Hi,
is 'mocabu' an effective method of developing
fast, smooth footwork? How does it compare to bagua's footwork?
kind regards,
Mike

As I understand it, Mocabu is sort of derived from Bagua footwork but it focuses more on building qi in the legs. Sorta like in Tai Chi where you "move like you're in water", Mocabu is kind of like doing the same thing with your legs.

Mocabu (friction steps) is a traditional way of training stepping in yiquan. The very true sense of this exercise is to keep the sensation of unity -gained with zangzhuang- while moving the whole body against a target. Being slow in moving is necessary to 'try the force' (shili) or feeling if the sensation of power into the body is complete in every fraction of the movement. After some time stepping itself is useless if does not help retaining a specific sensation for a specific purpose (:using smartly gravity to hit with whole-body power).

There is moca bu as a basic training method, then shi li with steps (zou bu moca bu), fa li with steps and also some combat stepping methods (such as round step etc). But slow moca bu is root and "mother" of all another steps in yiquan. The combat stepping methods are (of course) done in rapid fashion.

Does yiquan have bagua-esque footwork?