No but I have twenty odd years in martial arts: Tong Bei Pigua (my main art) and Aikido (2nd Dan)
Its important to remember Bagua is a strategy rather than an art. (Hence so many styles of Bagua) An art based on the circle using some very advanced footwork. Against a skilled/experienced opponent, few that I have seen can do Bagua martially…
With the current MMA craze, arts such as Bagua are misunderstood.
A lot of arts base their strategy off of the manipulation of the opponent’s tempo in a fight. Bagua, from what I know is one of them. (as is Aikido) These arts study applications based on exploiting the opponent when his tempo is out of whack.. Throws are momentum based ( I.e. they require the opponent to be moving instead of your standard Judo type throws (which are sophisticated in themselves but are more "tempo stationary" in application ) Striking attacks ( palm, punch or kick etc etc…) in these arts entail the opponent moving into the attack or the opposite direction for maximum shearing/whiplash effect.
The real Gung Fu (high achievement) of these arts is learning all the incidentals that pull off the desired effect of tempo manipulation. An example, using a punch kick combination to produce a set up for a joint lock or momentum throw …this might entail dancing on the edge of the opponents bubble and constantly retrograding till he responses to a fake, moves the wrong way, telegraphs an attack etc etc….
Most learn Bagua techniques, few learn the strategy (its like knowing how the chess pieces move but not mastering the strategy of chess…) These arts are not really conducive to sport fighting (as are a lot of traditional arts).
Who wants to pay money to see a guy continually back up, move side to side, disengage then reengaged only to do it all over and over again if he hasn’t achieved the desired effect? Most MMA organizations have rules against avoiding contact (not coming forward to press the attack etc...)
The world is not a cage…..A fight is not a race, what matters is to be “metaphysically small” to circumvent the opponents applications and to be the last one standing. Not to say sport fighting isn't great. I love it. MMA has also defined a lot of martial truths in what is effective and what isn't. Watch the better MMA fighters, they manipulate thier opponents tempo big time...just in a different manner than a person doing Aikido or Bagua would do because they use different applications
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