Diagonal Flying in application

Diagonal Flying (or 'Flying Obliquely' as it is also known) is one of the most dramatic and visually impressive Tai Chi applications in the form, yet it is also one of the most poorly understood and poorly demonstrated apps you'll ever see.

Image via Wikipedia

It's a tricky beast to get right, requiring good control of the opponent at all times, a lightness of touch and an undertanding of the energy Leih, the "Split" energy of Tai Chi's 13 postures.

To do "Split" effectively (in a vertical aspect) you need to understand how to send 'energy' upwards, while remaining rooted and sinking in your own posture (i.e. separating Yin and Yang), but before we get into subtleties like this there are usually a few more mundane problems to deal with first. The main error with most people's presentation of Diagonal Flying is that the opponent can simply step sideways over their lead leg, with their lead leg, thus nullifying the whole technique in one easy motion. The second obvious mistake you see is that they are usually also free to elbow the practitioner in the face with their lead hand, an unfortunate truth that seems to be completely ignored by many!

Another problem with this technique is that it's so similar to another technique called Part the Wild Horse's Main, that's it's often difficult to distinguish betweeen them, and both movements are often blurred into the same thing.

Let's look at some examples, first from the Yang style of Tai Chi Chuan:

I'll take this guy from the Expert Village (let's call him "Expert Village Guy") as a typical example of the form movements.

Here's his Part Wild Hose's Mane (let's shorten this to PWHM for the rest of the article).

Here's his Diagonal Flying (we'll abbreviate this to DF from now on).

You can see that at the end of DF he's completely side on, while at the end of PWHM, he's facing forward. That's one distinction. It's almost like Ward Off, Part Wild Horse's Mane and Diagonal Flying are three expressions of the same movement done going from small (Ward off) to medium (PWHM) and finally to large (DF).

Of course, the exact way the movements are done will differ between Yang styles, and even more so between other styles of Tai Chi (such as Wu or Sun), so let's not get hung up on that for now. We're just using this as a general example, after all. For example, the descendants of Yang Cheng-Fu (Yang Jun and Yang Zhen Duo) do it like this:

They do it more like a larger, more extended PWHM but still pointing forward, without the side-on stance. If you are in their lineage then that's the definitive way to do it, if you are not, then it's not. Simple as that.

In my own Diagonal Flying we opt for the previously shown side-on position, but we don't do the 'turn the hips back' motion that Expert Village Guy is doing, and we continue the movement and drop the arm after we've extend it up (putting my money where my mouth is, there's a video of me later on in this post if you want to skip down now and take a look). 

Application, application, application.

Well, it doesn't matter much to me which particular form variation you call "Diagonal Flying", the important thing is that what you are doing works. So much for the form - so, how do you apply it?

The easiest way to do it is simply as a strike. A lot of people do this, but I think that's a total cop-out myself. For a start, it's not a great strike. Sure it would hurt getting a forearm to the face, but there are much easier ways of striking people. Also, "It's a strike" is the easiest thing to say if you don't actually know the application, can't do it, or you've never been shown it. You can apply "It's a strike" or "It's a block" to virtually ANY movement in any Tai Chi form and that makes you an instant Tai Chi master. Try it. Trust me. The middle-class housewives will look at you in awe as if you are Bruce Lee. It's true that some moves in Tai Chi forms are blocks and strikes, but DF is not one of them. Surely, it's name alone implies something more like a throw should be going on?

Here's how not to do it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGnbA10792g

You can see the problems - no control of the arm (vulnerable to being hit) and no control of the attacker (they could just step over his leg and walk away). And in any event, the guy doesn't even end up on the floor.

Then there's the, frankly, bizarre interpretations of the movement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXJB6-ONZaA

Let's not talk about that at all. Instead let's stop complaining and do something about it. Here's how I do it:

It's ok for a demo. Not amazing, but I think it shows the important aspects. He's punching me a little too slowly for my tastes, but it's hard to get people to punch you convincingly in a demo format. Maybe I should have done it out of push hands instead, or maybe from a clinch. Anyway...

It all happens quite quick in that video, so if you want to open it in QuickTime and step through the video frame by frame then here's a link to the original file:

http://www.bath-taichi.co.uk/video/diagonal.avi

In QuickTime press the forward arrow to step through frame by frame.

Things to notice:

1. First you need to control the arm at the elbow with an arm bar, so they can't a) get away, or b) hit you with it.

2. Step in deep, and side-on to the opponent.

3. Send them up (Split energy)...but don't rise up yourself, instead you need to sink your own weight downwards, otherwise it doesn't work.

4. Once you've uprooted them, and only once you've uprooted them, send them straight down into the cold, cold ground. Hard.

I like this way of doing it because the attacker lands at your feet - exactly where you want him, not pushed out, so he can just come straight back at you. You should feel like you have control of them throughout the whole movement, if you don't then do something else because it's not working. Done right it feels scary - you are literally picked up and dropped on your ass (tailbone takes the brunt of it). It should feel like you've been picked up by a wave or the wind and dumped, and there was nothing you could do about it.

I really like to spend time working on this application with people because it's one of the hardest to do right - there are so many ways it can go wrong, however, if you can persevere and get it just right then you'll learn a lot about Tai Chi - especially concepts like separating Yin and Yang, posture, co-ordination and flow.