Liu He Ba Fa?

Question

Can someone tell me about this art, like its stance, moves, and most of the things you know about it.

Answer 1

Sounds like a Yoga or Kung Fu stuff. =]

Answer 2

This style is sometimes called "water boxing" or "water style"

"Liu he ba fa"  is Chinese.  

It is usually translated as "Six harmonies, eight methods"

It looks very much like a style of taichi with a fancy new name.  It's usually practiced by people who also study taichi, bagua, etc.

It's less well know than taijichuan (taichi), and taichi teachers often drool about like it's a special, rare martial art.  It may be a little prettier than some other taijichuan styles. But as a fighting style, it differs very little from taijichuan.  

You can see some very beautiful liuhebafa demonstrated by Liang shouyu and his daughter in Vancouver, BC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFnTi8bxA...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-YyKp_fR...

His website:

http://www.shouyuliang.com

"Six harmonies" sometimes refers to the six joints that work together pushing energy from the ground into your sandbag, wooden dummy, or mother-in-law:

ankle, knee, hip, shoulder, elbow, wrist.

Meaning power generated by pushing against the ground must travel through these six points "harmoniously" before being expressed out through the fist (or open hand).

I have heard the term "Eight methods" in Taichi, describing different ways of expressing power:

I think they are something like this:

pong  lu  ji  an  tsai  nie  zhou  kao

an example of these:

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=KDUM434gN5...

Of course, the wikipedia posting has a completely different explanation of what "six harmonies" and "eight methods" represent, but I when I read their explanation it sounded like some Chinese master talking out of their a**. (they do that a lot)

Read about history Liuhebafa on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_He_Ba_F...

Answer 3

It is a system from Chinese Kung Fu and is also known as Water Boxing. It is an internal Taoist art which has similarities to similar styles such as Tai Chi, Ba Gua, etc

There are Six Harmonies

1) body and mind

2) mind and intent

3) intent and chi

4) chi and spirit

5) spirit and movement

6) movement and emptiness

My own style (Lau Gar) is a hard, external style but on of the forms it called "Lau Family Fist of Six Harmonies" which has obvious connections to this style.

In short, it will be a "soft" flowing style, you will learn inner power, co-ordination, etc before you learn the hard, forceful applications.