Tai Chi Journal

My Tai Chi Form (Part I)

(This was originally posted on Friday, March 11, 2005. I have altered the date to group all my "My Tai Chi Form" posts together.)

Yesterday in Tai Chi class I felt I took a step up in capability. I was actually able to do the movements in the Tai Chi form we are being taught.

This morning I am attempting to overcome the problem I have with remembering the sequence of movements on the following day. To aid me, I am using books on Tai Chi. In addition to two books I have already mentioned in earlier posts, Step-by-Step Tai Chi and The Dao of Taijiquan, I am using Wong Kiew Kit's The Complete Book of Tai Chi Chuan: A Comprehensive Guide to the Principles and Practice.

I will abbreviate the first book as SBS, the second as DOT, and the third as TCC.

Herein, an attempt to describe the beginning moves of Yang-style Tai Chi Long Form as we in my class are being taught it, so that I may in effect engrave the description in my recollection.

To the right is a movie viewer. Click on its control strip's Play icon to play the entire section from the DVD which this post describes. Or, click on the movie image itself to play the movie independently in QuickTime Player.


We start off by assuming something very like Wu Chi posture. Then:

(1) The first move is Embrace the Heavens. I have yet to find it in any of the three books I just mentioned, although it may be in there. SBS and DOY lack an index, so looking up specific moves is difficult. It's not listed in the TCC index.

Embrace the Heavens involves stepping forward with the left foot as the hands circle outward and upward. The forward step begins with the heel lightly touching down, with little weight on it, followed by a shift of weight forward onto the whole foot as its sole follows its heel to the ground.

Then, as the hands continue to circle — they're now moving inward and downward — the right foot is brought up even with the left foot, touches its toe to the ground with no weight on it, moves slightly out sideways to the right, and finally accepts half of the weight of the body on the entire sole of the right foot.

(2) Next comes the Beginning of Tai Chi movement: by this time, the hands have come all the way back down and are facing forward at belly height. The knees are at this point noticeably bent. Now, the knees unbend back to the softened posture with which they began. Meanwhile, the hands ascend to chest or shoulder height and float back down to hip height. There is now a possibly long pause before beginning the next movement.

It is this Beginning of Tai Chi or Starting Tai Chi movement which my books show as the first movement. Preceding it with Embrace the Heavens is peculiar to the particular version of Yang-style Long Form we are learning.

(3) Now things start to get complex. The basic idea is to get to the Single Ward Off Left posture. The problem is how to get to it.

You could do it as DOT shows it immediately following Beginning of Tai Chi (p. 67). (Later on, under topic 3a, I'll discuss how we are actually doing it in class.) According to DOT, you turn the body toward the right diagonal so you can step forward heel first with the left foot, delaying the shift of weight onto that foot.

Meanwhile, your hands assume the Holding the Chi Ball position. This means they hold an imaginary balloon in front of your chest. One hand is on top of the balloon at about throat height; the other supports the bottom of the balloon at waist height.

A key question: which hand is on top, which on the bottom?

To lead into Single Ward Off Left, the left hand needs to be on the bottom. So I'm going to call this left-hand-on-bottom version of Hold Chi Ball "Hold Chi Ball Left." If the right hand were on the bottom, it would be "Hold Chi Ball Right."

Now, as your weight comes over the forward (left) foot, the left hand comes up and out toward the left diagonal until it is at shoulder height, palm facing inward (in class, if I have this right, we are facing the palm outward).

Meanwhile, the right hand pushes down and back and a little bit out until it is at hip height, palm down. If instead the right hand stayed up high, palm outward, this would be a Double Ward Off Left, not a Single. (Actually, a Double Ward Off Left is what DOT shows; however, in class we are making it a Single Ward Off Left.)

Most of the weight is now completely forward on the left leg and foot, with the knee nicely bent, and the toe pointing straight in the forward direction. The back (right) leg is fairly straight, but not rigid. The right foot points toward the right diagonal.

This is a point of stasis. You won't stay in this Single Ward Off Left position for any appreciable amount of time, but you could.

The process of arriving at Single (or Double) Ward Off Left (or Right) seems to be called, in Chinese, peng (pronounced "PUNG").

(3a) That's how DOT gets to Single Ward Off Left the first time: the most direct way. In our class, we add a fillip prior to Single Ward Off Left. From Beginning of Tai Chi, we first turn and step to the right as we start to form the Hold Chi Ball Left figure with our hands. The body's weight gradually goes "forward" onto the right foot as the body itself moves over the right leg, knee nicely bent. (Here, "forward" means what was originally rightward.)

As the weight shifts wholly onto the right leg and foot, the left foot comes up even with the right, toe touching down but accepting no weight. There is an illustration of the resulting position on the far right of p. 103 of SBS.

After achieving that stable intermediary position, we essentially do what SBS shows as "Ward Off (Left)" on pp. 104-105. Instead of stepping directly forward with the left foot, we turn the body toward the left diagonal and step in that direction with the left foot. After that diagonal step, we complete Single Ward Off Left as described above. This corresponds to illustrations 7i and 7j on p. 78 of TCC.

(4) The next movement is a Double Ward Off Right. DOT shows how to get to it from Ward Off Left. With your weight still on your left foot, you simply form a Hold Chi Ball Right. That is, your right hand now goes on the bottom. In order to achieve this, you'll need to sweep the right hand, whose palm is facing downward, down and then up and in, such that its palm winds up facing upward.

Since your hands are trading places vis-à-vis the original Hold Chi Ball Left, the left hand will need to describe an arc such that it winds up on top of the Chi Ball, palm down.

Meanwhile, you simply step out toward the right diagonal with your right foot, delaying putting weight on it. As your weight eventually comes gradually and then over it, you "unwrap" the Chi Ball such that your right hand ends up at shoulder height, palm toward your face. (In class, I believe we turn the palm outward instead.)

As for your hindmost hand, the left hand this time, in this case it stays roughly where it was while Holding Chi Ball. It's at about chest height. You turn the palm to face outward, as if to help with the Warding Off. Since the hindmost hand does not retreat to behind your hip, this is a Double Ward Off Right. It too is a form of peng.

You now are once again in a stable position you could hold for an appreciable length of time. I will end on that note, to take up the rest of the discussion in My Tai Chi Form (Part II).

posted by eric @ 9:22 AM