PiGuaQuan 劈掛拳 (Chop-Hanging Fist) is a Northern Chinese martial art originating in Cangzhou some time before the 19th century. A civilian rather than military art, PiGua is known for its wild, unpredictable movements and dynamic power, and until the 20th century wasn’t formally systematized or catalogued. In 1928 Guo Chengsheng and Ma Tingyi met at a national tournament and set out to combine their knowledge of martial arts, including Pigua and a related style called TongBeiQuan (Spreading Power From the Back Boxing) to create the modern incarnation of PiGuaQuan. Due to its nature and history, many styles of Pigua exist today. 

PiGua emphasizes a reaching, stretching quality to its techniques, characterized by a graceful but intense opening and closing of the chest and rotation of the hips. The flavor of PiGua is characterized by extremely flexible and exaggerated movements which gain power and unpredictability as one becomes more relaxed and carefree. Its style is often described as lighting traveling through storm clouds, seemingly wild but with immense energy, until it strikes the Earth.

The style of PiGua taught at Flying Tortoise is called XuanLong 玄龙拳 (Black Dragon), ia hybrid approach to that combines PiGua with internal mechanics from XingYiQuan 形意拳 (Form-Intention Fist), BaGuaZhang 八卦掌 (8 Trigrams Palm), as well as acrobatic kicking techniques from the Korean styles Subak and Taekkyeon.

PiGua is suitable for any level of athleticism and experience, and is designed to be an accessible way to develop practical self-defense, agility, and dynamic flexibility.

PiGuaQuan is taught by Senna Diaz, who has practiced Subak since 1989 and PiGua and XingYi since 2003.

•     Tuesday: 7-8:30pm

•     Saturday 12:45-1:45pm