Tai Chi Journal

Finer Points

Last night we had our final weekly Tai Chi class of the current session, with the next trimester (or whatever it's called) at Tai Sophia beginning in May. I was grateful to pick up a few of the finer points of Yang-Style form.

(1) Instructor Brad says that when the form is done as intended, motion never stops ... except of course at those points where still meditation, not motion, is what is intended. Pauses between movements, though optionally permissible, are generally not done. When we pause in class, it is for illustrative purposes only.

(2) The hands are usually held so that there is nearly a right angle between the thumb and extended index finger, with the other fingers held loosely apart. There are, of course, specific exceptions such as what the hands do in the Press movement.

(3) There is generally a reason for the seeming oddest motions of the form. The rationale usually has to do with the martial-arts aspect of Tai Chi: hand-to-hand combat. For instance, the hooked hand of Single Whip movement evolved from using that hand to snatch the opponent's hand or arm as he attempts to strike a blow ... as the other hand moves in such a way so as to seize the underside of the same arm of the opponent. If that maneuver fails, the top of the hooked hand can be used to rap the opponent under his chin, or the pointed fingers can be poked into his eye. Imagine that, the next time you think Tai Chi is just about loveliness!

Of course the form, practiced as a moving meditation, has evolved well beyond assault and battery. For example, the down-pointed toe of White Crane Spreads Wings was originally lifted much higher, in such a way as to strike the opponent's privates. And the heel-down empty steps so often found in the form were at one time kicks at the opponent's legs. To me there is something profound in contemplating how what were at one time purely combat moves can have evolved into a form of ballet.

(4) Brad showed me how the hand motions in Double Ward Off/Press/Push work. From Ward Off, with the hands forward, we sweep the hands down and back, then around, up, and forward again for Press, such that, overall, they describe an oval. Then for Push, the hands go up and back followed by down, forward, and up, such that the oval they describe is the reverse of the first oval!

It seems to me that this describe-an-oval concept applies to a great many — perhaps all — of the flowing hand motions in Yang-Style Tai Chi. Even the seeming end points of movements are really points at the "narrow end" of (potentially quite flat) ovals.

(5) Brad also clued me in that in general, when there is a seemingly concurrent outward movement of the feet and also of the hands, the step out (or whatever) is done first, and only then is the outward positioning of the hands done. For example, the Double Ward Off Right that follows involves both a foot and hand extension. From Single Ward Off Left we (a) pivot the upper body counterclockwise as we form Hold Chi Ball with the right hand on the bottom; (b) make an empty step forward with the right foot; and only then (c) bring the hands forward in Ward Off position, as the body's weight comes forward over the right foot.

This has two purposes. In martial arts theory, the empty step is actually a preliminary kick at an opponent's legs before warding off his return blow (see above). In practice, taking a foot-first approach keeps us from lurching too far forward; the planted foot (even with no weight on it) limits how far we will move the hands.

posted by eric @ 9:56 AM 2 comments

A Status Report

I seem to have reached a stage in my Tai Chi trajectory in which there is not a lot of growth to report.

It is now the Monday after Easter 2005, a weekend which, for this practicing Catholic, furnished a lot of diversions from my now-habitual daily concentration on Tai Chi. Last Thursday — Holy Thursday — was our last of eight classes in this session, though there will actually be a make-up class this coming Thursday because of an earlier snow-out. Then we have over a month off to practice what we have learned. Another 8-wk. session kicks off in early May (May 12, I think, after a "freebie" class on May 5).

A Morning Cup of Tai Chi

I gave one of my best friends for her birthday a book by John Bright-Fey called A Morning Cup of Tai Chi. I myself don't have this book, but it seems like a good one. My friend has a probable knee replacement in her future, so it's not clear how soon she can actually take up Tai Chi, but when and if she does I am convinced it will help her keep her other knee.

I selected this book for her because she has told me she tried taking a Tai Chi class a few years ago and was admonished by the instructor for "not keeping up." That was it for her! She never went back. This book looks like one that will let her proceed at her own pace and not worry about being "too slow."

Which I can definitely relate to myself. I am still having trouble putting together the movements of the form we have learned, mostly because I find their details hard to remember. In last week's class, with main instructor Brad off somewhere on a business trip, his assistant Jeremy took over. There were only four students there, and I got some personal attention and useful advice on how to do the first movements of the form: Embrace the Heavens, Beginning of Tai Chi, Single Ward Off Left (including Hold the Chi Ball), and Double Ward Off Right. It was a big help, and I told Jeremy after class I feel he has an excellent teaching style.

But what with one thing and another, although I have been doing my individual exercises, today has been the first day I've practiced the form since the class four days ago. I found the when I came to White Crane Spreads Wings, the movement following the Single Whip Left-Lift Hand sequence, and preceding the first Brush Knee, I was at a total loss as to how to accomplish it. So I cued up the relevant section in QuickTime Player (having captured it from the DVD using Snapz Pro) and played it over and over, trying to mimic it. It was a good (re)learning technique.

QuickTime Player gives one the ability to bracket any segment of a movie, called a "selection," and play just it. You can loop it to play again and again, even looping backward as well as forward if you choose. What you can't do is play it in slow motion ... unless you use this AppleScript script:

     tell application "QuickTime Player"
         activate
         tell movie 1
             play
             set rate to 0.5
         end tell
     end tell

If you can do that, you have all the control over the movie that the DVD Player app gives you, and then some (because of the bracketing and looping capability). I find this is a real good thing. I plan to use the technique a lot in the future.

On another topic, I find that my Tai Chi practice is influencing my posture for the better. Some of this is unconscious, while some of it requires a conscious adjustment on my part. I am adopting the theory that Tai Chi "wants" me to (in the words of a Tai Chi and Alternative Health magaizne article I have read, "Acupressure Points as Related to Tai Chi") "pluck up the back and sink the chest." In other words, don't stick your chest out, but do "open" your back and lengthen it, as you visualize a golden thread attached to the top of your head pulling your cranium heavenward.

This attachment point, called bai hui or "Hundred Meetings," is on the front-to-back center line of your skull where it is intersected by a perpendicular line connecting the tops of your ears. In other words, it is far enough back from your forehead that the imaginary tug from the golden thread is not going to lift your chin. It's going to lengthen your back instead, or at least the back of your neck.

In doing this, it helps if you consciously tuck in your chin, releasing, relaxing, and opening the throat. The idea seems to be that adopting the right posture has something to do with Chi circulation: "If you get the posture right, then the Chi is active."

Adopting this posture seems to change my breathing for the better almost automatically ... I breathe more from the belly or dan tien, less from the chest. And that seems to clear my head and give me a calm sense of well-being.

It also seems to make me look better. I'm getting some very unaccustomed admiring glances from sweet young things at the mall, in restaurants, etc., these days. I'd hate to tell them what an old fuddy-duddy I am. But I'm also aware that Tai Chi has made my body look more "buff" than it has in years. So I'd say that Tai Chi has a whole lot of little side benefits, in addition to making you healthier in mind, body, and spirit.

The downside is that this posture has not yet become automatic. I have to think, "Remember to lengthen your neck," or something like that, or I find I lapse back into my usual "wrong" posture. Also, it isn't easy to stay in an unaccustomed posture for a long time, even with conscious effort. The muscles eventually rebel. Again, this is something that will improve only with perseverance.

posted by eric @ 11:27 AM 0 comments

My Tai Chi Form (Part IV)

This post is a continuation of My Tai Chi Form (Part III). In it I cover another segment of Yang-Style Long Form. This is the fourth and final segment of the first of the form's six parts as we are being taught them in class.

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.







Here are detailed descriptions of the movements:

(18) The movement which follows the last in the previous segment, (17) Brush Knee Right, is actually a composite pattern. It is called, in The Dao of Taijiquan, Step Forward, Deflect Downward, Intercept and Punch.

