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2 Circle Walking Basics Changing Direction and Important Considerations
2 Circle Walking Basics Changing Direction and Important Considerations
2 Circle Walking Basics Changing Direction and Important Considerations
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MODULE3
Circle Walking Basics:
Changing Direction and
Important Considera tions
BRUCE FRANTZIS
Copyright© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis
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Table of Contents
Appendix 1:
Martial Arts Applicatio ns ................ ...... 47
Overview ................................................................... 47
Overview
Every chi practice is deigned to create balance. This is an absolutely fundamental
purpose of changing direction when Walking the Circle, which enables you to
perform the same movements on both sides of your body. Regardless of whether
you Walk the Circle in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction, every inside or
outside three-, four- or two-part step is exactly the same internally and externally.
In mirror-like fashion, your left foot does what your right foot does and vice-versa.
A B c D
Figure 3.1.1
Basic Reversal of Direction
Easier Version, Pivot on the Ball of the Foot
Many intermittently and internally freeze or have mini freak-outs if they don't
transition smoothly- especially after they pass the beginning level and start-
changing direction at high speeds.
E F G H
Personal Health
Reversing direction balances your musculoskeletal system and internal organs.
While walking in one direction around the circle, the muscles and other soft
tissues of your legs naturally turn around your leg bones, primarily in one
direction: toward the center of your circle. By changing direction, you
automatically shift and reset your leg muscles and other soft tissues to begin
turning primarily in the opposite direction around your leg bones.
A B c D E
Figure 3.1.2
Basic Reversal of Direction:
More Difficult Version, Foot off the Ground
Walking the Circle generates clear pressures on the points where your muscles,
ligaments and tendons attach to your spine, joints, internal organs and oth-
er structures. These pressures can vary significantly depending on if they are
exerted more from left to right or vice-versa, as occurs when Walking the Circle in
opposite directions. It happens in part because your internal organs are located
on both sides of your body. So each leg pulls on your organs differently, depend-
ing on how you move.
For example, doing a right footbrake can affect your internal organs to varying
degrees and in different ways than does a left footbrake. The effects of these
footbrakes are even vaster if one is a straight-line inside step and the other is a
curving outside step.
Walking the Circle in a single direction therefore carries the danger of hidden
body imbalances emerging or being created. Some parts of your body's inter-
nal structures may become too strong while others are neglected. This causes
the neglected structures to progressively weaken in direct proportion to those
you strengthen. One leg can become stronger and more flexible while the
other becomes weaker and tighter. Weak points are usually problem areas as
in the famous phrase: A chain breaks at its weakest link. These weak links could
include body alignments, uneven twisting of the legs, or imbalanced opening
and closing of the joints.
Every time you change direction, you get the opportunity and eventually the
ability to re-twist and rebalance your insides, so any unequal pressures inside
your body and mind can better equalize over time.
Chi Developmen t
Energetically, the most important function of changing direction is the way it
can develop the spiraling energy of your body. It can dramatically benefit your
health. Circle Walking naturally pulls up the spiraling energy of the earth into
your body regardless of whether or not you are initially conscious of it. Each time
your reverse direction, you naturally reverse the primary direction that energy
spirals.
Each time you reverse direction, you also amplify your ability to absorb the
earth's energy. During the turn, you initiate the earth's dynamic spiraling
energy, filling your body's energy channels. As you subsequently walk more,
you complete the flooding of your energy channels.
However, when your energy channels fill to a maximum degree in one direction,
they may simply become overburdened, stagnant and frozen. By reversing the
circle's direction with some degree of integrity, it causes the channels' energy to
clear and re-open for business.
Martial Arts
See information about martial arts applications in Appendix 1 on p. 47.
Meditation
Each time you change direction, you get the opportunity to experience
your mind move from a calm state to activity and return to a still state. The
mechanics of walking, reversing direction, walking and once again reversing
direction influences your mind to alternately expand and come back to its
center. This first happens slowly as you walk slowly, and then rapidly as your
walking speed increases. This opening and closing of the awareness of the mind
gives you a continuous practice for recognizing how your thoughts can scatter
or become present and still.
For example, after Walking the Circle in either direction for some time, you may
find your concentration waning, becoming more diffuse or beginning to scatter.
If this gets worse, your mind loses its ability to focus or be present, calm and still.
