The Penetrating Palms was the hallmark of all Yin Style practitioners, not just the lineage of Yin Fu to Men Baozhen to Xie Peiqi to Liu Shichang/He Jinbao. Considered the forms one learned first to understand Bagua and the forms practiced last after understanding the animal systems, they are the pure bagua. They reflect the individual’s ability to both reflect all of the trigrams and none of the trigrams at the same time. It is from practicing Penetrating Palms that the concepts of The Eight Mother Palms and the Eight Great Palms evolved in other lineages.

Born in 1928, Liu Shichang is Dr. Xie Peiqi’s oldest surviving disciple who began training with him in 1958. Unlike He Jinbao, whose tremendous age difference with Dr. Xie created a different relationship dynamic, Liu Shichang was a contemporary and close friend of the doctor’s. They trained together and lived the difficult history of the late 50’s and 60’s, looking out for each other. His words and fighting skills are an intriguing glimpse into how Dr. Xie spoke about and taught Bagua in his middle years. Liu Shichang was his favorite disciple and the first to seek out challenge matches with every system possible to test his Bagua skills. A truly incredible human who since beginning his study of Bagua 45 years ago has never missed a day of practice.

This 4 DVD set takes the viewer from foundation practices to the forms, providing theory and application at each step of the way. Liu Shichang discusses what he feels is critical to developing power and fighting skill so the Penetrating Palm forms are not ‘hollow’ or empty moves. He demonstrates kicking drills and applications; striking drills and applications; forms and applications drawn from Lion, Phoenix, and Dragon; and shows how to train the Penetrating Palms from the Upper and Lower Palm postures of Yin Style Bagua. He also discusses Bagua’s history, famous practitioners, his own path to this system, and Bagua’s critical theory for new practitioners. The series includes 24 Penetrating Palm forms and their applications drawn from the Dragon, Lion and Phoenix systems.

Filmed with two camera angles in a very free flow fashion, this is a gem of information for beginner and experienced practitioners alike.