The Fighting sets of Yin Fu Baguazhang by Kevin Wikse.
The fighting sets of Yin Fu Style Baguazhnag, most notably the infamous "piercing palms," serve as a bridge for individuals with little to no prior combat experience to practice Yin Fu Baguazhang's martial strategies and health-building exercises, especially circle-walking, before the more specialized aspects of Yin style Baguazhang which generally required a student to have a solid foundation in martial arts to begin with.
Yin Fu Style Baguzhang's fighting sets are mainly separate from the art's esoteric I-Ching connections. These are fighting forms, and while the student does assume a "posture" or "body" such as Lion, Dragon (by far the most well known), Pheonix or even Bear, these postures, in this context, are stripped down in essence, purely transmitting kinetic chains of movement and acting as delivery systems for the martial payload.
That is not to say the advanced, esoteric methods of Yin Fun Baguazhang founded on the I-Ching are less martial or combat-focused than the so-called "fighting sets." In truth, they are more martial, having a greater depth of intricacies, strategies, and exceptionally specialized training. These Yin Fu Style Baguzhang methods were not "open door" and were never made available to the public. Challenge matches, martial contests, gang/faction wars, and school rivalries were genuine, and many deaths and maimings occurred. Oaths of brotherhood, initiation into societies, and teacher/student acceptance ceremonies carried significant weight and serious consequences.
Transmission of the fighting sets allowed teachers and advanced students to get to know future prospects' personalities, characteristics, affinities, and preferences. Should the prospect become a bonafide disciple, the groundwork for their path forward into what would best serve them (and the school and/or society bi-proxy) had already been partially laid. However, if the prospect is never officially affiliated with the school or society, what they learned wasn't considered a threat. In the eyes of Yin-Fu Baguzhang advanced students, the fighting sets are intermediary material at best.
That is not to say the fighting sets are not practical. They are, in truth, extraordinarily result-producing. Their dedicated practice can develop a high degree of real-world martial ability while creating a strong, healthy, conflict-ready body in lockstep. A fighter in the late 1800s could and did (in the majority of cases) base whole systems of Baguazhang off these seed-fighting sets. They would then gain a reputation and get famous enough for their martial skills to gain students and followers. Few modern-day Baguazhang fighters can point to the I-Ching connections concerning their Baguzhang style. The reason is that the lineage of Baguzhang carried down to them likely an iteration that developed from the open-door Yin Fu Baguzhang fighting sets and that esoteric knowledge was never passed on.
I do not intend that to be an insult or even a critique. It is merely an observation and estimation of why Baguazhang, a martial art based on the I-Ching, seemingly has nearly no connection, at least in how it was handed down and currently presented, the majority of the time.
The fighting sets of Yin Fu Baguazhang are valuable practices that should be considered and provide a uniquely solid grounding in immediately usable fighting skills. For my study and within my school, "Vimana Vajra," I have learned and, through daily practice, actively preserve 24 of the Yin Fu Baguazhang fighting sets. How many fight sets were there initially? I don't know. But at the rate of learning eight a year, that provides three years of developmental martial material, which is a higher level than what is taught at most schools globally.
From real-world combat, capable of committing and surviving violence, anyone who spent three years with me could realistically win a true no-holds, no-rules encounter with a professional MMA/Boxer mid-carder. A higher-level tier professional fighter would recognize the genuine potential for sustaining career-ending injuries and leave the situation since there is no money to stick around. I speak from direct experience regarding this matter.
Baguazhang was not developed for sports. It was created to kill its enemies better than they could kill it. When I have to re-engineer my methodologies to make them "safe" to use in a contest, it strikes me as a waste of time. I do not consider my enemies' safety nor recognize their right to exist. "Peace through superior firepower and tactics." The fighting sets of Yin Fu Baguazhang provide an excellent inroad to embodying, in mind and body, that well-established military doctrine.
When approaching the fighting sets, the method is to learn one set at a time and practice that set as a stand-alone combined with circle-walking and posture holding for no less than 30 minutes daily (60 minutes is the gold standard). The student should then walk the circle performing all other previously learned sets in succession over and over again for at least 30 minutes. The student should then take 3 or 4 specific movements from the set they are working on and perform them in straight-line drills at least 108 times each.
The value of this type of training cannot be overstated. Training this way is highly aerobic, strength-building, and toughens the mind and body. Impact on the joints is minimal, and your body is not so wrecked that it won't quickly repair itself. You will make steady, sustainable gains with functional progressions that appreciate over time rather than devalue and deteriorate quickly.
In my Vimana Vajra, I don't make prospects spend three years with the fighting sets before potentially opening the door to the legitimate I-Ching-based material. Still, I prescribe them as necessary to prepare the body first and then as auxiliary training to support the material the student is working on. Either way, the student will get a rare and practical education in martial arts, especially in Baguazhang.
If you are interested in authentic Baguazhang and feel like you have the heart and the guts to suffer for art and taste the bitter before the sweet, feel free to contact me, and let's figure out how to get you started.
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