Cheap The Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chang: The Methods of Lu Shue-Tien As Taught by Park Bok Nam. (Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chan (Unique)) (Book) (Bok Nam Park, Dan Miller) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chang: The Methods of Lu Shue-Tien As Taught by Park Bok Nam. (Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chan (Unique))

This book is an absolute must for practitioners and teachers of the Chinese martial art of bagwa or Pa Kua Chang. It will crystallize the meaning and substance of movements for students - For teachers it will help forge much better instructors.

If you have never practiced bagwa, (Pa Kua, BaGua or Bagwachang, etc.), I would suggest you go elsewhere to learn about this unique system of martial art.

If anyone has a question about it, feel free to drop me an email!

Likely the most important book written on Internal Arts.
This book won't teach you any fancy forms, but it will teach you everything you really need to know about Pa Kua (and any other internal martial art, for that matter).

This is a book of the true fundamentals of Pa Kua. Each lesson is there to teach you to progress as smoothly and efficiently as is about humanly possible. Park really stresses the necesity of basic drills, practiced properly, to allow the body to learn to 'relax' enough for efficient martial use. Exercises begin with footwork drills, progress to combined footwork drills, and then to basic palm techniques. Later both the combined footwork and palm techniques are combined.

Also taught in this book is basic Pa Kua Chi Kung, enough for the beginner to develope a feel for Chi flow and are sufficient exercises for Chi development until the practice of one's martial techniques take over one's Chi work.

There is a Volume 2, but it doesn't seem to be listed here at Amazon.com as of this review. This is as good as Volume 1, but isn't needed until you've absorbed everything from Vol.1 (good luck!)

Again, if I had to own only one book on internal martial arts I would most certainly make it this one. No art is ever any better than its basics. So, the more strongly developed your basics, the more developed your skill will be. I feel this is the best book from which to learn those basics.

Superb introduction into BaGua mechanics
~I'm finally glad they got Vol. 1 on this website. I'd written a review for Vol.2 awhile ago, but had to imply that there was a Vol.1 to be read, as well. It's been a while, and others have already gotten to it, but I thought I'd plug in my 2 cents...

WONDERFUL!

In retrospect, there is some mystery here. BaGua, as with many Chinese martial arts styles, is all about your instructor, your instructor's instructor, etc.. Your lineage is key. BaGua has a very complex geneaology, stemming~~ from Dong Hai Chuan (various phonetic spellings) the legendary Grandmaster. In fact, two key branches of BaGua (since Dong Hai Chuan only taught experienced martial artists-- most whom he purportedly defeated in combat) are those that seem very BaGua like, and those that seem Hsing-Yi-ified. Those are my terms. In my experience, you can take the forty or so BaGua styles, and classify them as fairly "pure" BaGua (circular, evasive, fine, intricate), and those that have integreated~~ significant Hsing-Yi principles-- linear, power, direct.

Park Bok Nam's style is more pure BaGua in terms of evasiveness, footwork, and hand-techniques. His teacher, the legendary Lu Shue-Tien, is a bit of an unknown... Even in this book, there is no real claim as to who taught Lu Shue-Tien. Other sources I have speculate...

That being said, this book is a wonderful, detailed work that describes basic techniques-- footwork, some foot-trapping, and elementary strikes down to the~~ smallest level of biomechanics. How to move your feet, knees, pelvis, abdoman, to generate power, for example. In more detail than in any other book on any other style I've ever read. Superb for anyone who is trying to understand the underlying principles of this art, or even for the advanced practitioner trying to compare this or that, or to glean insights.

This is not a forms book. Park Bok Nam gives some simple palm changes that are basically qi gong postures with circle walking. ~~ It's a mechanics book. A superb one.

Finally, the lineage is important. BaGua varies significantly from style to style. The techniques can be dramatically different, as can the mechanics at the more superficial level. But I think from a basic concepts level, the biomechanics are all pretty much the same. So this is an insight into one family, not all. But I think confining it to mechanics kept it manageable, and pure. No hullabaloo or flash. And eminently useful.

Wonderful,~~ clearly written, adequate pictures (get the videos for better illustration of Park's technique). A must for the martial artist.~