This book contains some history, 8 palm changes of Wang Shu Jin's Baguazhang (presented by Mr. Pittman) and a little discussion on philosophy of art.

At first - this is not book for beginner who do not know the body mechanics of Bagua.

At second - there is nothing written about Bagua fighting. There are no applications of palm changes, nor combat principles of Bagua. IMO, this is the great disadvantage of the book.

But this book is not as bad as it seems for the firs view - it contains several training tips which could help you in understanding of Bagua.

Finally - there are better books on this subject, but also worst. My advice is: do not buy this book unless you are very interested on Wang Shu Jin's form.

Smith and Pittman have done a wonderful job in condensing vast knowledge in a short,concise and easy to refer book.Diligent practise of the presented forms answers many questions and insights which continue from where the text has left off,a natural way to learn and comprehend any Neijia system(from an eastern teaching point of veiw).It will not be helpful however to someone who is used to being "spoon-fed".Practise correctly and diligently and the system will reveal itself to you.

Robert Smith, in 94 pages, introduces us to philosophy, lineage, concepts and the internal power of bagua masters. There are no martial applications described in the book but there is an excellent presentation of a standard intermediate bagua form set. This type of set is usually done after learning to walk the circle with the eight mother palms. This book recommends walking the circle using the basic dragon palms.

This book is an easy, economical way to begin an exploration of Pagua without being ovewhelmed. It should be in everyone's Pakua library.

I enjoyed some of the writing vignettes, other than that, ya stretch, ya breathe, ya throw some punches. Nice.
If your only gonna buy one martial arts type book, buy another one.

A straight-forward guide, it provides coverage of the five elements and the twelve animals of Hsing-I and should be useful to beginners. Heaven knows, my copy has been well-used. The illustrations and descriptions of the movements are fairly easy to follow. It's not an in-depth coverage and does not claim to be, but it does present the basics and touches a bit on the history and philosophy behind the art.

Allen Pittman and Rober Smith offer a simple, insightful introduction to the internal art of Hsing-I Chuan. A short history and some general guidelines are followed by a complete forms section including 5 Elements and 12 Animals sets. The book is not meant to be comprehensive, and it achieves its goal of giving the reader a real sense of what the art is about. The only down side is in comparison to Robert Smith's orignial Hsing-I book, this one comes out a bit the lesser. It is missing the pictures of the old masters, and their chapter of invaluable advice. It is also missing the two-man exercises and applications. Hsing-I players will want to have this book, however, as it gives a valuable reference in terms of forms comparison, and offers some valuable advice on the goals of practice. The final piece of which is :"Therefore, in order to best perfect your Hsing-I skills, always work hard and remain humble."