The eighteen steps, also known as Shaolin boxing, are the basic exercises of Pakua.   By themselves, these postures stand as a complete martial art, effective against all styles.  All Pa Kua practitioners must learn the eighteen steps before they choose between the circular style or the synthetic style of Sun.   Nobody likes the eighteen steps because it is looping, most humans prefer the parry and punch of Tai Chi or the consecutive step attack of Hsing-I.   The question this author asks is why the most complete and economical system in Chinese boxing is relegated to an esoteric antiquity suitable only for old people.   Is it because only old people get into a fight over money or women? 

The movements of the eighteen steps mimic the movements of insects.   Insects are the most efficient and effective predators and this author delineates why.   The eighteen steps are the static movements of the preying mantis, the grasshopper, and the assassin beetle.  A small insect will play dead or instantly converge and throw circular movements at its adversary,  at something it eats, or battles for a meal.   For the rest of us, human beings, a circle is a long way to get to a straight line, but if an intrepid soul practices the art for twenty years or longer, the circles become faster and eventually approach the speed of a straight line, this fact is easier said than done and most people will not continue the silliness.   The reason the circle is so effective is that a circle produces a strike three times more powerful than a linear blow.  If F=MA, then F= mv squared/r in a circle or stretched out to a Newtonian vector, F=3.14MA.    A circular punch is three times more powerful than a linear strike if the practitioner can swing it very fast.   A bug attacking prey scurries with weight distributed 50/50 into striking range and then throws punches.   The punches happen from horizontal and vertical positions and if done rapidly, are hard to block.  An insect will scurry into position, throw hooks, overhand rights, and hookercuts, until the prey can’t defend itself and the insect begins to eat.

In comparison, the style is like the white crane, flying, bumping, and bending the bow.  Or like phoenix-style Tai Chi, with piercing, flapping, and flying.  However, it is more.  The eighteen steps include three postures of short boxing also known as fighting in the clinch, and a form of circular jiu jitsu that enables practitioners to escape grasps and crane kicks.    The final movement is a kick, called the scooping foot which resembles Thailand boxing in that a person uses a kick to the lower leg when nothing else works.   In Chinese boxing, kicking is denigrated because a big football player will tackle a victim and start punching.  When a person stands on one foot, they are unstable and easily taken down, and this is exactly what grapplers do best.   Never kick a grappler.   If anyone ever has been tackled and taken down and terrorized, they know exactly what I mean.   So let us begin.  Remember everything except the spear hand and the double impact punch moves in a circle. 

1. Deflection attack

This is the defense and attack of the preying mantis.  With the hands up like a mantis a person will hammer fist with the same side a hook strikes.   The Chinese believe that defending a hook opens up an opponent on that side.   The deflection attack can also be used as a double hammer fist to the face of an opponent.

• Double duty hand

This and this alone is the signature movement of Pa Kua.   A person strikes with a hand and when finished uses the same hand to deliver a horizontal back fist to the face.  Classically, a fighter throws an overhand right like brush knee and press in Tai Chi but then loops the hand to the face afterward.   The student can do this with an open hand or closed fist.  Done quickly, this movement looks like two circles in a figure eight.   A student practices this movement until it is lightning quick and when it is, the opponent will never see the back fist come from the side to the face.    The double duty hand is the basis for Pa Kua and all its strikes and maneuvers. 

• The spear hand

The spear hand is the same as drilling in Hsing-I or step up and punch in Tai Chi.  It is known in boxing circles as the one-two.   With the hands up like a mantis in front of the face, a boxer spears outward in two fist bursts.

• The double impact punch.

This movement replicates crushing in Hsing-I or press down, parry, and punch in Tai-chi.  Using the standing fist a person with their torso strikes the midsection in half horse and articulates the thumb downward, creating a double impact.   This movement is designed to beat the midsection of the opponent like a drum.

