gives the student powerful tools to recognize the unique strategies and skills, and to develop a deeper understanding, of each style. It contains complete instructions for a 16-posture form to gain mastery of combat techniques. The book helps practitioners achieve a new level of practice, where deeply ingrained skills are brought forth in a more fluid, intuitive, and fast-paced fashion.

From the author of "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" comes a book that introduces martial arts practitioners to three "internal" arts and their subtle powers. Inner martial arts rely on internal energy for power rather than on muscles or tension. 15 photos.

The Immortal & the Angry Baby...General Qi Jiguang was coughing up blood, near death in a field hospital, when he received a visit from the Sage Lin Zhao'en. The Sage performed a martial exorcism with explosions and a talisman to capture pirate ghosts who blamed General Qi for their deaths. General Qi was completely healed. The Sage then taught General Qi the Golden Elixir, cementing a lifelong bond.Sage Lin claimed that he learned the Golden Elixir in secret night-visits from the Immortal Zhang Sanfeng. The Immortal was a theatrical character, known for defeating twenty-four palace guards with thirty-two moves while snoring like an earthquake and smelling of booze and vomit-thirty-two moves that General Qi wrote about and later became known as Tai Chi! The dragon-killer Nezha cut his flesh from his bones and returned it to his parents. He was done. Or so it seemed, until Nezha's secret father Taiyi descended from the sky and gave him a new body made of lotus flowers and the Golden Elixir-making him invincible.Nezha was China's most important hero-god-so important that caravan guards and rebels nicknamed Beijing "Nezha City." In 1900 thousands of Boxers possessed by Nezha died fighting foreign guns. Blamed and ridiculed for this failure, martial artists who practiced the dance of Nezha hid their history and gave their art a new name-Baguazhang!The reason you never heard these histories is so dark that few have dared to speak about it, until now... Completely new and meticulously researched, Tai Chi, Baguazhang and the Golden Elixir erases a hundred and twenty years of confusion and error to reveal the specific theatrical and religious origins of Chinese Internal Martial Arts.

The Taoist yogic discipline of Ba Gua is an internal form of the ancient art of kung fu--as are the much older t'ai chi and Xing I. Ba Gua is the most arcane and yogic of three sister arts--t'ai chi and Xing I are the others--and is distinguished by serpentine turning and circling momvements and its own internal energy exercises, Ba Gua Qi Gong.

Master Wang Shujin (1904—1981) was one of the world’s foremost exponents of Chinese internal martial arts, with legendary expertise in the disciplines of Bagua Zhang, Taiji Quan, and Xingyi Quan. This book offers a lucid translation of Master Wang’s seminal work on Bagua Zhang and includes expanded instruction by co-translator and noted Bagua Zhang expert Kent Howard. It also introduces readers to a rarely seen personal side of Wang Shujin, who was not only a fighter but also a teacher and spiritual leader. Bagua Linked Palms includes a wealth of additional information useful to the practitioner of internal martial arts, including the story of Bagua Zhang’s development, the connection between the Bagua and the I Ching, and step-by-step instruction in the eight “changes” of Bagua Linked Palms, the first form in Master Wang’s style of Bagua Zhang. This comprehensive, richly annotated text makes it a must-have addition to every serious martial arts library.

This book presents Li Dongfeng, the founder of Liuhebafa, and his original treatise knows as The Five Character Secrets.