(18a) At the end of Brush Knee Right we are in a Bow Stance, left foot forward with the weight on it, and with the right hand extended. We now want to Step Forward with the right foot. To do so, we first have to rock back over the originally unweighted right foot. Then we shift the weight fully off the left foot and raise its toe. We simultaneously pivot that same left foot outward around it's still-planted heel.

Meanwhile, the formerly extended right hand sweeps down in front of the body, which pivots to follow the pivoting foot. The left hand pretty much just moves out of the way.

Now we're ready to Step Forward with the right foot. As that is happening, the right hand continues its sweeping oval such that it starts to come up in front of the face.

While the empty right-foot step forward is still in progress, the right arm continues in such a way as to make an upraised, extended fist, with the open left hand brushing the inside of the elbow. (This looks exactly like a classic obscene gesture.) The fact that the right fist is extended simultaneously with the right foot is an exception to the general rule that foot movement precedes hand movement.

(18b and 18c) Next comes, in rapid-fire order, Deflect Downward and then Intercept.

As the weight comes fully over the right foot (which is cocked outward at this point) the fisted right hand is withdrawn backward in preparation for coming forward again to deliver a punch.

At the same time, the open left hand moves forward and then slightly downward, as the left leg makes an empty step forward as well. The withdrawing of the punching hand (the right) causes the torso and head to pivot clockwise.

The Intercept movement occurs now. After the empty step forward with the left foot is completed and its toe is lowered to the ground, the body moves forward over it. The extended left hand in effect moves back toward it, though really it stays in one place and the torso closes the gap between itself and the hand. This hand gesture serves to intercept a hypothetical blow.

Meanwhile the fisted right hand and arm are on their way forward to deliver their own ...

(18d) ... Punch. By the end of this composite set of pattens, accordingly, the fisted right hand is extended well out in a forward direction, at chest or shoulder height; the open left hand is at the same height but back nearly against the body, still parrying the opponent's blow; and the legs and the rest of the body are once again in a Bow Stance, left foot forward and with the weight mainly on it.

(19) The next movement, Withdraw and Push, is relatively simple. Just as when we earlier did Push from Double Ward Off/Press by rocking back, pivoting the upper body in the appropriate direction, and circling the hands in an up-back-and-around oval that ends up with the open hands pushed forward, palms out, we do the same here. The only differences are (a) this will be a Push Left (i.e., left foot forward) and not a Push Right (i.e., right foot forward), and (b) the starting position of the hands is that of the end of Punch, not the end of Press.

Now comes ...

(20) ... Cross Hands. We rock back over the right foot and the right hand comes up and over in a high sweep above forehead level. We pivot the unweighted left foot on its heel as this happens, such that the upper body (which was pointed toward 9 o'clock) can rotate and point toward 12 o'clock, the orientation it had at the very beginning of the form.

When the circling right hand reaches shoulder height out away from the right side of the body, the left hand starts its own downward movement such that both hands sweep down in front of the groin. The upper body moves back over the left foot and briefly rotates slightly toward 11 o'clock to ease lifting the right foot and bringing it in closer to the left foot.

As the left foot comes down again, the arms and hands continue their swinging, such that they wind up crossed at the wrist at chin level. The right hand is in front of the left, and the palms are facing in.

(21) The next movement, Conculsion of Tai Chi, is also called Close Tai Chi. It is, of course, the last movement in this section of Yang-Style Long Form as we are being taught it. From the end posture of Cross Hands, we simply "unwrap" our hands, à la the end of Press, such that they end up open and relaxed, palms down, at chin height. As we slowly lower them to hip height, we unbend our knees (which were bent as usual for Yang-Style) and stand up straight. We are in the very same standing meditation position we were in at the end of Beginning of Tai Chi. We may stay in that position as long as we like, for the first section of Yang-Style Long Form is done!

posted by eric @ 9:27 AM 0 comments

My Tai Chi Form (Part III)

(This was originally posted on Friday, March 18, 2005. I have altered the date to group all my "My Tai Chi Form" posts together.)

This post is a continuation of My Tai Chi Form (Part I) and My Tai Chi Form (Part II).

Last night was the next-to-last of our eight weekly Tai Chi classes in the current term at Tai Sophia Institute, located near Columbia, Maryland. Good news: our instructor, Brad, finally came up with DVDs for many of us (but not yet all of us), showing (among other things) himself doing the first of the six sections of Yang Style Long Form as we are being taught it. It will be quite a help to me in trying to visualize exactly how the movements flow together.

Along these lines, Brad says the form we are learning has six sections, of which the first is all that we are studying in this class. He says the second and fifth sections are almost entirely identical, and furthermore that there is a lot of repetition of the movements we are learning in the remaining sectionss. So the beginner learning I'm doing now would seem to be a bigger step up than will be required later, if I want to go on to learn the rest of the form.

The bulk of last night's lesson concerned a segment of the form's first section that was new to me. After the Single Whip Left movement with which I ended Part II comes one called Strum the Lute (or Play the Guitar). Then there's a transitional move (its name is one I don't know) that we haven't really covered yet. Then there is a sequence of movements highlighted by several repetitions of something called Brush Knee, to one side or the other, interspersed with a brief move called (I believe) Crane Takes Flight. It was that sequence which we did over and over last night.

(In what follows, I'm going to adopt the strategy of describing the direction of movement with respect to a clockface. 12 o'clock is the forward direction as the form begins. 3 o'clock is 90° to its right. 9 o'clock is 90° to its left, and so on. Also, the numbers I assign to the various movements and patterns take up where my previous posts left off, at movement 9. Finally, the images I show are from the DVD. The guy doing the Tai Chi is my able instructor, Brad.)

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.







Herewith, more details:

Single Whip Left, Final (facing 9 o'clock)

(9) The Lift Hand movement (this is what The Dao of Taijiquan calls it) proceeds from the end of Single Whip Left. By virtue of doing Single Whip Left (see earlier post), one's body has rotated counterclockwise from facing, earlier, toward 3 o'clock in Front Bow Stance Right (with hands in Push position). Now, at the end of Single Whip Left, one is facing toward 9 o'clock, the left hand has been pushed forward, palm out at shoulder height. The "hooked" right hand is out to the side (aimed toward 12 o'clock) at the same height. The weight is forward on the left leg, with the right leg trailing and the right foot angled toward 10:30 (i.e., at a 45° angle to the left foot's 9 o'clock orientation).

Lift Hand, About to Step Out

Now the torso, head, left hand/arm, and left foot (toe lifted, heel down) rotate clockwise to about 10:30 as the weight comes back briefly over the right leg. The right hand/arm follows the rotating shoulders and points to 1:30.

Then the weight moves forward to an even distribution ... and quickly beyond, to rest entirely on the left leg. The unloaded right leg, toe down, moves toward the planted left foot in preparation for stepping out toward 12 o'clock. Meanwhile the "hooked" right hand has relaxed and been brought fully down beside the right thigh, and the open left hand has been swept at shoulder height to point in the 10:30 direction, drawn in toward the body.

As the right knee comes up to proceed with stepping out toward 12 o'clock, the straight right arm and hand follow it up. Lagging slightly behind, the left arm and hand, elbow well bent, glide down to breastbone height. The right leg reaches forward, heel down, preparing for contact with the ground.

Lift Hand, Final

The right arm, mimicking the right thigh and knee, now reaches outward as the right hand ascends to shoulder height and slightly above. As the right heel finally comes down, the left hand sweeps down to belly height and then starts out in preparation for the next movement.

Until someone tells me otherwise, I'm going to call this particular version of the movement Lift Hand Right, as the general direction of the movement is to the right. There exists a mirror-image version, which I'll call Lift Hand Left.

At the end of this movement, be it noted, the right foot is pointing forward to 12 o'clock, with its heel down on the ground, but with little weight on it yet. The next movement will require the right foot to pivot slightly on its unweighted heel and finally plant pointing toward 11 o'clock.


