I periodically walk the circle, but I am not a Baguazhang practitioner. I’ve been watching this topic with interest, because I’ve had questions for a long time.
I have been taught circle walking 3.14 times by different instructors. Each time was a little different.
The first one, I do not count for reasons I will not get into here. I didn’t learn much about bagua, but a lot about other things. The next 0.14, I actually learned quite a bit about bagua, but I was supposed to be learning about Chen Taijiquan.
Next, I had two instructors trained in the Wutan system who co-taught, so that is Yin Fu style. We did the rolling step. It wasn’t strongly heel toe. We were given the injunction to walk during our own practice sessions, and we would come back to more bagua instruction in a few months. We also had learned Du Yuzi’s Chen Taijiquan that he learned from Chen Yanxi, among other things.
A few years later, I studied Fu style Dragon Bagua briefly with Lin Weiran son of Lin Chaozhen, disciple of Fu Zhensong. We learned toe-first mud-sliding step.
The first time we met with him, I kept correcting my step according to the rules of stability from Chen Taijiquan. He would "un-correct” it, so I asked him why this stepping violated the rules of stability. When he found I had studied a Chen Yanxi form he had me demonstrate it. That elicited discussion about Fu Zhensong, who had also studied with Chan Yanxi, but decades earlier than Du.
Finally, he said, Bagua violates rules of stability because when the opponent attacks you want to be unstable, loose, and mobile, yet still connected. When you contact, the slightest touch moves you, collapses you. In that same movement, you move from unstable to stable, much like taijiquan or Xingyiquan, and often you will attack, but other options are available.
The first rule violated by most circle walking is to never place the feet in a T. These lines do not have to be perpendicular. I teach this as the “Taiji Ski Rule”. If you wearing taiji skis, it’s OK to cross the skis (paths of the feet), but you never want a ski on one foot to touch the other foot, in front or behind. This creates great instability. Try it. Stand in a T-position and have someone push on you in any direction. You’ll fall right over.
Other taijiquan rules violated are twisting the spine, allowing the wrist to cross the centerline, and allowing the palm to go above the eyebrow.
The taijiquan rules of stability are gone into more in depth here.
http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/taiji/xiaojia.html.
My question, Is the idea of walking to elicit instability just the understanding of this teacher, or is it a Fu style thing, taught in a few styles, or is this generally taught universally in Baguazhang?