Bagua is famous for being a multiple attacker martial art and if you’re going to have to fight 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 people, Bagua is one of the very few arts on the planet that is really designed to handle that kind of a situation.
Bagua is whole body power hits to the opponents weak points while you’re slipping and evading their attacks. Just as Bagua always flanks and evades Bagua is always powerful.
Bagua Strategy
So I’m going to start by talking about the strategy that Bagua uses and how it approaches things from a multiple attacker perspective.
When you have multiple attackers there are some things that you can afford to do and some things you cannot afford to do if you expect to live through the situation.
What you cannot do is fight with a single opponent because all the other attackers are going to be beating on you.
So lets say he’s an MMA Jiujitsu guy who’s skilled but your Bagua is so great that he can’t really get you in the hold and submit you.
He doesn’t have to.
All he has to do is hold you here for about 5 seconds. Five seconds maximum. Because if he’s got three or four friends with him that’s long enough. Too long for you. Long enough for them finish the job that he started by simply diving in and sacrificing himself for a moment holding on for dear life while they get you.
The other thing you cannot afford to do is exchange punches with a striker. Because it’s not just him. It’s multiple attackers. You may have one person covered, you could even be doing things to him, but the other attackers are not going to care about that so much.
They’re hitting you.
Whatever you did to him, they’re going to get you and that will be the end of it. Because you were tied up with one person and you couldn’t afford to do that.
So the first thing that Bagua is looking to do is to not get entangled.
If the first attacker comes to dive at me or jump at me it really is,
“How do I move in a way and make it so that he cannot just grab you and hold on?”
You’re in motion and you’re covering ground and position while you’re doing that.
The bigger trick is that you don’t at any point go and get entangled with the attacker keep moving no matter what.
So you’ve got the idea of continuous motion for somebody trying to grab you and you don’t focus on the fact they’re trying to grab you focus on the fact that you’re moving and you keep moving no matter what.
If they grab a piece of you, you’re not tied into that, you’re moving. They can come with you or not. If you start fighting with them it’s only because you didn’t move enough.
The same thing is true if the first attacker is a power hitter.
Some people ask,
“What about if the guy can really throw fajing that you can see or even touch you and give you fajin that you can’t see? What about that?”
…and it’s the same thing. If I stand there and try to go toe to toe with him, that’s going to be a problem. The answer to any kind of strike like that is, get out from in front of it.
I don’t stop the movement. The movement continues.
…and if you’re looking this lesson, having done some Bagua, and going,
“You’re just running around! no special Bagua qualities.”
Yes! I’m just getting out of the way! …and I keep moving.
That’s first.
Do I look really specially neat doing it? That’s third, fourth, fifth, tenth. You want it. It’s not first. Not if you’re going to fight with this.
The biggest error that people have when a person tries to grab them is they think,
“Hes got me and I’m trying to get away”
…and they end up being held in place for an instant and now they’re getting hit. Instead of going,
“He’s trying to grab me and I’m going that way and I keep moving and I keep moving and I keep moving.”
It is not technique for technique for technique.
I’m moving. Same thing when he’s throwing punches.
It’s not, he punches and now I moved and then he punches and I moved and now I’m not.
No, It is I’m moving and he’s got to be able to actually land a hit while I’m in motion non-stop. He’s got to land it off of the fact that I’m not standing still for him at any point. So it was not technique for technique and you don’t even think about it like technique for technique.
In future lessons I will show you things that are technique for technique so you can learn a technical skill, but the way it’s applied is the way I’m showing you here. You keep going . It’s their job to catch up to you.
For more lessons check out my free online Bagua course.
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