• Knuckle punch

This is the straight right hand with an upward block against the overhand right.  This is the same as fan penetrate back in tai chi and in Pa Kua it is to the midsection, the punch can also be directed at the head

• Sword hand

This is the second major movement of the eighteen steps.  Moving your hand like a sword, open or closed in a sweeping fashion, or with both hands like a two-handed hook or reverse flying like white crane or crossing in Hsing I or slanting flight in Tai chi.  However a sword moves, this is the way the hand moves also.   This can be with one hand or two, one at a time, or two together like two hands cutting.   Remember always the circle.

• Circle and reverse press

With your hand make a big circle with a fist, scooping upward just like the hooker cut.   This movement works great when your hands are high in the spear hand and you continue the circle and punch them in the groin

These eight movements are the ones a practitioner uses in a boxing match. They are the eight diagrams.   Next, come the four short boxing techniques

•  Circle and inverse press.

Move an arm in a huge circle to the left and push downward to the right and vice versa. The purpose of this movement is a strike where no room or leverage is possible.   This concept is hard for the Western mind to comprehend.  When a boxer has a hand on your clothes and wants to punch you in the side of the head, circle the arm as fast as possible and impact the groin.   This is a punch given where no leverage or strength is possible. 

• Pecking.

When an opponent grabs your collar to prepare a judo throw or wrestling takedown, with your hands shaped like a beak, a fighter gouges their eyes

1. Folding elbow

This is the famous Gracie jiu-jitsu elbow strike.  With thumbs down, fold to the elbow and swing the elbow like a hook.  When an opponent holds the boxer in a two-leg takedown, fold the elbow and pummel the face.

1. Uppercut.

This movement made Rocky Marciano famous.   When an opponent clinches with over-the-shoulder hooks, a boxer punches straight upwards with the fist till he or she connects.  A boxer can also make room with the folding elbow and then punch upwards with the uppercut

1. Reverse the attack

When an opponent shoots in a two-leg take-down, a boxer squats deeply in horse and swings across with a right cross from either side.   When the opponent transitions to a back clinch, a boxer twists to face them then slaps downward with the open hand.   This is the only decent defense a boxer has for the front two-leg shoot. 

1. Clamping

In horse stance, a boxer swings his arms in a big circle counterclockwise with the right hand. This finesse move is best used by an expert.  Making a big circle, he or she can deflect any strike to the midsection, a grab, or a side thrust kick and move the energy outside of the circle.   At this point, after the deflection, the boxer attacks with, a spear hand, sword hand, or big chopping.   The open hand can also be used as a slapping hook to the face like hands build clouds in Tai Chi.

1. Reverse Clamping

Swinging the arm in the exact opposite rotation, in a horse stance, a boxer can block a crane kick to the face or trap a Thai kick to the knee.  Reverse clamping and clamping are a movement a boxer usually discards as looping and slow, or esoteric.   However, when insects meet to fight to the death, they circle their arms as they close and do it religiously. Circling helps them evade the grasp.

1. Cross and Push.

This is the attempt by the boxer to evade a straight arm rush and grab by an opponent so they can infight or take the fight to the ground.  Circle the arm in an inward arc and squat down as you swing.   This movement breaks the grasp.  Then push forward forcefully with both arms in a two-handed strike to the midsection.  This is almost the same as the expansive push in Tai Chi Chuan. 

1. Big Chopping

The ancients leave this movement to last.   Maybe the huge overhand right or left is too slow to be useful in a boxing match.   Maybe it is used like the assassin beetle, to attack a huge grappler.

Pronate one arm and swing the member in a huge circle to impact somewhere in the head.   Fan penetrate back is designed to block this movement, but if it hits, you have won decisively.

1. Scooping foot

This is the only foot movement in the eighteen steps.  A practitioner swings his leg low like a karate roundhouse kick in an attempt to hurt the knee joint or from an oblique angle to take the opponent to the ground.   When the opponent is a Hapkido boxer, or Okinawan karate boxer, or drunken master, and dancing around, kick the leg to make him or her honest.  