At this point, you turn and reverse direction. With your best effort during the turn,
allow your mind to return toward its center where it can once again re-establish
its ability to concentrate in a relaxed way. Then, as you come out of reversing
directions, do your best to relax and expand your mind, so it becomes even more
still and present as you continue Walking the Circle.
Likewise, with more and more practice, you gain insight into what it is inside
of you that enables your mental states to become obviously unstable. With
yet more practice, you recognize what enables you to shift from an external
orientation to that which is internally inside yourself. You begin to discover and
develop your thoughts, so they concentrate and become stable. Eventually, this
stability of mind can become continuous.
When you can do the beginning set of instructions comfortably and with-
out strain (after a few weeks or more), you can add Version 2, where more
valuable details are added to improve your turn. Version 1 should be practiced
Walking the Circle in both directions until your body can accommodate the tasks
easily and without strain.
These versions are essentially a replay of the methods for reversing direction
presented in Model 1 on straight-line walking except for one critical differ-
ence: Your torso and legs continuously turn in Circle Walking whereas they do
not in straight-line walking. Therefore, moving into and completing a reversal
of direction during Circle Walking has quite a different feel than in straight-
line walking. It presents greater challenges to your balance and the smooth,
comfortable and free flowing movement of your hips, knees, ankles, feet and
lower spine.
A part of this challenge is that during the Circle Walking reversal of direction, the
pressure of the turn applied to your lower body parts can be significantly greater
than the normal torque to the joints applied during straight-line walking (or just
walking in a circle). This challenge is mitigated by pivoting on the ball of your
foot in Version 1. Version 2 assumes that your body has sufficiently strengthened
and that you have learned through plenty of practice of Version 1 how to handle
greater pressures on your leg joints and spine.
Follow the basic principle in learning all Taoist chi practices: Move from the
simple and easy to the difficult and complex. By following the recommendation
that you practice Version 1 first-until you can do it well-you will make it easier
for your body to absorb the basic change of direction movement patterns and to
appropriately strengthen the surrounding soft tissues that hold your leg joints
together. In this way, your joints can grow with minimal danger of overstraining
or damaging your knees, so you become strong, flexible and perfectly capable of
handling the increased pressures generated within your legs by turning.
Overview
As a general rule, a beginner completes one revolution around their circle in
twelve to sixteen steps (or more). Walking a larger circle ensures that you do not
strain your feet, knees, legs or lower back. Count each of your steps (inside or
outside steps)as one step.
Bagua tradition holds that you start Walking the Circle in a counter-clockwise
direction. As a beginner, you should walk around your circle three times and then
reverse direction, as described in the following detailed instructions.
In all instructions, remember the seventy percent rule if your body is healthy. If
you're ill or injured, follow the forty percent rule.
15
A 8 c D
Figure 3.2.1
E F G H
Note: In the photos above. Bruce is looking down at the floor, which is what most
beginners initially do to see if their feet are in the correct position. Later, once your
footwork is stable, your head and neck should be straight and your eyes should
look forward and not down.
2. Then, shift your weight forward and bring your feet side by
side with your right foot off the floor (not shown).
3. Maintain your weight fully on your left foot, and move your
A
right foot forward so that it curves and forms a "T" shape
with your left foot (as you do in straight-line walking).
This is called a "toe-in step;' and you should finish it with a
footbrake (B).
When you do your toe-in step, it is not wise to make your turning radius so
severe as to cause noticeable knee or back pain or strain in the pursuit of a
"correct" or"ideal" movement. It is perfectly fine to turn less to protect your
body's well-being by moving in accord with the seventy percent principle.
lfyo.u have knee or lower back issues, then go with a forty percent variation
of the seventy percent principle to reduce the risk of injury.
5. Keep your weighted foot and knee stable and turn your
hips to face the direction you just came from. Let the ball
of your un-weighted (left) foot remain on the ground and
pivot your foot on it as your hips turn. When finished, your
toes should point in the same direction as your hips and in D
the direction that you want to walk (D).
When you pivot your un-weighted (left) foot, let your heel
lift off the ground slightly and rotate backward toward
your weighted (right) foot to avoid strain on your knee
and lower back. Pivot in whatever way you must so that
you feel no strain in either knee.
6. Step straight ahead with your forward (left) leg (E) and
complete the step by putting your foot down with a foot-
brake (F).
E
8. Move your back (right) foot forward and off the floor
until it is side by side with and parallel to your left foot. It
F
should be 1-3 inches off the floor, or higher if your knees,
back or hips feel any strain (H).
