A COMPARISON OF THE GROUND REACTION FORCES DURING BAGUAZHANG STYLE TANGNIBU AND HEEL-TOE WALKING, WITH NORMAL WALKING by Andrea Falk This study examines the pattern of ground reaction forces (Fx, Fy, Fz) during two types of bagua zhang walking, the traditional ‘tangnibu’ and the heel-toe roll walk, and compares them with normal fast walking. Baugazhang is a relatively young style of wushu, with its origins in Beijing in the mid-19th century. Due to the manner in which it was originally taught, there are a great variety of branches throughout China. Although the techniques differ widely, the gsit used by the various branches cen generally be broken down into two types - tangnibu ¢ mud wading: flat lift and touch down) and heel-toe roll landing. Tengnibu is further categorized into 8 sliding step or placing step, both being practised in high, middle or low position. The tangnibu chosen for this study is a mid- height sliding step, typical of the Beijing branch. The heel-toe gait used was 6lso mid-height. Much has been written on the tangnibu gait, but no research to my knowledge has focussed on whet forces ere involved in the gait or what is actually ‘occuring in the body. As 4 traditional style, much effort is put into training tengnibu, but little thought is put into why it must be performed in such @ manner. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of this restrictive walking style on ground reaction forces, es a first step in understanding the forces involved during the gait. Since little or no previous research was evailable, 8 certain amount of comparison was carried out to a normal fast walk. The Chinese Sports Commission Wushu competitiion regulations state: “Walking (tangnibu): both legs ere bent. As the inside foot advences, the v-toes point forward or slightly turned out (tr.note: bagua is performed in @ Circular walk, turning out the inside foot turns it to 8 line tangental to thecircle circumference), the toes grip the ground; the outside leg should pass Close by the inside foot and advance with the toes pointing in (tr. rote: Placing the foot on a line tangental to the circumference of the circle). Both fest lift and land flat, and the footwork should be light, agile, settled and steady. The body may not lift, drop, or sway to the front, back or sides.” Mehodology Recordings of the three main orthogonal ground reaction forces (Fx, Fy, Fz) were taken from one subject, who was proficient in performing tangnibu, as she walked at 6 self-selected pace and stepped on a Kistler multi- component porce platform. The force platform was interfaced with a Data General Model 20 desktop computer through 12-bit analog-to-digital converter. Using program ADFP, five trials were collected from each walking style. The variables measured in this study included the ground reaction forces and impulses acting on the left leg during its ground contact phase. Measurements were obtained for mean walking velocity, stride retes and stride lengths. The ground reaction forces of main interest were vertical and antero-posterior forces for the major landmarks of left foot touch down, support phase and push off. Results and Conclusions As would be expected, the three gaits- tangnibu, bagus heel-toe and normal fast walking- showed noticebably different ground reaction forces. Tangnibu showed a generally similar pattern to normal walking, though with distinct differences: ~The braking phase of the antero-posterior direction was longer end showed less.peak force, while the propulsive phase was shorter with greater peak force,‘with’stable overall velocity, than a normal fast walk. This suggests 8 walking style which gives with landing and pushes on take off,-A distinct delay in force reaction was evident in the first part of the ‘stance in both the horizontal and vertical directions. This reflects the forward slide of the leading foot. -The peak vertical forces were lesser than the normal and competition walks, and showed less unweighting than the normal walk, reflecting 6 walking style which maintains a relatively steady centre of gravity. These characteristics together reflect a style of walking which eases into touch down, keeping the centre of gravity back until it is eble to be driven forwerd horizontally. The centre of gravity is kept steady then driven forward, with most of the energy going into the horizontal plane rather than the vertical. The bagus heel-toe showed quite a different pattern to a normal walk: ~An uneven weight acceptance pattern over the first half of the stance was shown, going in both positive and negative directions, with little overall braking in the antero-posterior direction. -The propulsive antero-posterior force curve was flatter and smaller than both tengnibu and normal welking, although the overall velocity was higher. -There was basically only one vertical peak, coming towards the propulsive phase, which was almost as high as the normal fast welk. -Little unweighting was evident, and that showed en abnormal pattern. These characteristics reflect walking style which maintains a high speed through steady state movement, keeping forces in both vertical and horizontal plenes down to a minimum. In general, the claims of the traditional teachings are in line with whet was seen in this study. Tangnibu seems to be a walking gait which drives the force more directly forward on the antero-posterior plene than does a normal walk. The heel-toe walk seems to lose some power vertically on the forwerd thrust, but generally maintains high speed with little force applied.Tangnibu is a strength training method cleverly disguised es a basic technique. Within the style, as within xingyiquan, a style which ‘shares meny concepts with baguazhanag (and, not coincidentally, a similar training walk), attack is achieved by driving from the legs, bringing the power from the ground to the hands. Tangnibu is a method of strengthening the legs for the purpose of the driving forward thrust of this strike, without the stress of continually performing the strike. As a strength/power training technique, it trains the legs for that specific flexion-extension - which cannot be duplicated by jumping, squats, or stence training. | will call this technique “horizontal loading”. Any change in the performance specifications, such ss landing on the the heel first, unweighting at midstance, not sliding the foot, or not pushing hard, will dissipate this training effect. As this force study has shown, landing heel first results in little braking - negating the eccentric loading effect; unweighting midstance dissipates this loading, causing too long a pause between eccentric and concentric contraction, and causing the force to then be applied verticelly; not pushing out of midstance to drive the foot forward does achieve full concentric contraction of the muscles involved. Tangnibu is practised in a continuous manner, walking in @ circle between techniques. It is more, however, than a laborious way to link the moves. It is a training method of strengthening the legs which is movement pattern specific, velocity specific, contraction type and contraction force specific to the striking method used in the style. The heel-toe welk, although seeming similar in result, lacks these specific training effects. In fighting, the player may switch to the heel-toe walk as a more agile means of moving, but this does not negate the value of the tangnibu training. If the goal of training were really just to walk eround in circles, tengnibu would not be necessary. Since this in not the goal, but the means by which the goal of powerful “tiger-spring” legs is achieved, tangnibu must remain at the Core of training for bagua players.Figuge 1A. ENSEMBLE AVERAGED bone 908 _ 80a 1 788 4 680 580 g 3 eo 98 — » S 8 FORCE ATRAD 2 8 =| -308 ee as =. 8 s 1a 1S 20 2 % STANCE/ DURATION Cron 96 Foe TAN NV BoFigure ic. 300 FORCE NORMAL -328 ENSEMBLE AVERAGER BROYND REACTION Ss 19 15 28 25 % STANCE DURATION Fukces NeRmac FAST wldFIGURE 42 tennibu KS RSS SSI normal fast ROSS SS SWOLLEN BRAKING AND PROPULSIVE TIMES AS % FOOT CONTACT TIMEFIGURE 3 normal fast of gaits ae ——— bague heel-toe tennibu ore-aft and vertical forces mean maximum feLLL NS. ZZ Mg LLL SS” en MMA SS yy; TANNIBU BAGUA HEEL-TOE yy: FIGURE6 = PEAK GROUND REACTION FORCES DURING THE BREAKING AND PROPULSIVE PERIODS