1. Corkscrew Punch

This is the movement everyone hates.   No one uses it.   It is the attacking system of Shaolin boxing.   When you scurry up to meet a grappler, a boxer swings the corkscrew punch because it is hard to defend or block it.   This movement doesn’t work against the one-two punch of a prizefighter.   When a boxer confronts a grappler who presents with their hands down, he or she lunges forward with the corkscrew punch and when it connects, swings big chopping to the head.  The corkscrew punch moves like the threads of a screw.   Start with a big circle moving inward, constrict the circle as the fist moves, and punch out to the midsection.  At this junction, a boxer can swing the sword hand or big chopping against a grappler.

This is it.   Practice the eighteen exercises wherever a person goes, in the morning, on trips, by yourself at night.  This exercise will lengthen your life, add vital health, and yield a panacea for boredom that forever dogs your days.  The internal systems are an exercise to promote health foster coordination and increase your lifespan.   If a person wants to fight, go to a boxing gym and show them how tough you are.  

Dr. Lector looks up from the huge brown oak desk in the book-infested office.

Good morning Dr. Wracker, did you have your cup of coffee?

Yes I did Dr. Lector, and a cigarette

You cannot smoke in here, I don’t smoke, it is unhealthful.

A cup and a smoke keep me going for at least four hours, says Wracks

Very Well says Dr. Lector.  I have a new patient for you today.  He is the one who broke the nose of the director of this facility.  He has popsicle sticks protruding from his nose and is on sabbatical. You will inherit his patients for the eight weeks you are here.

I understand Dr. Lector, says the Wracks.

Remember to not let him get closer than arm’s length to you.  He has a mean back fist that moves extremely fast.  It seems he is a Vietnam veteran who is thrown to the front line in all defenses and he doesn’t want to do it anymore.  He wears a dress and tells his commanding officer that he wants to marry him.  Remember what I told you about inappropriate comments?  He is lightning-quick. The board thinks he is an undifferentiated schizophrenic and they want to know what you think of him.  Keep good notes and put them in the slot at the door of my office at the end of the day. Take some time now to compose yourself.  Your interview begins in fifteen minutes.  He is waiting for you.

Dr. Wracker gets up from the leather upholstered hardwood antique chair and exits out the door.  He doesn’t know why it seems dark in Dr. Lector’s office.  Maybe he likes it that way.  He proceeds down the hall to the main interview room, takes his key from his neck, opens the door, and puts the key back onto his neck.   Inside behind an interview table like the kind they use at police stations is a slight, black man, almost six feet in height with slightly pale skin.  The Wracks upon sitting down across from the patient make a note to evaluate the subject for sickle cell disease, trait, and SC variant.  For some reason, the man seems to vibrate at a high frequency but does not move a muscle, gesture, or smile.   He wears a floral blouse and a long blue dress with knee-high stockings like the kind the girls wear in high school.  He wears high-heeled shoes like Dorothy did in the movie The Wizard of Oz.  He sits with his legs crossed without a smile. 

Dr. Wracker says, Good morning, I am a board-certified physician and here to see you today. May I interview you?   Could you tell me about yourself?

Silence, then a wan smile. 

I hear you are a veteran with several tours in Vietnam.   Is this true?

The patient flashes a wan smile.

Do you have a name I can refer to you, sergeant? 

Yes, call me Ann.

Ann, when did you start wearing a dress, asks Dr. Wracks.

Ann leans forward and Dr. Wracker is ready to bolt for the door.

I am tired of fighting says Ann

All the people in this facility are tired of fighting and the Veterans sends all its good people here to get treated.  Dr. Wracker turns slightly and makes sure his path to the door is unobstructed.   He touches the key slung around his neck.   The soldier with tight kinky hair cut short bends his arms and sets his head upon his hands.  His gold earrings look cute and quaint, and his eyes are clear. But his cheeks have multiple freckles upon them which might indicate substance abuse. The incessant fine tremor might herald amphetamine intoxication as the soldiers in Vietnam often were killed in their sleep, so they would take uppers to stay awake. 

