The eagle model
Soar without restriction.
應勢 ying shi
Circle-walking in eagle essence
Hold both arms straight, palms up, with the body turned so that the arms are along the arc of the circle. Think of spreading your wings to soar on an updraft. Think of soaring with the wind pushing you up – your power is not in lifting your arms, but in pressing them down from the body core.
Eagle circle-walking is much more intense than the carrying posture used in other bagua styles. It must be done ‘hard’ for quite some time before the body can handle the eagle changes.
On an external level, although it looks like it shoulder develop the shoulders, the pulling down of the arms develops the lats muscles in the back. It does fix weak shoulders and develop the deltoids, though, if that is needed. Mentally, it opens up the spirit like an eagle soaring in the sky, seeing everything, sensing everything around you.
Eagle has special qiezhang, fanbeichui, tanzhang, and chuanzhang that develop out of the straight arm connection.
There is no point in doing the eagle changes until you have found the special power of the eagle by a lot of hard circle-walking. Until then you would just do the eagle changes like any other changes. There is no point in doing the eagle changes with the wrong understanding. In addition, you might hurt yourself. I learned some eagle changes without quite enough preparation, and that night thought that all my back problems had returned (luckily it was temporary, but the pain was a surprise).
The eight mother palms of the eagle
1. Eagle Rides the Wind 應勢旋風掌 ying shi xuan feng zhang
This trains large opening and closing, lengthening for distant attack.
Action 1: starting in eagle form with the left hand into the circle. Right foot koubu, keep the eagle shape of the arms, turning the left palm down.
Action 2: Left baibu, sweeping the left arm across. Keep the arms outstretched.
Action 3: right koubu to baibu. Sweep the right arm to finish in front of the body, at the outside of the circle.
Action 4: turn back to face the circle-centre with the right arm..
2. Eagle Circles To Change Direction 應盤旋換向掌 ying pan xuan huan xiang zhang
This trains circling in the air, full spirit and intent
Action 1: starting in eagle form with the left hand into the circle. Right foot koubu, prepare the left arm, turning it palm up.
Action 2: Left baibu, sweeping the left arm.
Action 3: Right koubu, sweeping the right arm, finishing with the arms parallel about shoulder width apart.
Action 4: Left baibu around the circle, sweeping the arms in a straight line.
Action 5: Right koubu, continuing around the circle and continuing to sweep the arms. Turn back to face into the circle-centre, bringing the right arm to the inside.
3. Eagle Tilts In The Wind 應勢斜旋風掌 ying shi xie xuan feng zhang
Action 1: starting in eagle form with the left hand into the circle. With shun stepping, step the outside (right) foot straight, the inside (left) foot koubu. Then step the right foot baibu around the circle. Sweep the arms in a straight line.
Action 2: Left koubu, continuing around the circle. Finish with the arms at shoulder-width (left catching up with the right). Keep going around the same way.
Action 3: Right, then left, koubu, holding the arms in a straight line and keeping turning in the same direction to finish with the right on the inside.
4. Eagle Spirit Grabs The Rabbit 應神捉兔掌 ying shen zhuo tu zhang
I don’t know this change.
5. Eagle Eagle Pierces The Heavens 應子鑽天掌 ying zi zuan tian zhang
I don’t know this change..
6. Eagle Grabs A Fish 海應抓魚 hai ying zhua yu
I don’t know this change.
7. Eagle Circle To Four Directions 應旋四方 ying xuan si fang
I don’t know this change.
8. Eagle Wheels To Four Directions 應翻四方 ying fan si fang
I don’t know this change.