Baguazhang: The Dragon & Phoenix Fighting Set by Kevin Wikse.

Suppose there was just one fighting set from Yin Fu Baguazhang that captured the martial strategies, heavy-handed applications, and an array of compound circular blocks and deflections with the appropriate speed, fluidity, and savagery, which would, across the board, benefit people of all physicalities. In that case, the Dragon & Phoenix, without question, that fighting set. 

Dragon & Phoenix is a battle of two siblings. First-born son Dragon. First-born daughter Phoenix. Eldest brother and sister, and embodiments of the primordial forces of thunder and wind who forever seek dominance and favor from their father, who is the sky and all of heaven. Dragon and Phoenix fighting set is both a clash and a flow of Yin and Yang energies, with a leaning towards an overall Yang force. Dragon, the source of thunder, is the oldest Son, most like his father, Lion. Phoenix, the wind source, is the Yang of the Yin forces, the oldest daughter and a daddy's girl. 

Dragon and Phoenix bring all the classical and mainline elements of Baguazhang. Like all other fighting sets from the Yin Fu style, this set has eight structured "turnarounds" for circle walking, which can also be performed linearly. Each turnaround contains seven strikes that can and should be individually isolated and practiced as line or box drills, hundreds of repetitions each. 

Dragon & Phoenix is a fighting set in the truest sense. It is not for sports combat. It would be an easy transition toward sporting rules, but as my Sifu once said, "Do you want to practice being a de-clawed tiger and a de-fanged snake?" Dragon & Phoenix's methodology promotes ending a violent conflict in one to three moves or as near to that number as possible. This methodology requires answering violence with violence but developing the skill set to moderate its level based on the threat. 

The Dragon aspects of Dragon & Phoenix primarily showcase the Dragon's chopping, pushing, carrying, and entering attacking methods found in Yin Fu's Dragon Shape Baguazhang while also featuring the shocking, dodging, stabbing, and curling-in attacks of Yin Fu's Phoenix Shape Baguzhang. Overtly offensive, Dragon & Phoenix exchanges introduce an interplay of aggressive combat strategies where offense can be destructive defense and defense never shortchanges its issuing of punishment. 

The set teaches a one-for-one response. It never assumes that you are faster than your attacker and never pretends that all your attacks will hit; most will be set-ups for other strikes. The structured sequences are highly logical combinations and chains of movement that teach and introduce Dragon and Phoenix attacks in an exceptionally adaptable flowchart. 

Dragon and Phoenix take after their father, Lion, the most Yang of all the I-Ching's eight trigrams. Therefore, each is aggressive, direct, and hard-hitting. Dragon tends to be more straightforward than Phoenix. Sudden and explosive, Dragon's attacks are hard and sharp and contain extending energy, reaching and penetrating out and through the target. 

Phoenix will, in turn, use more curved, circular, and sweeping attacks. Phoenix uses heavy (not necessarily hard) force that is jarring and comes from odd angles, but with its beak, like the Dragon's claws and teeth, it can be seriously sharp. Phoenix employs shorter energy that hits the surface, which tends to have a shaking and smothering effect. 

Walking the circle with the Dragon & Phoenix fighting set for 20 to 30 minutes is equivalent to boxing's "road work." The set assumes the Dragon is the aggressor in the conflict; circle walking is then performed holding the "dragon shape," which is most typically associated with Baguazhang. The Dragon and Phoenix belong to the "wood" element, and their movements and shapes stretch and tone the meridians most related to the liver and gall bladder. 

A typical practice would be:

1. 20-30 minutes of circle walking.
2. At least 108 repetitions of a particular turnaround seven strikes, totaling 756 strikes.
3.  A single multi-movement full-body strength-building complex.
4. Strenuous grip strength training.

If you were to adapt to the above protocol for five days a week in as little as six months, you would be healthier, stronger, and more formidable than the above-average person and prove a credible threat to almost anyone. 

I will be making the Dragon & Phoenix fighting set available very soon. It will be in the Pacific Northwest regarding physical teaching, but I will make online training available, too. 

-Kevin Wikse