There are a myriad of techniques in bagua, including beng, chuan, dai, dian, gai, gou, gua, kai, lan, liao, pi, qie, ta, tan, tiao, tui, xiao, ya, yanzhou, ye, yun, za, zhuang, and our system's special wanda and fanbeichui. We consider them abilities rather than techniques or skills, because when trained properly they express the true ability of the body and spirit to apply the power. They are not a simple colllection of skills that require memorization or tricks that require opportunism to apply. It is best not to over-define the method, because that can make you think of doing something very specific. You should understand the principles of the movement and look for the feeling within. The goal of perfecting one technique is not simply that you get good at that techniuqe. The goal is in training to deeply understand any one technique, you have to deeply understand the whole system.
The techniques listed above all occur sooner or later in the changes and routines, and here are sixteen that you can practise in stand-alone soft or fali drills. The dragon way is considered the basic way. Other ways of doing the skills accord to the model and spirit of the other animals. The drills help you to train the ability to apply them concentrating on whole body power, with different moving steps, with a partner, and in sparring practice.
Bagua uses moving steps, so even the 'stance' training is not rigid. It is called 'setting the stake', rather than 'stake standing'.
The basic stance is mabu. Almost everything else feels like mabu, even circle-walking. The main stances are probably best described as mabu stance, mabu open stance, mabu turned stance. 'Mabu feeling stance' is a santishi. The basic use is almost always in shunbu (same arm and leg moving forward). There are four good reasons for this: A shunbu strike has a greater reach than a crossed hit. A shunbu strike can move in with a follow step or charge in strongly and quickly, and covers a considerable distance. When dropping back from a shunbu strike, it really gets out of the way and allows for easy repositioning. A shunbu strike is easy to change, it is not overcommited, but can easily continue on in the same way or go back.
Basic footwork includes straight line advancing, inside triangle stepping, outside triangle stepping, zigzag advancing, back and forth bai-kou stepping, T pattern stepping, turning kou large bai stepping. All use the baibu and koubu. Often the stepping drills are repeated with a full circle walk in between. Random stepping is also often practised, as long as it uses the baibu and koubu. Take a good step forward in the stepping drills, so that the technique covers some distance. Advancing by stepping is more effective than kicking, as it covers more distance. When you change position by stepping, the space around you is big and you control your it, you have full choice in what you will do.
Most practice, aside from circle-walking, is of these techniques with stake setting and stepping patterns. Different drills for each technique are just slight differences in combinations of footwork, setup, or following technique, they aren't really 'new' ways of doing the technique. They are always done with whole body power, usually after a circle-walking practice when the qi is full. The changes, routines and weapons are not practised as often, except for the dragon's single palm change, mastery of which is key to mastery of the others.
Fali (power issue) movements cannot develop the strength of the feet, lower back, and neck. Fali movements cannot be strong until the feet, lower back, and neck (the weakest links) are strong. Only circle-walking develops this strength. The strength of the tendons determines the power of the technique. So if you are not getting the results that you want, it is because you haven't sufficiently changed the tendons. The only way to do that is circle-walking and tendon changing. If you just practice the techniques without the transformation of circle-walking you can injure yourself.
Do not get excited when you do the fali movements, keep the qi settled down so that you feel strong and settled. You should not feel empty and tired after a fali practice. Always start out slowly to find the feeling and movement, then add power and intensity as you feel good. Do not practise fali if you do not feel powerful.
The skills are listed in alphabetic oder. It is best to learn the Chinese words so that you do not have a level of interpretation getting between you and the technique. Also, you can talk with people around the world without confusion.