(10) The next movement is called White Crane Spreads Wings in The Dao of Taijiquan, though I'm not precisely sure what Brad calls it.

From the final Lift Hand position, the head swivels left and the left hand continues sweeping down and then out toward 3 o'clock. The right hand pushes forward/outward. The right foot rotates on its heel so that it points to about 11 o'clock, the right toe starts down, and some of the weight starts shifting forward onto the right foot.

White Crane Spreads Wings, First Phase	White Crane Spreads Wings, Second Phase

Then, in the second phase, as the right foot comes all the way down, the arms/hands "windmill" such that the right arm is extended at hip height, palm down, toward 12 o'clock, and the left hand has been raised to shoulder height. The head swivels a bit to point to 11 o'clock.

In the third phase of White Crane Spreads Wings, the weight shifts wholly onto the right foot, and the left foot is picked up off the ground. Meanwhile, the right hand/arm move fully down beside the hip, en route forward and up. The left hand sweeps to a central position in front of the face. It will continue its sweep in a downward direction.

White Crane Spreads Wings, Third Phase	White Crane Spreads Wings, Fourth Phase

Next, in the fourth phase, the raised left leg and foot are lifted further in preparation for stepping out toward 9 o'clock. At the same time, the hands and arms move into, very briefly, something like a Hold the Chi Ball position with the right hand on the bottom. The head and torso have rotated in the general direction of 9 o'clock.

In the fifth phase, the right hand, on the bottom of the Chi Ball, sweeps up as the left hand, closer in to the body, sweeps down, until they are in the positions shown at right. Meanwhile, the raised left foot moves completely out toward 9 o'clock, and its pointed toe touches the ground. This, a distinctive posture which I've not encountered before, is held for a moment or two, and then the next movement begins.

White Crane Spreads Wings, Final

Notice that at this point the "leading" or forward hand (the right) is opposite to the leading or forward foot (the left). Compare this position to the first illustration above, at the end of Single Whip Left. In that position, the lead hand is the left one, and the lead foot is also the left. The weight is forward on the lead foot, with the lead hand pushing. But at the end of White Crane Spreads Wings, with lead hand and lead foot opposed, the weight is back on the trailing foot, and the lead hand is waving rather than pushing.

Perhaps we should call the former a "strong/doubled lead position," and the latter a "weak/opposed lead position." So one way to grossly oversimplify the Strum the Lute/White Crane Spreads Wings sequence is to say that it is a clever way to transition from a strong/doubled to a weak/opposed lead position. After so doing, the body winds up pointing in the same 9 o'clock direction, even if it temporarily heads in the 12 o'clock direction during Strum the Lute and in the 11 o'clock direction during White Crane Spreads Wings.

(10) Now, after White Crane Spreads Wings, begins the first of the to-be-repeated moves: Brush Knee. (The Dao of Taijiquan calls it Brush Knee and Twist Step, Right.) From the end position of White Crane Spreads Wings, the hands are first brought through a position at mid-torso height as the weight rocks slightly back away from the pointed left toe. Notice that the only way to do this is to lower the right hand as the left is raised. The nearly independent "windmilling" or "cloud-waving" of the two arms that has taken place during the Strum the Lute/White Crane Spreads Wings sequence is now replaced by a more closely synchronized rotation. Perhaps this is why the toe-out-hand-up final position of White Crane Spreads Wings is held briefly before Brush Knee is begun. The right hand had been circling clockwise, from the perspective of the person doing the form. Now, from its held-high position at the very beginning of Brush Knee, it starts circling counterclockwise. At the point of the first-phase illustration below, the right hand has come down to the same height as the left hand, which is en route upward.

Brush Knee, First Phase	Brush Knee, Second Phase

Next, in Brush Knee's second phase above, the right hand continues to move downward as the left hand moves upward and begins to sweep in front of the face. The head and torso in effect follow the direction of its sweep, turning toward 11 o'clock. It is this phase of Brush Knee that really gets the two arms moving in a closer synchrony that is distinct from the quasi-independent movement of the arms in Lift Hand and White Crane Spreads Wings.

All this results in a position typical near the beginning of the Brush Knee Right movement — so named because it will be the right hand that eventually pushes forward — except that usually the forward (left) foot starts out heel-down, not toe-down, as here. This toe-down variation seems to come from how Brad has done White Crane Spreads Wings for the DVD. It is not how we are learning the form in class.

So far, the phases of Brush Knee have been preliminary, but now we gather our forces. In the third phase the head swivels rightward to follow, loose-eyed, the right arm coming up. The left hand's descent continues.

Brush Knee, Third Phase	Brush Knee, Fourth Phase

In the fourth phase of Brush Knee, the right hand and "over the top" and then forward, at eye level. The left hand's descent continues even further, to mid-torso level. Importantly, the unweighted forward foot, the left, is picked up off the ground. We are preparing to come forward in the 9 o'clock direction it is pointing toward.

Phase five of Brush Knee involves putting the front foot down, heel first, and moving weight forward onto it. The right hand continues forward, as the head and torso begin twisting counterclockwise.

Brush Knee, Fifth Phase	Brush Knee, Sixth Phase

Brush knee, phase six, is a logical continuation of the fifth phase in which the weight shifts more onto the front (left) foot and less on the back (right) foot, which is now fully planted on the ground. The right hand continues forward to become the obvious strong or lead hand. The counterclockwise twisting of the head and torso continue, carrying the weak (left) hand and arm with it.

Now we come to the final posture and goal of Brush Knee:

Brush Knee, Final Posture

In it, we see that the right hand and arm have finished their forward push. The weight is fully on the bent-knee forward leg — the left leg, on the opposite side from the strong hand — and the right leg and left hand are temporarily "weak."

Observe that Brush Knee has a lot in common with a baseball pitcher's (in this case, a righthander's) windup and delivery. Phases one through four are the windup, in which the general direction of motion is "away" from "home plate," and the final three phases are the delivery, in which the "pitcher's" motion is at last directed "towards home plate." But there the analogy breaks down; in Brush Knee, there is expressly no "follow through."

Because in this particular version of the movement, it is the right hand that is "pushed" — i.e., it is something like the windup and delivery of a right-handed baseball pitcher — this is the version more accurately called Brush Knee Right. Brush Knee Left is its mirror-image, in which the left hand is "pushed." Brsuh Knee Left will in fact enter the form we are practicing a few movements down the road.

Why is this movement called Brush Knee, though? Well, imagine what it would have looked like if Brad had raised his left knee quite a bit in moving through phases four and five to six. His left hand would have brushed over it! (Brad has demonstrated this in class for us.) In the form as performed for their own enjoyment by experts who have been mastering it for years — not by or for us newbies — moves such as Brush Knee are done in a more pronounced or exaggerated fashion. It is then easier to see why the movement is called what it is called.


(11) The next movement is one I'll call Crane Arms, based on something Brad said and similar names I find on one of my Tai Chi books, Tricia Yu's Tai Chi: Mind and Body. Its sequence of phases is illustrated below:

Crane Arms, First Phase	Crane Arms, Second Phase	Crane Arms, Third Phase

I'm not going to describe these phases in detail, for several reasons. First, the movement as Brad does it on the DVD is quite perfunctory; in class, we are being taught to raise our arms higher and wider and to linger a bit longer on this step. Second, I can find no confirmation of or reference to this movement in books, like The Dao of Taijiquan, which document Yang-Style Long Form. Accordingly, I suspect this is a "pseudo-step" that has been inserted in this version of the Yang form, a bit of choreographic icing on the cake.


(12) The next move is quite a basic one, Strum Lute, also called Playing Guitar.

Strum Lute, First Phase	Strum Lute, Second Phase	Strum Lute, Final Position

As Brad has done it, it began with the final phase of Crane Arms, in which he began stepping out with his left foot — a so-called "empty step," since no weight goes on it. Meanwhile, the arms and hands are moved into a position that looks like holding a lute's (or guitar's) neck with the left hand and strumming the instrument with the right hand.