Let the whole leg and foot turn in farther than your regular out-
side step and cross as far over the centerline of your body as is
comfortable. Ideally, the toe-in foot points toward the center
of the circle and your feet should form a ninety-degree angle.
• At this juncture, your toe-in leg is on the ground, but has none
of your torso's weight on it.
• You should feel no strain in your knees. If you do, turn your toe-
in leg less.
SKIP AHEAD
If you can perform all of the instructions in this section reasonably
well, then proceed to Section 3. If not, skip ahead to Section 4 and
keep practicing until you're ready to incorporate intermediate
considerations.
Overview
This more difficult version of the basic reversal of direction is best done only
after having some experience with the easier version. It requires slightly better
balance and more leg stability. It is the foundation upon which the complete
version of changing directions will be constructed. Beginners should do the easy
version for a minimum of one to two months and this version for an additional
one to two months before moving on to the complete turn in Module 7.
If you have knee, leg or lower back pain or have suffered any major injuries, stay
with the easier version until the pain has disappeared and you are fully healed.
This version gives you a sense of the more complex and larger weight shifts and
waist turning intrinsic to practicing bagua as an art.
23
~
~
~ A c
--.........
B D E
Figure 3.3.1
Basic Reversal of Direction:
More Difficult Version, Foot Off the Ground
1. Begin again with your feet in the feet side-by-side and parallel position (A).
2. Your outside (right) weightless empty foot initiates the turn by moving
forward and then curving inward toward your body's centerline. It's called
a toe-in step (B).
3. If mud walking, finish this toe-in step with a mud walking footbrake,
planting your toe-in foot firmly on the ground (C). If using heel-toe
stepping, touch down with your heel first and your toes second. The toes
of your outside foot should point toward the center of the circle and
your feet should ideally form a "T" shape.
4. Extend your rear leg and shift your torso's weight fully onto your (right)
planted foot (0).
5. Turn your hips to face toward the opposite direction from where you
began, lift your foot off the ground and into a parallel position with the
ground (E). This is the beginning of what is known as a "toe-out step:' Let
the turning of your hips carry your leg and foot through the air. When you
finish turning your hips, ideally the foot and toes of your un-weighted
leg will still be in the air (pointing in the direction opposite to which you
began). As you do these motions, do not let your un-weighted foot move
closer toward your weighted leg.
Safety Note: As you do the toe-out step, it is very important to maintain your
weighted knee in line with and above your weighted foot. If you let this knee
collapse inward or outward, you may severely strain your knee.
6. Once you have reversed direction with your un-weighted foot in the air,
move it forward as you would in Part 1 of whatever stepping method you
are using. Next, put it down, either with a footbrake or a heel-toe step (not
shown in Figure 3.3.1 ). Continue walking until you arrive in the feet side-
by-side position.
You have now reversed direction. Your right foot is inside your circle and your left
foot is outside it.
Begin Walking the Circle in a clockwise direction by taking a straight step with
your inside (right) foot.
The process of walking three circles and then reversing direction can be repeated
as many times as you like in a practice session.
Your Eyes
Look straight ahead and simultaneously feel the rest of your body as you Walk
the Circle and reverse direction.
Ideally, you do not look down at your legs or feet. Although it is fine for beginners
who have a tendency to look down to do so, over time it is best if you can clearly
feel your legs and feet while looking straight ahead. Initially though, seeing your
legs and feet can make it easier for you to feel them.
You may find yourself wanting to look down for two basic reasons. First, it may
help your balance, which again is fine for a short while. Stop doing it as soon as
possible though.
27
The second reason has to do with how the brain is neurologically organized and
hard-wired to your eyes. Eye movements naturally activate parts of your brain
responsible for specific functions.
Figure 3.4.1
Practitioner
with Thin Legs
Stand and try to touch your feet together. If you're ultra thin (Figure 3.4.1 ), you
should be able to put your feet together and feel no pressure inside your pelvis.
That is unless your pelvis is out of alignment in which case you would follow the
guidelines for those with thicker legs (until your pelvic alignments are corrected).
Figure 3.4.2
Practitioner with Thick Legs
If your feet move too close together and you have thicker legs (Figure 3.4.2),
you will normally feel some pressure inside your pelvis. This necessitates that
you move your feet wider apart until the pressure inside your pelvis leaves and
becomes comfortable.
