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| Single Palm Change |
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| Double Palm Change |
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| Throwing Palm |
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| Slapping Palm |
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| Lifting Palm |
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| Cutting Palm |
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| White Clouds Chases the Stars Palm |
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| Sliding the Shutters to look at the Moon Palm |
In Ba Gua Zhang, the power for striking with the palm come up through the legs, is directed by the center and expressed through the hands. If your training is complete, you will be able to strike efficiently and effectively in six directions (left, right, front, back, up, down) with each hand. In striking to these various directions, individually or in combination, the mechanics of motion and power generation in the legs and torso are slightly different. Each of the eight Dragon palms teaches you how to strike to each of the six directions and therefore also develops a different part of your leg-torso connection, alignment and power.
After training the Dragon palms for several months, you will find that the entire body has been developed to deliver power in every direction, in addition the complete development of the torso aids in the overall ability to generate internal power in general.
The foundations of internal striking are found in the subtle body connections, intricate body alignments, functioning of the joints and tendons, flexibility of the entire body, and secondary muscle movements. In training the Dragon palms, you will be training little used muscles and developing suppleness in areas that are difficult to stretch during normal daily activity or standard flexibility exercises. To develop the kind of twisting, turning, and “whipping” power which is prominent in Ba Gua Zhang, you must develop a level of suppleness in the joint which is beyond that of the average athlete or martial artist. It is not only the major joints, such as the shoulders, hips, elbows, and wrists, which must gain a new degree of suppleness. This looseness must also extend to the entire spine and the junctures of the ribs to the spine and sternum.
The genius of the particular set of palm strikes is that in correctly training all eight of the Dragon palms, after obtaining a good foundation with the prerequisites exercises, the correct alignments, connections, energy and power will be naturally developed. You do not have to search to uncover the secrets of internal power. You just have to practice the Dragon palms correctly for sufficient amount of time. That is the beauty of the Dragon palms you just practice and the results will come.
The Dragon Palms include:
1) Single Palm Change (direction front)
2) Double Palm Change (direction simultaneous front)
3) Throwing Palm (direction down)
4) Slapping Palm (direction down)
5) Lifting Palm (direction up)
6) Cutting Palm (direction side)
7) White Clouds Chasing the Stars Palm (direction back)
8) Sliding the Window Shutters to Look at the Moon Palm
(direction simultaneous side)