Can I have a cigarette asks Ann.

Yes, you can says the Wracks.   I will put it on the table for you.  Ann slowly reaches for the cigarette and inserts the same in his mouth

Will you light it for me asks Ann.

No, I can’t says Dr. Wracker.   The staff are not allowed to participate in games or physical contact with the patients.   Can I slide it to you?

Yes says Ann.  He takes the Bic clic lighter, turns the striker a couple of times, and then lights his cigarette.  He then blows some smoke directly at Dr. Wracker and pushes the lighter back to him.

I hope you enjoy Marlboro Red says Dr. Wracker.   They are my preferred brand. 

Ann smiles and his dark, dark eyes penetrate through Dr. Wracker.

I think the interview is complete says Dr. Wracker.   Is your medication giving you any bad effects?   I see it is haloperidol 5 milligrams twice daily.

Ann smiles and his teeth are capped with gold.

I am going to leave now, says Dr. Wracker.  I will be here for eight weeks and monitor your medication.  I will be circulating the ward.  If you have any questions, tell the charge nurse and he or she will contact me.  Thank you very much for your time.  Have a good day.  Dr. Wracker rises slowly, inserts the key in the lock, turns it, slides out, and pushes the door close.  He thinks to himself that he is getting good at this.

In his notes to Dr. Lector, the Wracks writes:  patient gaunt but well nourished.  Possible amphetamine intoxication with schizophrenic reaction.   Ectomorphic habitus, at this time undifferentiated symptoms with possible progression to paranoid status.  Doing well on haloperidol with no Parkinsonian reaction, suggested continued maintenance on antipsychotics with assay of blood for BUN and creatinine to indicate possible renal failure and symptomatology. Dr. Wracks takes the chart and his notes and slides them into the slot for Dr. Lector to peruse.   He then moves to the canteen where the inmates concentrate, sit, observe, and absorb, the situation of chronic mental patients.  He sits with his back against the wall, with the door in plain view, and does not smoke eat read, or create motion in any way.  The inmates watch a large color TV with the latest movies and run around, gesticulate, and waste time.  These people are veterans or the very upper class and they get the finest of medical treatment as they truly deserve.  The poor get lithium.

It is late now, and this is long ago and stored in the temporal lobe as engrams soon to be erased.  It is winter now and the rains come, and the clouds move and everything is grey except for the light in the Wracks’ room.   The Wracks sits and remembers his life and watches a large QLED with a Windows PC attached to an HDMI cable.  The clock stations on the wall to his right with an unused desk cluttered with debris and the Wracks asks himself this question: Could this man ever be president of the United States? The day moves on and the night slowly, surely, emphatically closes in.

Good morning says Dr. Lector.   The chief of the department is on sabbatical because one of the patients broke his nose in two places.  Refrain from speaking freely in the company of chronic schizophrenics.  Dr. Wracker, you will help me take up the slack while he is gone. 

What about the other interns that came in with me, says Dr. Wracker?    There are about five others.

They will work in outpatient psych where they can do the least amount of damage.  Admitted patients will be triaged by you says Dr. Lector.

What should I do asks Dr. Wracker.

your dossier says you are a board-qualified physician.  You are , aren’t you?

I guess I am Pines Dr.  Wracker.  I guess I am a little too young

A football player is being admitted for attempted murder.  He is well resourced and his lawyer entrusts him to our care.   He is very valuable to his team.  It seems that one of his family crossed him the wrong way and he threw him through a window five stories up.   That family member is in critical condition and hanging on to life.  His lawyer wants us to stabilize him until he can be returned to his team.  Please do not try and upset him and you will soon know why.   Enjoy your day.  I have many things to do.   I will see you tomorrow morning for rounds.

