Fishes in Eight

Fishes in Eight is a movement that sits between Grasp Bird’s Tail and Single Whip in the Yang Cheng Fu Long Form. Fishes in Eight doesn’t always appear in lists of the Yang Cheng Fu Long Form movements. Many practitioners consider it to be a transitional movement that simply gets you from Grasp Birds Tail to Single Whip.

Fu Zhongwen in his classic book ‘Mastering Yang Style Taijiquan’ doesn’t list Fishes in Eight as a separate movement but he dedictes two whole pages to describing the movements and this indicatres how important it is.

Look at modern demonstrations of the Yang Cheng Fu Long Form and you’ll see that the Fishes in Eight movements are being lost, and a more simple transition between Grasp Bird’s Tail and Single Whip is now common. This is even more true of simplified Tai Chi forms, where Fishes in Eight has disappeared altogether. Perhaps this is as a result of the movement not being included in the list of form movements.

Personally, I choose to give Fishes in Eight its proper place. My reasons are that it is quite complex and naming it as a separate movement focuses the student on learning the movements correctly. Furthermore, there are a whole host of martial / self-defence applications for Fishes in Eight that are quite distinct from Single Whip or Grasp Bird’s Tail applications.

Fishes in Eight Demonstration - Basic / Beginner Level