Holding The Spear Palm of Baguazhang

Stand on the edge of the circle facing in the counterclockwise direction. Assume the Rolling the Ball Palm posture and then turn the right palm over so it is facing away from you. As you turn it over, bend the elbow so the right palm is level with the forehead.

Another way to find the right-hand palm position is to stand in the Pushing Palm posture and then raise the right hand to the forehead. The left hand remains in its Supporting Palm position. The image is that you are holding a spear between the thumb and forefinger of both hands.

Perform the Simple Change as before, but maintain the palm positions when you toe-in. The right hand will appear to move from the forehead as your torso turns. When you toe-out, move both hands in an arc so that the left hand replaces the right at the forehead, and the right extends to the center of the circle.

Holding the Spear Palm as a Mother Palm of Baguazhang

Sun Lutang made this Standing Palm the first of his animal palm changes. For Sun Lutang this palm represents the Lion and the Heaven Trigram. I did not understand its importance, until I began to study other Baguazhang schools. Some Baguazhang schools teach martial applications using a straight-line practice. In these routines, you snap the extended arm up while pushing out or down or the palm from the forehead. As a martial application, the technique is simple and must be effective considering how often it is repeated in these routines.

For our practice, we want to keep the elbow of the raised arm down. This is especially difficult after making the change. from the left facing to the right facing posture.