What is the distance where it feels just right? For body types like sumo wrestlers
or football linebackers with giant legs, the width between their feet might be
almost as wide as their hips. Whereas for a thin one-hundred-pound dancer with
super long and thin legs, their feet might even touch while their pelvis remains
quite open.
Figure 3.4.3 The only reliable tool you have to judge the
proper width of your feet while walking is your
sense of body feeling. You have to trust yourself. Ask and answer for yourself two
questions:
Your answers will help you recognize if your feet are too close, too far apart or just
right.
Questions that may help you decide whether your feet may need to be slightly
more apart:
A "yes" answer to any of the above is a symptom that your anatomical structures
are being forced and excessively pulled and strained.
Sometimes you can achieve a narrower width between your feet by simply
increasing the degree of inward and outward twisting of your legs to mitigate or
fully release the sense of internal pressures inside your pelvis. For example, for
most people to do a low degree oftwisting and turning, their legs must be wider.
Conversely, at a higher level of twisting and turning, your feet can safely come
closer together because of the way it loosens up the anatomical connections
between your body's substructures.
However, the degree to which greater twisting of the legs can remedy leg-width
distance is always based on the specifics of your individual body structure.
Once you have figured out the appropriate width between your feet, main-
tain it continuously during all steps without variation. If you find that in some
With practice and time, your legs and body will loosen,
and the width you can continuously maintain will likely
decrease.
Benefits
Keeping the perineum open has many benefits, although it can be quite difficult
at first, especially when doing curving outside steps.
Personal Health
Keeping the perineum open increases the flow of chi within your body-mind. It
can upgrade your internal organs and get the fluids of your body to move and
circulate better.
Chi Development
Keeping the perineum open enables the rising and falling of energy between
your feet and head and vice-versa to become very strong. Turning the body as
your feet get progressively closer to each other further facilitates the body's
horizontal energy flows.
Martial Arts
Keeping the perineum open enables more power to be generated from the legs,
which will travel upwards through the body and amplify the power of the arms
and hands. Likewise, this upward transference of chi from the legs to the hands
can effectively increase the speed at which the waist can turn and enable your
arms and hands to move faster. Power and speed upgrades are qualities that can
increase high performance in almost any sport at many levels.
Meditation
By bringing the mind into the central channel, wayward movements can become
quiet, resolved, still and balanced. Getting the energies of all the secondary
energy channels within the body to concentrate inside the central channel
enables the settling to happen at a dramatically faster rate. Over time, this
essential stage of all Taoist meditation energetic practices enables practitioners
to reach a high level of clarity, stillness and openness that is extremely alive and
vibrant.
In bagua, as the space between the thighs narrows, you can more easily bring
the energies from various places in the periphery of the body into the central
channel and the left and right energy channels. Sometimes you bring these
energies into the central channel, then out to left and right channels and back
even deeper into the central channel.
While Walking the Circle and reversing direction, generally the thinner a person's
legs, the closer their feet can be together; the thicker a person's legs, the wider
apart their legs. This implies that the width of your thighs must be periodically
adjusted. As such, it is useful to understand the rules of how and why you may
need to adjust the width of your thighs and under what circumstances.
B
Figure 3.4.6
Human Pelvis
A} Sit Bones B) Wings of Pelvis C) Pelvic Ring or Pubic Synthesis
D) Sacrum E) Perineum
The sit bones on the bottom of your pelvis can easily close down. This in turn can
potentially cause your pelvis-in varying degrees-to anatomically "freeze up"
rather than move naturally, including tucking and turning.
If the space between your thighs becomes too narrow, you can dislodge either
or both of the natural alignments of the ring (Figure 3.4.68) or the wings (Figure
3.4.6() of the pelvis. This will limit the ability of:
If the space between your thighs becomes too narrow, it can also distort the
natural alignment of your sacrum. So, rather than being central, it may twist to
one side or the other, or rotate at all sorts of odd angles (including diagonally).
This can potentially overstress the ligaments of the sacrum; once overstretched,
they are really difficult to return to normal, which can lead to destabilizing the
lower sacrum.
Legs are heavy. If your thighs are too close together or your leg movements
are imbalanced, it can generate cross pressures that unevenly go across the
vertebrae of your spine. This has a tendency to cause vertebrae to go out of place
or twist and create back problems. The internal organs can also be excessively
pulled, either left or right.