* * *

The rest of the movements we have learned to date are basically repetitions of the moves I have already described, so I will cover them only briefly:

(13) A repitition of Brush Knee Right. This time, we begin it from the end position of Strum Lute, and the forward foot (the left) has it's heel down, not its toe.

(14) The mirror image of movement 13, Brush Knee Left. (I told you it was coming.) It looks just the same, except that the "windup" and "delivery" are left-handed.

(15) Another repitition of Brush Knee Right.

(16) A repetition of Crane Hands.

(17) Yet another repitition of Brush Knee Right.

(To be continued in My Tai Chi Form (Part IV) ..... .)

posted by eric @ 9:25 AM 0 comments

My Tai Chi Form (Part II)

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

Herein I extend what I began in My Tai Chi Form (Part I). My intention is to continue documenting the initial moves of the Yang-Style Long Tai Chi Form we are learning in class. When I left off, I was up to movement/position 4, the Double Ward Off Right, in which the weight is positioned mostly on the forward (right) foot, with the right knee bent and the trailing (left) leg somewhat straighter. The hands are raised, palms outward, with the right hand up at shoulder level and the left hand behind it at chest level.

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.







Now, fuller descriptions of each movement:

(5) Following Double Ward Off Right, and without much of a pause, we move into the position called Roll Back Right. In Chinese, it's lu. It's shown as illustration sequence 4 on p. 67 in DOT (The Dao of Taijuquan). It's also shown as "Roll Back (Right)", steps 32-35 in SBS (Step-by-Step Tai Chi), pp. 111-112. In TCC (The Complete Book of Tai Chi Chuan), it's illustration 7d on p. 78.

Roll Back Right transfers your weight from your forward (right) foot to your back (left) foot, without the feet moving at all.

If you enter Roll Back Right from the Single Ward Off position — which in this particular case you don't, as you are in Double Ward Off, with both hands held high — your lower (left) hand would be down at hip level, and you would have to arc it up, palm outward, in front of your chest. As it is, it's already there.

The front (right) hand has its back facing forward (I need to check this in the form we are actually learning in class) and so you must make a tiny arc with it such that it flips palm-frontward. The fingers, which were not spread before, are now spread casually apart.

All these perhaps minor arm and hand movements take place as the body's weight begins to transfer back to the back (left) foot. Then come some truly major arm/hand movements, as both hands sweep down to hip level. The formerly forward (i.e., right) hand ends up a bit lower than the hindmost (left) hand.

(6) Then, the position called Press Right (in Chinese, qi, pronounced "CHEE") is what Roll Back Right inevitably leads to. Press Right is detailed in SBS as steps 37 and 38 on p. 112; in DOT as illustration sequence 5 on p. 67; and in TCC as illustrations 7e and 7f on p. 78.

The Press position (to either side) is just like the Ward Off position to the same side ... except for what the hands do.

As the body's weight slides back forward to rest mostly on the forward (in this case, right) foot, the hands move from hip level up to chest level. The "dominant" or "leading" hand, shall we call it, is here the right one (since this is Press Right). Accordingly, it is in front of the left hand — which I call the "recessive" or "trailing" hand. Its palm is toward the face.

But the palm of the trailing hand is facing outward. The fingers of both hands are spread. And the two hands cross at the heels or wrists, making Press a visually distinctive position. The combined hands are, in fact, being pressed forward in a way that would bode ill for any hypothetical attacker at one's dominant diagonal.

But the Press in Yang-Style Tai Chi is immediately softened by folding the trailing hand, palm now downward, forward and over the wrist of the leading hand, as the overall position morphs into ...

(7) ... Push Right. This is a movement/position illustrated in SBS as steps 37-41 on pp. 112-113. Illustration sequence 6 on p. 67 of DOT shows it. Illustrations 7g and 7h on p. 78 of TCC show it, too. In Chinese, Push (to either side) is called an, pronounced "ON."

In Push Right, the weight moves from the forward (right) foot back onto to the rear (left) foot. The right foot's front comes up as the heel stays down (check this). The knees remain bent, with the rear (left) knee bent more than the front (right) knee. Then the weight transfer is reversed, with the weight coming back over the front (right) knee again. It is bent, while the knee of the rear (left) leg is pretty much straight.

As all this is happening, the hands uncross at shoulder level, with the fingers spread and pointed forward and with the palms down. Next, the hands arc back and down to waist level, with the elbows bending to accomodate. Finally, as the weight comes forward again, the hands come forward and up, fingers spread, palms out. This last motion constitutes the "push."

The combination Ward Off Left (peng), Ward Off Right (also peng), Roll Back (lu), Press (qi), and Push (an) is a standard one (though it can also be done in mirror image). It's called Grasp Sparrow's Tail.

(8) Next comes Single Whip Left, which SBS has as steps 42-52 on pp. 114-117. DOT's similar version is illustrated as sequence 7 on p. 67. The Single Whip Left shown in TCC is not quite the same, but there's a version of this pattern illustrated in drawings 9a, 9b, and 9c on p. 79. (I'd better admit up front that I'm not terribly clear on exactly how or how well the class version matches any of these.)

As shown in SBS, Single Whip Left has a dozen steps. From the final Push Right position, with weight and hands skewed to the right, the object is to pivot everything radically and rapidly to the left side. Then there is a rightward recoil, followed by a step back toward the left.

The DOT version looks roughly the same, perhaps with minor differences. From Push Right, the hands and arms are swung leftward through a broad shoulder-height arc as the torso pivots in the same direction. Meanwhile, the bent-knees weight also shifts briefly mostly onto the left foot.

The hands now reach nearly as far left as they can go, and the recoil begins. As the weight starts shifting back over onto the right foot, the left hand does continue moving just a bit more leftward. But the right hand does something interesting: it makes a "hook" with all fingertips meeting the end of the thumb and pointing downward, with the wrist maximally limp.

That "hook hand" (the right) is swept up and over toward the right as the body's weight comes fully over the right foot. The "hook" ends up at the height of the shoulder, or just above it, with the right elbow straight and the right arm sticking fully out to the right side of the body.

Now the left foot, which is currently not bearing any weight, is picked up, swung drastically leftward, and planted down again. Meanwhile, the left hand and arm are swung rightward in front of the jaw and, as the head and torso pivot around to the left — the head going further around than the torso — the body's weight now shifts forward. I.e., it goes in the direction the head now faces, which is 180° counterclockwise from the way it faced at the beginning of Single Whip Left!

As the weight goes over the left foot, the left knee bends, and the unburdened right leg straightens. This forward thrust of the lower body is accompanied by moving the left hand forward in the same direction, palm out, such that it could, if extended even further, be pushed into the face of a hypothetical opponent.

During all this pivoting and thrusting, the right hand, once "hooked" and in position, doesn't move! It winds up being carried behind. That is, the "hooked" hand is pointed in the direction opposite to that in which the head is now pointing. (And, no, I have no idea how this "hooking" of the off hand "helps" from a martial arts perspective.)

posted by eric @ 9:25 PM 0 comments

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 0 comments

My Buns and Tai Chi

Today I basically took the day off from Tai Chi, although I did manage to practice the form some. Instead, I took a 2.25-mile walk around my hilly neighborhood. Over the last 15 years I've done the route a thousand times ... literally. This was the first time I felt like I had wings on my heels. I thank Tai Chi for that.

Not only that, but my body felt way different. Like a well-oiled machine, I'd say.

My arms swung freely from my shoulders.

My legs knew no fatigue ... even going uphill.

My thigh-tops were enjoying unaccustomed contact with my pants legs, meaning my quads have bulked up.

And the tops of my buns were also rubbing nicely against the material of my trousers. It's been a long time since this 57-year-old male even had tops to his buns.

This is what Tai Chi has done for me over the last two months: made me a body-culture convert!

posted by eric @ 8:37 PM 0 comments

Taking Stock of My Tai Chi Experience So Far

It's been almost two months since I began, and I'm still doing Tai Chi ... and loving it! I think it's about time to take stock.

