Think of the lion as the Chinese see it to practise it correctly. It is always playing with a ball in statues and in the lion dance.
Circle-walking in the lion model trains the ability to
connect the body through vertical lines while keeping uprightness and balance,
to prepare for the ability to 'move the ball'. All techniques growing from the
lion will be like rolling, trundling, or tossing large or small balls. The
basic walk is called 'lion opens its mouth wide', so you also want to think of
swallowing your opponent whole. On the external level it develops the upper
back, shoulders and upper arms. Someone weak in the upper arms and shoulders should do the lion to develop them. The lion form moves very smoothly into a chuanzhang or tanzhang attack.
Lion circle-walking
Hold the lower arm at about
shoulder height, palm up. Hold the upper hand as if holding a large ball in
front of the body. Don’t get carried away with the ‘ball’, though – don’t turn
the upper palm down. The palm is turned away, prepared for a variety of
techniques. Pull the shoulders down like in yazhang, so that when you roll, the power starts on that side similar to a yazhang. Compress the body but keep the arms open. Keep the ox-tongue palm shape.