Intermediate-Level Considerations
The perineum is the ever-famous root chakra of Hatha yoga and as such a
fundamental energy center of the body. Even if the perineum appears physically
open and not squeezed down, it can still be closed energetically. If the perineum
is energetically closed, it blocks the flow of energy moving up and down your
body.
This closing may occur because the energy center at the perineum is shut
down. In this case, it must be energetically dissolved using the Outer or Inner
Dissolving process. If, however, the physical space between the thighs is closed-
not by a gross amount, but rather a subtle amount-you either open your pelvis
internally, or activate and spread the muscles of your inner thighs sufficiently to
cause your feet to become just a micro-millimeter wider.
A well-trained, competent teacher can help you make even the tiniest adjust-
ments that you may personally need.
Discussions about rooting can have many meanings, depending on the context
and the philosophies of different internal arts, including:
• How you play with a rooted foot and become aware of how
internal pressures can change within the foot while rooted.
• Ways of changing the root from one leg to the other and the
neigong methods involved.
Initially, your focus should be on whether your rooted foot is stable and creates
a solid foundation. The goal is for the foot on the ground (especially if it is the
primary weight-bearing foot) not to wiggle or squiggle:
• The inner or outer edge must not lift off the ground.
This is definitely a much easier task to perform when your feet are stationary
or moving very slowly than in the constant and rapid weight shifting and waist
turning of Circle Walking.
Many students find that once their feet are on the ground during Circle Walking,
they shift and move all over the place. This is especially true for the back leg/
foot, slightly involuntarily twisting in during the step-out-to-footbrake or shift-
weight-forward steps.
Do your best to keep your rear foot rooted without wiggles or wobbles as:
2. You shift your weight forward from the back to the front leg.
3. You bring your weightless (rear) foot side by side and parallel to it.
This problem can become especially pronounced as your circle gets smaller and your
waist and legs strongly turn or twist at more severe angles.
The smaller the circle you walk, the greater soft-tissue twisting capacity you must
have stabilized in your body, especially your legs.
The size of your circle solely depends upon the degree to which your outer
leg curves. Indications that your outer leg is curving more than your body can
handle in the moment are feelings of excessive pressure in your ankles, knees,
thigh muscles, lower back or inside your pelvis.
The less your leg curves, the larger your circle must be and the more steps it will
require to walk around it.
As you practice over weeks and months, the pressures inside your legs, pelvis
and back can either increase or decrease. You may find your circle getting either
larger or smaller by a few steps.
For example, if you have an injury or weakness for any reason, your outer leg's
curve diminishes and your circle might go from normally being eight to sixteen
steps to temporarily as many as thirty-two steps. (If so, you'll need a larger space
in which to practice.)
Likewise, as your lower body heals and significantly strengthens, the curving of
your outside leg could get proportionately greater and your circle could shrink
from thirty-two to sixteen to eight steps.
The lesser the outside leg's curve, the easier it is for the pelvis to turn and for you
to smoothly bring your feet together from a weight-forward to the feet side-by-
side and parallel position.
The smaller the number of steps, the more squeezing and stimulating pressures
go into your internal organs. If you are healthy, this can be highly beneficial. If
you are not well, keep to the fifty percent rule and make a larger circle until the
problem is fully resolved.
Developmentally, you don't want to force the smooth turning of the waist or the
degree to which the waist turns (see "Dragon Body Turns" warm-up exercise). Let
it happen gradually. So, at each stage of increasing your capacity, you move from
some to minimal to ultimately no sense of internal resistance during the turn.
When you get to a point of walking a four-step circle, several factors must
simultaneously come together:
• You must have the internal ability to open up your sit bones,
bottom of your pelvis and perineum to a very significant
degree.
• Your kwa, pelvis, leg joints and lower back must be well-oiled
and able to turn and move quite freely without strain-
especially between the weight-forward and feet-parallel
positions.
In the beginning:
• Monitor how much your outer leg curves inward with all the
considerations previously mentioned.
At the end of Circle Walking session, you want to store the energy you have
generated during your practice and smoothly transition into the next activity of
your day. Ideally, you'll carry forward into your day the benefits of your practice.
1. Slowly come to a stop and end facing toward the center of your circle.
Stand in a comfortable position.
2. Cross your hands in front of your belly with the palm of either hand on top
of the other.