The most important thing I'd like to emphasize at this juncture is the mere fact that I haven't stopped. I'm not noteworthy for sticking with things. Especially things having to do with exercise and keeping the body in shape.

Why have I stuck with it? Tai Chi seems to be just hard enough. If it were too easy, I'd lose interest. If it were too hard, I'd also lose interest.

It's definitely a challenge. There hasn't been much about it that was easy for me to do the first time I tried.

But it also starts giving its rewards nearly right away. Just the feeling of accomplishment the second, or third, or nth time I try something and at long last get it right is great.

That's quite important to me personally. I was always, as a kid, real slow on the uptake when it came to doing physical things. I must have been ten before I got mad at my backwardness and taught myself to ride a bike. I didn't learn to swim until about age 12 or 13. At about that age I pretty much flunked using gymnastic apparatuses (apparati?) in gym class and developed such a complex about athletic pursuits that I found all sorts of excuses to get out of taking physical education. So now I'm getting my revenge. I'm actually able to do something that is physically challenging and succeed!

It's important also in a more universal sense, I think. There is something key about subjecting oneself to a discipline such as striving to do Tai Chi right, and then, albeit gradually, actually succeeding. Not that one ever masters it ... but one does see oneself getting closer to the mark than one could have managed to do before, and just making some progress toward an honorable goal is infinitely rewarding.

And now for some brief editorializing: I have to think that last point about subjecting oneself to some sort of personal discipline and as a result achieving noble goals explains why so many young people pursue the martial arts so avidly in their spare time. (Tai Chi, lest anyone forget, is basically a martial art.) I wonder whether there shouldn't be martial arts study in our schools. It would seem to be one of those things which unlock the mind and soul — music study is another — so that kids can perform their best in the subjects that "really mean something." Instead of stripping such "non-essentials" out of the high school curriculum, maybe we ought to be re-emphasizing them. End of editorial.

Another reward Tai Chi steps right up with is giving one the welcome feeling of actually enjoying having a body. One way to describe the "bodily" feeling is that Tai Chi practice and exercise makes my legs and torso feel "solid," like a tree trunk. It's as if my musculature has been turned into a strong "case" around by body. This really comes in handy when I do things like go up and down stairs. A lot of the time, I don't have to rely on hand rails to keep from putting too much strain on my creaky knees.

Yet another reward is rejuvenation, as promised by the subtitle of The Dao of Taijiquan: Way to Rejuvenation. My 57-year-old body feels the way it did at 30 ... albeit with a few extra aches and pains. Even athletes get those.

Plus, my balance is much improved. There's much less worry about tipping over or falling down the steps. I have mentioned that I'm a klutz, haven't I? Well, I'm much less of a klutz since I began Tai Chi.

And, by the way, most of my earlier complaints about back, knee, and shoulder soreness have moderated considerably. I take that fact as living proof that the Tai Chi novice should press on through minor start-up woes that stem from asking the body to do things it hasn't done in a long while.

Yet another reward I've experienced from doing Tai Chi is finding the Wu Chi or Standing Meditation position to be all it's cracked up to be. It really does bring on a relaxed, meditative state, as it floods the body with warmth and a feeling of well-being.

That in turn suggests that all the talk about Chi in the body is for real. It's not terribly easy for us Westerners, given how we do medical science, to believe there's some sort of energy in the body which is no more substantial than the steamy vapor coming off a bowl of warm rice. Where is it, we're inclined to ask? Prove that it exists with instruments or X-rays, we say.

But the fact that adopting a certain posture releases Chi in ways we can know and feel personally puts such quibbles to shame.

I could also mention that Tai Chi seems to have color="#009933"brought my high blood sugar down ... I'm a sort of borderline Type-2 diabetic, and before I took up Tai Chi, my readings had gone up to around 150 mg/dL. They're back down to the mid-130's now. But it's probably too early to tell whether this is just a temporary improvement.

And, oh, yeah, I can tell that I'm much more relaxed. 'Nuff said about that.

---

I should also report on the few drawbacks I've encountered. One is, as I say, the activation of stiffness and soreness in the body. My experience is that this is for the most part temporary — it dissipates as you continue doing Tai Chi — but nevertheless it is something that happens.

Another minor drawback, at least for me, is the feeling that I've added one more "must do" thing to my life and routine. Tai Chi is for life. It's not something you do once, like having an appendectomy.

Then, in what seems like a contradiction of that last point, is the fact that I can't maintain the pace of doing it every day. Not yet, at least. I find that about every third day has to be a day off for me, or weariness sets in. That may change as my body continues to adjust ... or it may not.

---

So that's it. The rewards of Tai Chi for me so far have definitely outweighed the drawbacks, and I can recommend Tai Chi to just about anyone interested in obtaining any of the former and willing to put up with the latter.

posted by eric @ 11:30 AM 0 comments

Joel Gottlieb's MS Tai Chi Blog

I'd like to put in a good word for Joel Gottlieb's MS Tai Chi Blog, available here. Joel recently posted a comment to one of my posts, Tai Chi and bladder control. That's how I discovered I have a fellow Tai Chi blogger ...

... but with an important difference. The difference is that Joel uses Tai Chi to manage his multiple sclerosis (MS).

Joel reports that due to MS he experiences/has:

burning or prickling... without an outside stimulus. Ataxia: inability to coordinate voluntary muscle movements; unsteady movements and staggering gait. Proprioceptive loss of sensation in legs. Neurologically-induced fatigue. Heavy legs.

In short, the nerves in his body do not function as once they did.

Which means that doing Tai Chi is a challenge in a different way to him ... and its benefits are even more important.

Joel has much to tell others who have MS and do (or are considering doing) Tai Chi. He also has a lot to say to us "civilians" who do not have a neurological disorder.

Thank you for your comment, Joel.

posted by eric @ 12:00 PM 0 comments

Breathing and Remaining Mindful

Yesterday something quite nice happened for me as I was in church. (As a Catholic, Saturday Mass attendance is optional for me, rather than attending on Sunday.)

I was way late getting to the 4 P.M. service. When I got there I was anything but tranquil. Then, part of the way through the liturgy, something clicked in. I noticed that I had begun breathing quite deeply, slowly, and comfortably ... and that a feeling of bodily warmth and complete mental contentment had washed over me.

I reflected that I was doing exactly what Tai Chi masters advise: breathing from the belly or dan tien.

Yes, I was actually breathing in everyday life (if being in church can be considered that) as I have started to learn to breathe while standing in Wu Chi posture or doing Tai Chi exercises. Not only was I not breathing just from the chest or upper lungs, I was managing to allow myself to exhale all the way. As I "watched" my breathing, it felt like there was a sort of internal "click" when that point was reached. Then I would watch myself inhale, easily, calmly, neither too deeply nor too shallowly, and also from the dan tien.

I was able to sustain that type of breathing fairly well, as the church proceedings went on, by means of remaining mindful of it. Mindfulness, I am coming to see, is what Tai Chi is really all about. It, mindfulness, is a kind of laissez-faire watchfulness in which the mind does not micromanage what the body is doing — in this case, breathing — but it does pay close attention to it and offers gentle hints and corrections from time to time.

This mindfulness did not interfere with everything else I had to pay attention to and do ... though I didn't sing any of the hymns, as I didn't want to add too much complexity to my breathing rhythms.

So the lesson here is that Tai Chi strengthens mindfulness as it strengthens the body and improves the breathing. That's quite a lot going for it, I'd say.

posted by eric @ 9:49 AM 0 comments

On Impatience

A month ago I wrote in A Breach of Wu Wei of hitting a wall. In my haste and greed to learn Tai Chi faster, I had violated the Taoist principle of wu wei, "taking no action."

Here from this web page of the Martial Arts Institute is a Japanese story which makes the same point humorously:

A young boy traveled across the country to the school of a famous Sensei teaching martial arts. When he arrived at the Dojo he was greeted by the Sensei, who said, "What do you wish from me?"

