On the wekend of 23 - 24 of may we hosted a seminar in Bagua with sifu Luigi Zanini from Italy. Luigi and me first met at Tai Chi Caledonia 2008 where we both were teaching. We soon hit it off, and after sharing ideas and some other essential scottish stuff i got the feeling that we would have more to do with each other in the future.
I invited him to the European Championships in november 2008, and he came and did a good job judging and as one of thr main persons in the technical committe. Sometimes in your life you make connections that seem to start off from somewhere else, like you already know each other. That´s how i felt about Luigi.
Luigi has a lot of experience from different kinds of martial arts - chinese & philippino - throughout the years, but is rooted in the traditions of Bagua Zhang - in a very practical way. I can clearly see resemblences of other Malaysian/Chinese systems like Kun Tao, especially the lineage of Willem de Thouars, which have been influenced by principles of Bagua Zhang.
During the weekend we covered history & theory, circle walking, single palm change, Penetrating Palm, Bagua Rou Shou, different kinds of partner work and more. The way of teaching is very down to earth and practical and reminded me of other types of training i´ve been through. Alot of good points on mindset using the different animals of Bagua. At times training were a bit strenuous as all Kung training should be, fortunately the group had help from Greece keeping the mind focussed in the right direction. Although a relative small group, there were a good blend of people and styles - Saar from Yang lineage, Gunnar & Kalle from Tung-style and Martin, Leo, Dio, Lars and myself from Wudang PTCC. It can be very creative to have practitioners from different backgrounds since you get to work on new things with people who are used to execute techniques and move around in a different way than your own kind. Going outside the box at times is a must for true long term development.
Saturday evening was well spent at the towns local Italian Trattoria. My old friend Marco - who always treats us royally - looked after us very well. Nice three meal with some excellent Umbrian wine made the evening. Even up in the Northern plains i belive Luigi felt a bit like home.
As usual when you´re absorbed in practice and having a good time, time passes by very quick.
We are looking forward to the next visit from Luigi, if you want to catch him you can do so at Tai Chi Caledonia this summer.
Link to Luigis blog:
http://lzanini.blogspot.com/2009/bagua-zhang-in-svezia.html
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Paul