3. Consciously let go of everything in your mind and relax your entire body.
45
5. Mentally and without force, encourage the energy from your extremities
to flow into and concentrate in your belly, until your belly feels like it is
filling with energy.
6. Use your intent to have the chi in your lower belly-or ideally, the lower
tantien-to become relaxed and calm.
7. When the energy collecting in your belly becomes settled, you have
completed the basic Circle Walking chi-development and meditation
practice.
Figure 3.5.1
Standing in Alignment
Overview
In bagua, direction reversal methods are fundamental to combat if attacked
by either a single opponent or multiple opponents simultaneously. In fact, the
turning method (whether straight-line walking or Circle Walking) is as important
to bagua as are the signature techniques of other martial arts.
Examples include:
• Thai boxing's round house thigh or head kick and elbow across
the head.
When attacked from behind, bagua's turning methods give you the ability to
rapidly turn into or away from incoming attacks. This is used both defensively to
evade a blow and aggressively as you move toward a blow. It can also be applied
to capture a weapon and initiate a simultaneous counterattack.
Turning methods can mitigate the damage of a blow when you are hit because
the phases of the turn cause the force to glance off your body. This helps you
evade, direct and absorb a blow's force. Because of the way your body revolves
during the turn as a blow arrives, it lacks a solid place for its impact to arrive. Your
47
turn redirects it away from you by fractions of an inch. This prevents the blow
from landing at all or at least forces it to glance off with minimal damage.
Constant direction changing, using large or tiny hand and waist motions, also
prepares and trains the body for throwing techniques. Although it may not
be obvious that there are many individual throwing techniques within the
direction changing aspects of bagua's form movements, in fact there are
many. Direction changes within the form train you to transfer the power and
explosiveness generated by your stepping and waist turns into subtle and
powerful pressures that you can express in your hand movements to create a
multitude of effective throws.
These turning methods allow bagua throws to go beyond the use of leverage
upon which the throws of many martial arts are based. In bagua, throws are
commonly done first by either grabbing or sticking to an opponent's arms and
the front or back of their torso. Then, you initially move them in one direction
and immediately turn to the opposite direction. This creates a sudden reversal of
momentum that throws the opponent.
For example, initially you move them forward and then turn abruptly to throw
them backwards. Or, you can move them backward in order to throw them
forward on their face, or left to throw them on their right side. Similarly, you
can move their head down and then turn them up to make their feet go flying
upward.
Direction changes are also very important to prevent someone from success-
fully applying a joint lock on you. Before the lock really settles in and the space
disappears in which to escape, they enable you to change direction, rotate your
arms and waist, and step away from the finishing force of the lock. In this way, the
opponent simply doesn't have the time or leverage to make a joint lock stick. The
motion of your turn defeats their ability to apply the lock.
Bagua is particularly known for having the best footwork of all the internal
martial arts. As the bagua turning techniques get progressively more complex,
they enable these abilities to be fully realized in three ways.
1. The basic straight, toe-in and toe-out steps of bagua walking and its basic
and complete turns enable you to create extremely efficient fighting
angles. Such fighting angles enable you to gain solid leverage on your
opponent. All good martial arts traditions are based on gaining leverage.
Without the skilled use of sly fighting angles and leverage, martial arts
bouts simply degenerate into fairly crude affairs. People end up standing
toe to toe and slugging it out. Walking the Circle in itself gives you an
appreciation for fighting angles from a circular perspective. This is a unique
hallmark of bagua that's very hard to find in relatively more linear martial
arts, including tai chi.
3. Over time, the practice of Circle Walking and changing direction enables
the twisting and turning of the arms to gain power, fluidity and spontaneity.
You reduce and basically rid yourself of internal resistance, so that you can
change rapidly without freezing. As the resistance lessens in the legs, it
even more strongly reduces in the upper body.
There are two main fighting applications between the basic reversal methods
presented in this section and those of complete turns, which Module 7 will
explore.
A basic turn enables you to deal with an attacker who is to the side of you or
one-hundred-and-eighty degrees behind you. A complete toe-out turn enables
you to intercept someone who is two-hundred-and-seventy to three-hundred
degrees behind you.
The complete toe-out method also allows you to cover more physical distance.
This ability becomes exceedingly important when you must intercept, avoid and
generally navigate between and around multiple opponents, especially when
there are more than two opponents.