"I wish to be your student and become the finest martial artist in the land," said the boy. "How long must I study?"

"Ten years at least," the Sensei replied.

"Ten years is a long time," the boy said. "What if I study twice as hard as all the other students?"

"Twenty years," replied the Sensei.

"Twenty years! But what if I practice day and night with all my might?"

"Thirty years," the Sensei replied.

"Thirty years! Why is it that each time I say I will practice harder, you say it will take longer?"

"The answer is clear," said the Sensei. "When one eye is fixed on the final destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the way."

Natural as it may seem to be in a hurry, it's nothing but counterproductive.

posted by eric @ 7:29 PM 0 comments

The Bow Stance

There are certain stances and steps that crop up again and again in Yang-Style Tai Chi. When I described the opening movements of the Yang Long Form as we are learning it in class — see My Tai Chi Form (Part I) and My Tai Chi Form (Part II) — I could have shortened some of the descriptions by referring to them. One of the most important of these basic stances is the Bow Stance, sometimes called the Bow and Arrow Step or Arched Step.

Front Bow Stance Left

This web page has a thorough discussion of the Yang-Style Bow Stance, or actually two variations thereof. The first variation is called Front Bow Stance.

What is important is what everything but the hands and arms are doing; their positions depend on which particular movement the Front Bow Stance has been incorporated in. Everything else is the same from one Front Bow Stance to the next.

This is a Front Bow Stance Left because it happens to be the left foot that is the front foot. Front Bow Stance Right is the mirror image of this, with the right foot forward. In general, we see that in Front Bow Stance the front foot (whichever one it is) points in the same direction as the eyes and the trunk of the body. The front leg is bent nicely at the knee. Virtually all the weight is on that leg and foot.

Meanwhile, the rear leg is close to — but not quite — straight. It's hard to tell from this picture, but entire bottom of the rear foot is on the ground. The rear foot is turned out at a 45° angle to the forward axis of the body.

The top part of the trunk of the body is upright and vertical ... which means the lower part of the back is arched like a strung bow. Hence the name of the stance.

The Front Bow Stance is an integral part of the Single and Double Ward Off positions, Left and Right, that I described in the earlier posts. Likewise, it's basic to both Press (Right or Left) and Push (Right or Left).

Side Bow Stance Left

The second of the two variations of the Bow Stance is the Side Bow Stance. Here we see Side Bow Stance Left. Side Bow Stance Right is its mirror image.

Again, we ignore the particular hand positions — which in this case are those for the Single Whip Left movement I described in one of my earlier two posts on Tai Chi Form (notice the "hooked" right hand). The only essential difference between Side Bow Stance Left and Front Bow Stance Left is that in Side Bow Stance Left the torso opens up and rotates in the direction of the rear leg and foot (in this case, clockwise). The lower back remains arched like a strung bow.

posted by eric @ 12:53 PM 0 comments

My Physiatrist Said ...

I visited Dr. Collins, my physiatrist, today about the soreness in my back, right knee, and right shoulder.

First, the shoulder: he said it's a rotator cuff injury. The rotator cuff is the name of the large muscle that emerges from near the neck, travels down over the shoulder bone, and then is inserted through other soft tissue to join the big bone of the upper arm. Having a torn rotator cuff puts me in the same category as any number of famous baseball players and pitchers. Dr. Collins' advice: continue to strengthen it just as I have been doing.

The knee problem is probably chondromalacia patellae, a wearing down of the cartilage at the end of the thighbone, meaning the patella or kneecap rubs against it. I've had that problem before in my left knee — had arthroscopic surgery for it — and now it's cropping up in the right. Again, I should keep doing the Tai Chi to strengthen the quadriceps and so hold the parts of the knee more firmly in place.

As for the lower back, I found a record I had made that Dr. Collins had diagnosed both spondylolisthesis and spondylolysis in it some 10 years ago. I had forgotten that. He told me today that, loosely speaking, both are kinds of arthritis. Beginning to do exercise aggravated it/them.

Dr. Collins said it takes anywhere from six to sixteen weeks before problems like mine go away, after beginning an exercise program. I should keep at it, because in this case the cure is more of that which caused the symptoms in the first place.

I trust Dr. Collins' predictions, because a decade ago when I was having more intense back pain, he told me that as I got to be over 50, the pain would diminish — and it did. The reason was that at that age the vertebrae of the lower back do a sort of "auto-fusion." That eliminates a source of back pain, but at the cost of increased stiffness and soreness upon undertaking an exercise regimen.

Dr. Collins approved my doing the lower-back exercises in Backache: What Exercises Work, and he heartily endorsed continuing to use Tai Chi to build up my body. He was noncommittal about whether incorrect Tai Chi Walking posture set me up for my onset of stiffness/soreness, when I demonstrated the right way and the wrong way of doing it to him ... but he didn't say I was wrong about that, either.

He recommended painkillers like Advil, Tylenol, and Aleve, and also icing trouble spots after aggravating them. He did not say I should stop exercising and rest.

I mentioned the "bump" along the back of my spine, near the waist, which causes discomfort from contact with the floor when I do my back exercises. He said the feature was normal, and showed me his handy-dandy model spinal column to prove it. He said it is called a "something process," I believe. I forget the exact terminology. He also said it was most likely the one on my "L3" or third lumbar vertebra. Several of the vertebrae in this region have such protuberances.

So, all in all, a very favorable result.

posted by eric @ 3:08 PM 0 comments

More on Tai Chi as Viagra

Yesterday I made this post suggesting that, at least for this 57-year-old man, certain aspects of Tai Chi practice have the same effect as Viagra (which, be it noted, I haven't had occasion to try). They give me a "bóqĭ," which in Chinese literally means a sudden (or spontaneous?) rising or standing up. It's pronounced "BO-CHEE."

I am posting about this subject not to appeal to anyone's prurient interests. Rather, I am passing along my experience to those other men who might be interested in an exercise regimen that can "stand in" for Viagra or Cialis.

I find that experiencing a spontaneous boqi (I'll now drop the diacritical accents) has to do with elements of posture I'm incorporating into my life from my Tai Chi practice, and particularly with what I have learned from the Wu Chi position.

Specifically, in Wu Chi posture you imagine there is a "golden thread" tugging the crown of your head skyward. When I visualize that happening, I notice that the place where the back of my noggin joins the top of my neck and spine seems to pull itself backward and upward, elongating and stretching my neck in that direction.

When I do that particular posture alteration to what seems to me a maximal extent — along with other aspects of Wu Chi, that is — I find I can get a spontaneous boqi!

I just found that out in the bathroom as I was preparing for and taking a shower. In addition to practicing some of the other Wu Chi "tricks," such as rotating my pelvis slightly backward — yes, backward, in a way that may be idiosyncratic to me — I stretched "the back of my neck" backward and upward, which pointed my eyes and nose a little bit downward ... and I realized that it was not only my upper body which was standing up tall and straight.

This welcome effect persisted during my whole shower ... and I guarantee I was not thinking sexy thoughts. It just happened.

(Incidentally, I also noticed that adopting the same posture improved my singing in the shower radically. It seemed to get my breath control and the tension on my vocal cords just right. That's good, too. Pavarotti, look out!)


At this point, some more about the Chinese expression boqi. As I discuss it, I am also expermienting with ways to render the Chinese characters for boqi in the text of my post. 勃起 is the way it is written in traditional Chinese. How I managed to find and enter those characters (and I hope they show up as correctly in your browser as in mine) is instructive.

I happen to have a Macintosh computer, and it has built-in software that displays a character palette in any of several selectable views. Normally I use the Roman view, since we Westerners typically employ a Roman alphabet. But the palette also offers a Traditional Chinese view.

