This is still the classical circular form, but done in it's most martial way, The Big Dragon. Not to be confused with the Dragon Bagua Animal form. The circular form is often referred to as the Dragon, since it's the main form in Bagua, it includes elements of all the animals. Dragon in this case means the main one, or the mother form. Most people will know about Dragon Prawn Boxing, in this case Dragon means big. I know it's confusing but it is what it is. So The Big Dragon, how is it different from the normal way of doing the form? It's not just about doing the postures with Fa-jing, it's much more than that. The Big Dragon takes the movements and puts aside the stretching and the extreme twisting, since you cannot issue full force through the body when a joint is at it's full range of motion. For example, you know how when the form is being taught, we often say things like, "The posture is done this way to enhance the health benefits, creating more twist and stretch, or doing seemingly silly one legged holding to work on balance, but you would never do it like this in a fight" So the big dragon shows you the "how it's done in a fight" way of doing the form. This does not mean that every posture would be a practical street fighting application, it's still a form, some of the moves are still to complicated to work in a fight. However, they are performed with great power and explosivity, giving you the most real understanding of the form. For me this is not my preferred way of doing the whole form, but I have learnt so much from doing it this way. For example, in the second palm change, you no longer learn right back and stretch your arm way up over your head, you now actually do the neck break. In the fourth we don't just do Duck Lands on Water as a smooth flowing stretch, it's now done as a throw over your hips. In the seventh, the final move is not just a flowing, spinning, balance and coordination movement, you now have to put power and speed in all 6 strikes. For me personally, I have loved doing the postures in this way, it opened up my own understanding of the form. Now even if I do the more normal way, with the big stretches etc, there is more internal power happening underneath it all. In order to be ready for this form, you need to have a good understanding of Fa-jing, as well as having learnt the advanced Bagua Circular. The movements are done fully explosively and in their most martial application, but also very large frame. The large frame is better for learning where the power is in a movement, plus also sometime large frame is needed. The small frame is what we call the Little Dragon. This is the same concept as the big dragon, but everything shrinks, the applications change, it's becomes a lot more practical in it's application. This will be coming out soon.
