There is a time in the study of all great systems and theories when the
student understands the ideas, but experiences them as external to herself;
and then there is a time when one internalises the ideas and principles.
They become absorbed into the psyche, a part of one's everyday
understanding. When this happens the system begins to grow and expand, as
the student applies it to other areas of life.
(Glen
Park)
No stance
If your postures feel like stances then you are way too tense.
You need to be free to move in any direction without difficulty or
hesitation.
Remain natural, free and loose at all times.
Postures are not stances.
Form
is not stance. Tai chi is not yoga.
A stance is a fixed and tai chi is too loose to be fixed.
Facing off to somebody - held in a stance - is not the tai chi way.
What will you do when a second opponent appears to your side?
Footwork and body must flow freely from counter to counter without fixity or
tension, and nothing can be held.
If you practice tai chi as though it were yoga, karate, wing chun or boxing, you will go astray.
The tai chi body shape is protean; adapting to the ongoing change of
circumstance.
Form
The main role of form
is to sculpt the body into a certain shape
as you move.
In Dynamic Balancing Tai Chi, this shape is rounded.
Every posture of the form is constructed of curves, spirals, arcs and
circles.
There are no linear movements.
This emphasis upon curvature is fundamental to the nature of tai chi.
Ball
Imagine that your body is a large ball or sphere.
The spine represents a vertical axis running through the centre of the ball.
The waist represents the
horizontal axis.
The ball can rotate in three dimensions.
Anything that impinges upon the circumference of the ball is rolled around the outside as the
sphere turns.
5 bows
We accomplish this rounded form by using bow tension.
The arms are two bows, the legs two more and the spine makes up the fifth.
The 5 bows must emulate the elastic tension of a bow and arrow being pulled.
Think of the limbs being the bow and the spine being the string.
Although the bow is drawn,
neither the wood nor the string is actually
tense - both remain soft
and springy.
If either were inflexible or brittle, there would be no bow.
The energy of the wielder animates the weapon; storing the energy
within the structure, ready for release.
The flexibility of the bow itself makes this possible.
Muscles
The
muscles
of the arms move the elbow and wrist joint, whilst deeper muscles in the
torso are responsible for strength.
Tai chi is designed to utilise the deeper muscles for power and leaves the
arm muscles to provide a relatively passive connection.
The joints of the body must remain relatively open at all times, although
they open and close naturally as a consequence of overall body movement.
When a joint remains 90° open, the path of force
is transmitted through the soft tissue (muscle, facia, tendons and
ligaments).
When the elbow angle is less than 90°, the path of
force feeds into the elbow joint.
Overuse of elbows and
knees leads to common sports
injuries.
Frame
The arms and legs must be connected to the torso in tai chi, so that the
entire
body can move as one
unit.
This is completely different to
external systems where the limbs move
independently.
Tai chi was designed with this type of movement in mind and the form
postures are deliberately intended to craft the body accordingly.
Neigong is
the tool for fine-tuning this type of whole-body connection and making it
totally natural and intrinsic.
You could not
perform a kung fu form or karate kata
in a tai chi way - the angles are all wrong.
The tai chi form aims to
cultivate the optimal
framework at any given moment; offering you the greatest degree of
stability and balance,
without resorting to muscular tension or bracing.
Waves
Your body needs to cultivate, store and release
energy as it moves - comfortably, easily and
naturally.
Tai chi aims to be like
water.
The framework establishes a flexible scaffolding for the soft tissue to
flex, twist and undulate.
It is important to keep the joints very mobile and the muscles relaxed, so
that nothing impedes the natural flow.
Any residual muscular contraction will ruin any possibility of
spontaneous energy
release.
Flow
Tai chi is famous for its flowing nature.
One posture seamlessly merges into the next, with no gaps or
discontinuities.
There is an inherent smoothness of
movement,
a
quietude of demeanour.
Training the form encourages this flowing quality to emerge.
Conflicting practice
A cooker heats food and a refrigerator cools it.
They cannot be combined - the very notion is absurd and functionally not
viable.
Each is separate and must be kept separate.
The same is true of
internal and
external
martial arts
systems.
Whilst many people
cross-train or
import ideas into tai chi, this is not
conducive to progress.
To gain the shape of tai chi you must train tai chi.
There is nothing simpler than this.
Consider the use of the arms and shoulder.
In
tai chi, the
pathway of power must bypass the shoulder - moving from the middle to the
extremity, with no real elbow and shoulder work.
Press-ups, weight training and other such arm-oriented exercises perpetuate
the over-use of the shoulders and elbows.
All external martial art systems use the arms and shoulder in a manner that
differs from tai chi.
Choice
If you practiced wing chun kung fu or karate alongside your tai
chi, your body would encounter a conflict of interests.
Wing chun and karate emphasise linearity, and are usually practiced in a
hard, strength-oriented manner.
Tai chi is totally different, remaining loose and rounded, with the power
being produced by circular whole-body waves that strike like a whip.
Some beginners maintain that you can choose between styles in application and
this may well be the case.
However, we have found no evidence to support this.
Inevitably, the hard, tense habits of the
external habit dominate and the internal
never becomes manifest.
The tai chi taught by our school is not about choosing between systems - it is concerned
with developing a fundamental, natural way of moving that sustains the
optimal framework at all times.
Self defence will not
allow you time to choose your preferred method of body use.
The tai chi
way needs to be habit - or more
specifically the habit - and a choice is not a habit.
Page created 27 January 1999