When that is selected, the palette can be manipulated to show what may well be, for all I know, any character in Traditional Chinese. (Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Japanese views are also available.) Say I want to enter the character for "bo2," the pronunciation of bo I'm dealing with here. To find it in the palette, I have to look up and select its radical in the upper-left panel of the palette.

The radical is that portion of a character that gives the character its meaning. Not all characters have radicals, but the vast majority do. It so happens that the radical used in 勃 is 力, "li4," pronounced "LEE," meaning "strength, power." It forms the right-hand portion of 勃. Despite appearances, it's drawn with two strokes. So I scroll down in the radicals panel until I start to see the two-stroke radicals, and then I continue scrolling until I find 力.

The next step is to find the actual character I want in the adjacent panel in the palette. To do this, I first must recognize the fact that the rest of the character — the part other than the radical, called the "phonetic" since it specifies the sound of the word — is drawn with seven strokes, for a total of nine. I scroll to the part of the characters panel that shows seven-stroke phonetics, and voilà. One of them is the "bo2" character I seek.

Then I just double-click on it, and it gets inserted in the text I am entering in the Blogger Edit Posts window. How this actually works, I have no idea. But I do note that I enclose the Chinese character in HTML that increases its "font size" by +4 for legibility.

What about "qi3"? The radical is 走, "zou3," pronounced "ZOH" to rhyme with "dough," with meaning "walk," "go," "move," etc. It has seven strokes, leaving a three-stroke phonetic in the ten-stroke 起. The palette gives only three three-stroke phonetics for this radical, and one of them is the right one! (Notice that this time the radical appears on the left-hand side of the actual character.)

posted by eric @ 11:44 AM 0 comments

Tai Chi as Viagra?

Today I was feeling a litle tired after three straight days of doing Tai Chi exercises combined with lower back exercises, so I decided to do just a moderate set of Fundamental Movements, after spending a few minutes in the Wu Chi posture. This was my first morning of approaching Wu Chi according to my newfound understanding of how to get from my normal — i.e., highly idiosyncratic — posture into that standard beginning posture, as I previously reported here.

Basically, to make a long story short, I was asking my pelvis to roll back more than before.

I wasn't far into the set of exercises when I noticed that they were causing me to manifest spontaneously that which some men take Viagra for!

I was happy to note that the manifestation persisted as I continued to do the exercises, which I thought both wonderful and odd. Wonderful, because we men love manifestations of this sort when they happen to us ... especially those of us who are getting on in age. Odd, because the exercises send a lot of blood to various parts of the body. That would seem to militate against its remaining concentrated in any one stiffened part.

My interpretation of this is a tentative one: there really is a link between Tai Chi, the Wu Chi posture, and the flow of subtle energy in the body which the Chinese call qi or Chi.

Chi is akin to bioelectricity, or nerve energy, or blood energy, or what-have-you, depending on who you ask. But it is more than that. It is a category poorly understood in the West. It can't be reduced to a matter of electrical potential or blood. It can't be reduced to anything at all ... and Western science is hard put to explain phenomena that can't be analyzed reductively.

So the reason why I found my own self "hard put" this morning is not one that is easy for us Westerners to comprehend. We just have to take it on faith that Chi is behind anything at all, really, which happens in the body.


It occurs to me that I would like to know the Chinese for the male bodily manifestation we call an erection. It's . The first character is "bó," pronounced as it looks, and it means "sudden(ly)" or "quick(ly)." It can also mean "flourishing, prosperous." The second character is "qĭ," pronounced "CHI." Among other things, it means "rise" or "stand up."

Notice that I have shown the Pinyin transliterations of these two Chinese words with diacritical marks accenting the vowels. This is because Chinese uses up to four different tonal inflections for vowels, plus a fifth vowel pronunciation with no tonal inflection. The "acute" accent over the vowel in "bó" indicates a rising tone. As this is the so-called "second tone" in the list, another way to represent the word if diacritical marks are not available is "bo2," where the "2" indicates the second tone.

Likewise, "qĭ" has the accent we call a "breve." It indicates the "third tone" in the list: a falling and then rising tone. The alternative form is "qi3." This tonal accent distinguishes this particular word from "qì," the word (also pronounced "CHI") whose literal meaning is "vapor" or "steam" and which represents the bodily energy or vitality referred to in the name Tai Chi. The vowel in "qì" has a "grave" accent that indicates the "fourth," or falling, tone. The character for this word, whose alternate rendering is "qi4," is .

There is also a high, level, "first" tone indicated by the accent called a macron, as in "qī," which means "seven" and is drawn as . Without accent, it's "qi1." (The unaccented "qi5" is apparently an interjection which means "fie!")

posted by eric @ 11:38 AM 0 comments

Wu Chi for me

Later in the day, after I posted Yet more on Wu Chi, I made a startling discovery.

I was playing with one of my cats, teasing him up on my bed with the Kitty Tease, which put me right by the full length mirror. I just happened to notice that I normally stand with my knees softened or bent about the right amount for standing in Wu Chi position!

I hadn't noticed that before!

So, I reasoned, given that fact, what do I have to do to assume Wu Chi posture? It was obvious in the mirror that my pelvis, the way I normally carry it, was too far forward. Perhaps if I poke my fanny out a bit ...

That alone wasn't enough, though. But I remembered that in Wu Chi the top of the head is being tugged upward by a "golden thread." What if I honor that dictum by slightly unbending my usually too-bowed upper spine, a process which just naturally causes me to inhale deeply? Yesssss! That's it! I immediately felt the head-clearing benefit of being in Wu Chi position.

Of course, I was standing with my feet in the right position, and also with my arms and hands in acceptable Wu Chi arrangement. Given those preconditions, it turns out all I have to do to enter Wu Chi is poke my fanny back, lift my head and neck, and breathe from the Tan Tien rather than from the chest!

What this means is that my ordinary posture is enough unlike most people's that some of the instructions for entering Wu Chi don't apply in my case. Such as the instruction to bend or soften the knee — already done! Such as the instruction to tuck the pelvis in — in my case, I need to untuck it by poking my fanny somewhat out. And such as the instruction to let my chest cave in — in my case, I need to open up my chest, since I normally have a pronounced upper-torso slouch.

I'm going to keep trying out this idiosyncratic technique for entering Wu Chi and make sure it really works for me!

Fair warning: don't try this at home. Your own everyday posture is probably different than mine.

posted by eric @ 4:56 PM 0 comments

Yet more on Wu Chi

It's Sunday. Today I skipped the Fundamental Movements and did the first nine Strength and Motion exercises from Step-by-Step Tai Chi, followed by the low-back stretching and abdominals-strengthening exercises from Backache: What Exercises Work.

I can report that my back and knee problems have been much reduced, though there's still some resicual stiffness and soreness. This, even though I've continued to exercise without a day off in three days.

Last night, I even tried some Tai Chi Walking, all the while being somewhat fearful it would make me sorry this A.M. But that didn't happen! Hallelujah!


I also took my first look at two books on Chi Gung I recently bought. Both are by Master Lam Kam Chuen, author of Step-by-Step Tai Chi. The Way of Energy is from the same publisher as Step-by-Step Tai Chi, and, like it, is filled with useful illustrations of the various positions and movements. Chi Kung: Way of Power is not as profusely illustrated, but its text seems relatively streamlined and straightforward. The two books complement one another nicely.

From them I learn that Chi Gung is not a bit simpler or less intricate than Tai Chi. It puts more emphasis on static positions such as Wu Chi, but it also utilizes movement. There is a close relationshipe between Chi Gung postures/movements and Tai Chi postures/movements. For example, Wu Chi leads off Tai Chi form, and also Chi Gung meditation.

Chi Gung is, however, the more esoteric. It specifically addresses Chi, its quantity, and its movement within the body.


I have already learned from these books some things that carry over into my Tai Chi practice. For example, in these books, as contrasted with Step-by-Step Tai Chi, Master Lam makes it clear that in the basic Wu Chi position — the "First Position" of Chi Gung — the amount of bend in your knees is not great. You simply "unlock" your knees. "You can," Master Lam says, "bend them ever so slightly." Still, you must "make sure they don't stiffen into the fixed, locked position."