A B c D E
Figure 3.6.1
Toe-in Step
Toe-in Step
1. Facing forward, have somebody attack you from behind. Initially, the strike
should be either to your upper back or the back of your head. This is for
two basic reasons. Most beginners are not that sensitive to either their own
body signals or the feeling of something entering their etheric field. If any
sound can be heard (opponent's breath, air blowing or clothes rustling),
you will hear it easier if the weapon attacking you is coming high than if
below your mid-back.
In this regard, your opponent could use anything that is relatively soft yet
carries enough weight to move at sufficient and ever-escalating speeds,
so that it poses a realistic challenge for which you seek to prevail. A light
cardboard tube is not sufficient to motivate you, but a rolled up newspaper
or plastic tube might to do the trick.
2. At first, your opponent comes at you very slowly, trying to hit you in the
head or back. Do a toe-in and shift weight (Figure 3.6.1 ). As soon as you
begin your turn and your feet begin to move, use your peripheral vision to
see and surmise what's happening (Figure 3.6.1 8-C).
If before you began to move, the blow was going to hit you in the middle
of your head, then by the time you arrive at the weight shift (after your
toe-in, Figure 3.6.1 D), then the blow should just miss you. The distance you
move your body should create sufficient space between your head and
the opponent's strike or weapon to cause them to miss. At a minimum,
they shouldn't land a solid blow on you. Barely landing a blow or lightly
glancing off your head, neck or shoulder will hurt less.
3. Gradually, increase the speed of attack and your turns from fairly slow to
progressively as fast as you can handle it.
4. Now that at least you have the bare bones of moving your feet, turning
and getting out of the way, the next phase is focusing on the sensation of
withdrawing your body from the initial space it occupies (facing forward
in Figure 3.6.1 A).
Merely having a mental picture of getting out of the way with a sometimes
dubious result is an entirely different animal from getting the feeling of
successfully withdrawing. You must learn to feel what has to happen inside
you to be physically successful. You want to get the sense that you can do
it consistently and eventually at various angles to your opponent.
At the very least, you must develop the ability to instantly know when
to abort a turn, change or do something else. You must instantaneously
recognize internal preconditions within yourself that cause you to slow
down or hesitate. In a real-life situation, your defense takes place in
fractions of a second-if you are to be successful.
5. An old martial art adage warns: That which you cannot see will hit you.
Your focus should be on making sure your vision remains clear and does not
become blurred. Regardless whether Circle Walking by yourself or under
attack, when you move very slowly, it's relatively easy to keep your vision
from blurring. The faster you move, the more your mind must become
relaxed, concentrated and clear if your vision is to also remain clear.
• During the toe-out step, as you turn your hips and swing your
leg sideways, put your arm up in the air and rotate it. Contact
your opponent's attacking weapon or arm in any way you can
with the point of contact being anywhere along your arm.
Move so that this action turns your opponent's torso, arm,
hand or weapon to the side and hopefully away from you while
simultaneously disturbing and destabilizing their balance.
To summarize, first do a toe-in and step-forward step, so you take their hand, club
or weapon away from them. Continue the trajectory in a direction that is clearly
going to keep your opponent from hitting you. Next, immediately step forward
again and turn in whatever direction you must to hit your opponent.
This basic application will enable you to not only deal with single, but multiple
opponents simultaneously as you develop your abilities.
Intermediate Practice
Try a variation of the previous exercise. Your goal is to feel and use the awareness of
your etheric field to evade attacks.
As your meditation training deepens and your mind opens, tune your internal
sensitivity to feeling what's around you and within your entire etheric field (front,
sides and back).
Then, as an opponent attacks from the rear, try to feel without needing to see
when and how they are coming at you. Let yourself be guided by how you feel your
etheric field morphing. Move before they arrive to hit you. The Tai Chi Classics echoes:
I begin after my opponent, but arrive before they do.
This method requires you to trust yourself, which can be especially difficult in the
beginning. By the time you consciously analyze what you are feeling, you've already
been hit. Thinking about it can cause you to hesitate-even for a microsecond. So
it's tricky, but eventually you can get to the point where you feel and allow yourself
to flow, so your physical movement is happening before your conscious thought
surfaces.
You are unlikely to be successful overnight as acquiring this skill usually takes many
years. The real challenge comes in becoming consciously aware of how your insides
accomplish the task from moment to moment. It usually takes a long time before
you can become consciously aware of even a little of what you subliminally take
in. This is one reason why Taoist meditation has been practiced by martial artists
throughout the ages.