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| Hold the head as if suspended from above. Do not tilt the head from side to side, nor up or down. The head must not turn away from the central axis. Your eyes must do the looking for you. In order to avoid a rigid posture imagine a string is holding you up from above � this will avoid tension in the neck. The mouth is closed but open. When you are relaxed your lips are lightly closed, but the teeth are naturally slightly open. If saliva should gather then swallow on the out breath � this ensures that the "vital elixir" is sent to the tan-tien. Breath in through the nose, and out. This is what the nose is for. In on the Yin movement, and out on the Yang movement; slow and deep, but not forced. Keep the backbone straight The spine should always be held with the sac-rum vertical to the ground. The coccyx should always point to the direction you are facing i.e. where your centre is pointing. Special attention should be given to keeping the backbone vertical, especially in the forward and backsitting bow stance. The upper thigh will feel stressed at first � this is most important for the looseness of the waist. The legs only do their specific job of holding up your body, and this allows the waist to do its specific job of directing the power. (This can be reversed i.e. the legs and waist are able to swap jobs � this will be dealt with later). Relax the arms and palms. The arm joints should remain relaxed with only the mind moving the palms to flex gently. Relax the shoulders, sink the elbows The shoulders should be relaxed and dropped down. The elbow should be dropped under the level of the shoulder to further help in relaxing the shoulders. Even when the palms are raised above the head, the shoulders should remain relaxed. This allows the whole chest area to relax and so the Ch�i can be sunk to the tantien. Distinguish between full and empty This is probably the most important point in t�ai chi. Many people only think of full and empty in terms of weight i.e. the leg that has the weight placed upon it is the Yang leg and the weight-less leg is Yin. But Yin and Yang only exist in a state of change. If one leg has all the weight placed upon it and the other is weightless, they are in a state of no-change. However, if we think of Yang as being when we use power to push from one leg to the other, then this is true Yang. If we think of Yin as when we use one leg to receive that power, then this is true Yin. When our legs are just holding us up, they are doing their job and are neither Yin or Yang, but when one leg issues power and the other receives it, then this is the true meaning of distinguishing between substantial and insubstantial. We must know exactly which part of our body is issuing power and which part is receiving it. There are times when the waist is in a changing state of Yin and the legs are Yang, and there are times when the waist is Yang and the legs are Yin. In other words, the waist is sometimes directing and issuing power, and it is important to know when this is happening. If the body is unbalanced then always look for the fault in the waist and legs. The position of the knees The most structurally sound position for the knee is when the patella of the weighted leg is directly over the second or ring toe. This allows for maximum power with no weak links, and serves to protect the knee. You must train your waist and hips to turn without moving the knee from its central position � this is especially important in Push Hands. Distinguish between waist and hips When the hips turn, the whole backbone, including the sacrum, turns and the rotation is in the hip ball joint. When the waist turns, the sac-rum stays still and the vertebrae above the sac-rum turn. There are times when the waist turns by itself but at no time do the hips turn without the waist. These postures are dealt with in the section on form and Push Hands. On kicking The leg joints should always be relaxed so that centrifugal movement will naturally occur. In other martial arts, the muscles of the legs are used in a tense manner and cause blockages and all kinds of joint injuries. In t�ai chi we loosen the joints so that when a kick is being performed, only the waist revolves and because the leg is relaxed it just flicks out with great speed and power like a whip cracking. The same principle applies to punching. |
| General Principles of Tai Chi |
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