Dr. Lector appears of average height and a slight build and dresses in a suit and tie underneath his lab coat.  He sports dark black hair, possibly dyed, and a mustache and goatee to disguise his looks.  His office is a spacious affair with a big hardwood desk a single chair and multitudes of books shelved all around in every direction.  For some reason, the office seems dark even with the light on.  Dr. Lector moves silently and he appears and disappears without warning.  The Wracks think there must be secret passageways at this veteran’s facility which became reality about the time of the Civil War.  In the nineteenth century, the people built passageways in their large edifices and the White House had them too but few know where they are.   The Wracks takes his notepad, his black pen, and his key which hangs around his neck.  Dr. Lector instructs to never take off the key in the facility because it is the master key and all the locks at this Psychiatric lockup will have to be changed if it is lost. 

The interview room is a clean, well-lighted place with ample space and two doors both opposed to each other.   A large Caucasian attendant who is also a freestyle wrestler waves to the Wracks.  He is informed of the new help.  Very few people have the size, strength, and dedication to work in a facility like this one and they are in short supply.  A large black man sits behind a large Formica table with a lunch chair and it looks like a toy compared to his stature.  Mean Joe is at least six feet four inches high and almost that wide and all muscles.  He wears a football jersey shirt and denim jeans with Adidas basketball sneakers in an extended size.   His eyes are open and orange and the mucosa sags and the Wracks makes a note in his clipboard to have the indirect bilirubin, direct bilirubin, and transaminases assayed.  This might be a resultant of the medication or chronic steroid use.  He seems alert and Dr. Wracker introduces himself.

Hello, I am Dr. Wracker.  I am an intern in Psychiatry at the Veterans and a graduate of the University Autonoma de Guadalajara.   Dr. Lector commissions me to be your doctor while you stay at the facility.  Is this all right by you?

Yes, he says, do you have an extra smoke?

Yes, I do, and a Bic lighter.  Take a cigarette and enjoy yourself.  Mean Joe extracts a Marlboro red cigarette from the pack, lights up, and passes the pack back to the Wracks.  

Mean Joe, do you know why you are here with me today at the Veterans?

Yes, I hurt someone.  I hurt them badly.

He is in the hospital and might die.  Do you understand this?

He asked for it says Joe, and he takes another puff and blows the smoke at the Wracks.

It is not legal for a person to hurt someone they do not like.   Your team wants you back badly and they accessioned the best lawyer in the city to represent you.  Do exactly what he says and nothing more. 

Will you bring me my Loxitane asks Joe.    It keeps me mellow so I don’t get angry.

The court will demand that you continue to take loxitane until the matter is resolved.  They will watch you take it.  It might make you sleepy and you will have to take it until the near future.  I will get you your loxitane and a glass of water.   I would like to see you take it.

I will says Joe. 

Thank you very much for this opportunity to interview and ascertain your mental status.  I will be here for eight weeks and circulating so If you have any questions or complaints feel free to interrupt me. 

See you Doc, says Joe.

Dr. Lector instructs the Wracks never to lose sight of the door when interviewing and if the situation starts to boil over to bolt for the door and shut it behind you.   This intern is entrusted with the master key. The holder can run to any room in the facility and lock themselves in. An acute schizophrenic changes composure without notice rapidly and a clinical physician must be aware and act accordingly. 

The main focus of a clinical Psychiatrist is to delimit the accurate diagnosis of schizophrenia so the appropriate medication can be prescribed to block the offending neuron network.  The Wracks ascribes Joe to be undifferentiated at present and a liver profile and hematology are indicated due to possible drug-induced jaundice.  This person is a chronic steroid abuser, is of immense stature, and is noted for his violent demeanor hence his famous nickname.  He is admitted until a board of physicians ascertains this patient as stable and of no potential harm to society at large.  Then he will be discharged.  The Wracks wipes the perspiration from his brow.  He is sweating.  The concentration needed to evaluate this patient takes a large amount of energy.  Now it is time for a public lunch with the crazies and a moment to observe what society impresses upon the unknowing.