Also, the arms dangle out away from the sides of the body. The illustrations in Step-by-Step Tai Chi are from the side and don't make this clear.

Also, to get the "ideal posture" with respect to the chest, you "exhale completely and allow your chest to drop."

Also, you simply "relax your hips and belly. Let the bottom of your spine unfold downward so that neither your belly nor your bottom is sticking out."

By "unfold" I take it that Master Lam means this:

(a) When you unlock your knees, your pelvis, if locked, may tend to follow your thighs forward and wind up folded upward, so let it relax and roll backward slightly, so that it unfolds downward..

(b) Or, if the pelvis is already relaxed and not following your thighs forward, it may tend to get locked in a bottom-stuck-out position. In that case, your spine winds up too folded downward. So unfold it upward by rotating the pelvis forward a bit.


Another thing I learned from the Chi Gung books is that in proper Wu Chi posture, the point on the crown of your head by which you imagine you are suspended by a "golden thread" is vertically in line with the top tips of your ears.

In turn, the Bai Hui (pronunciation: "BY HWAY"; meaning: "hundred meetings") point on the crown of your head is positioned vertically right above your Tan Tien, the point 3 centimeters below your navel and one-third of the way into your body, moving from front to back.

This is the point also referred to in this earlier post as the dan tien point (pronunciation: "DON TYEN"; meaning: "elixir field"). It has been said that in some meditation traditions you "contemplate your navel." To some extent in Chi Gung you conteplate — or are at least mindful of — your storehouse and pump for Chi, the Tan Tien.

The axis from Bai Hui to Tan Tien is, accordingly, plumb, meaning precisely vertical. This axis extends to the line between your feet which connects the points upon which your weight is centered. I assume these are the Bubbling Spring points I mentioned in my earlier posts. In terms of the front-to-back dimension of your feet, they are slightly forward of the middles of your feet. However, in terms of side-to-side weight-bearing, "the wright of your body rests in the middle of the soles of your feet.


In the Wu Chi posture, you are said to be "standing like a tree." These books tell me why. Imagine a line at the level just below your kneecaps. Above this line, your body can be imagined as the trunk and branches of a tree, "resting calmly between the earth and the sky." Below the line are the tree's roots, holding you firmly in position.

This is the imagery of which you are mindful as you do Chi Gung. It holds before you an awareness that you are solidly in contact with the earth as you are being stretched toward heaven by a golden thread attached to the Bai Hui point atop your head.


Now, after you have been long enough in the Wu Chi posture, you may move on during your practice session to the second Chi Gung position, Holding the Balloon. The way it is described is instructive.

From Wu Chi, you raise your arms into a particular position such that in your imagination you are holding a filled balloon to your chest. Your hands rest on this imaginary balloon — which can be thought of as somewhat squashed by your arms and hands. Your armpits rest on tiny imaginary balloons underneath them. Your elbows rest on slightly larger imaginary balloons.

The arm-raising comes after "a huge [imaginary] balloon takes your weight behind you, like a beach ball on the sand," Master Lam says. "Imagine you are simply resting your bottom on the edge of a high stool," he says, after he has just said, "Your knees bend as you sink downward. Your head, torso, and pelvic girdle remain gently aligned, exactly as they were in the first position."

And your separated thighs, because your knees are bent even more that in Wu Chi position, "gently hold one balloon in place."

This Holding the Balloon position, in terms of what is done with the lower body, is accordingly a more exaggerated crouch than basic Wu Chi. This is something of a revelation to me: that these basic postures vary with respect to the degree of crouch. Up to now, I had assumed they were all the same.

And so I was crouching too much for Wu Chi, and carrying that exaggerated crouch over into Tai Chi Walking. Bad mistake!

Enough for now!

posted by eric @ 11:04 AM 0 comments

Back exercises & more on Wu Chi posture

I reported in My Aching Back and My Tai Chi Posture that I've been contending with backache brought on, I think, by incorrect posture while Tai Chi Walking.

In order to offset that, I bought and am using the book Backache: What Exercises Work, by Dava Sobel and Arthur C. Klein.

I consider it an ideal book for my purposes. The textual information is brief, clear, and to the point, and I assume thorough and accurate. The main thing is the exercises, I would think, and they are described fully, lucidly, and tersely in words and also through use of an abundance of accompanying illustrations.

The bottom line is, you can just skip up to the exercises for, say, low-back pain, and begin doing them right away. It takes but a few seconds to acquaint yourself with the steps to do for each exercise.

And they're easy to do. They don't demand a lot of strain or effort, coordination or skill. They're intentionally gentle enough so that anyone can do them. Those that are more challenging are identified as such with words to the effect of, say, "You may not want to do this one until you first have mastered ... ".

For the past couple of days I've been doing the stretch-the-lower-back exercises and the strengthen-the-abdominal-muscles exercises after doing the Fundamental Movements from Step-by-Step Tai Chi. It takes well over an hour to get through them all, but it's well worth it. My back and knee pain are much diminished.

I've also been avoiding Tai Chi Walking for the duration, except for a few experiments with the revised posture I detailed in My Tai Chi Posture.


Nevertheless, I've been using the revised posture as the basis for those exercises that are compatible with it. Most of the Fundamental Movements except those that deal with the hips and back are compatible. The ones that involve the hips and back are straight-leg-only exercises.

I am finding that just assuming the correct Wu Chi posture has a clearing effect on the mind. It is not yet easy for me to "find" the right posture, though. My wont is to lock my pelvis either all the way forward or all the way back. Somewhere in the middle, between these extremes, is a "sweet spot" wherein the invovled muscles stay soft and wiggly. When everything is just right, the knees are also somewhat yielding, not locked in any particular degree of bend ... and it seems as if a certain amount (but not a lot) of the strain of maintaining the posture shifts down to the ankles.

So I'd hazard the opinion that the strain of maintaining the Wu Chi posture must be (a) minimized and (b) distributed over all involved joints and body regions, including upper body, lower back, hips, knees, ankles, and feet. When all is just right, I get the feeling of being "planted" firmly in place, and rock steady. And the head clears magically.

Which tells me that my usual standing and sitting postures — not necessarily walking or lying down — are way out of whack. So much so that I'm "kinking up" my Chi "hose," or I'm shutting down my Microcosmic Orbit, or something. When I use Wu Chi posture to "unkink" it or whatever, the beneficial effect is noticeable and immediate.


That the correct Wu Chi posture makes one feel "planted" or "rooted" firmly in place is no accident, by the way. After all, this is expressly a posture for Standing Meditation. Which means, on a practical level, that you're going to enter an altered, meditative, twilight state ... and you don't want to fall over!

And, on a more esoteric level, you are in that posture which best facilitates the flow of Chi from the Earth up into — and through — your body. It's almost like the bottoms of your feet are electrodes, and are making the best possible electrical connection with the "charge" of the Earth when you are in correct Wu Chi posture. Not that you feel any shocks or tingles, mind you. You just get a warm and fuzzy feeling that this is the way you are supposed to stand on the surface of your mother planet.

posted by eric @ 10:55 AM 0 comments

Knowing contentment vs. taking it to the limit

I said in What is the tao (Part 4) that the Taoist idea of "knowing when to stop" or "knowing contentment" is quite important. In fact, I think it has much in common with certain Christian ideas about chastity. As long as chastity is thought of as meaning "to experience things, all things, respectfully and to drink them in only when we are ready for them," and not just a synonym for sexual abstention, it is a way to the same "contentment" as following the tao.

That definition of chastity comes from Catholic priest Ronald Rolheiser, writing in The Shattered Lantern. I discuss it further in this post I made to another blog of mine.

It occurs to me that we in America today have gone to the opposite extreme. Instead of chastity, we have developed a "take-it-to-the-limit" culture. In somebody's apt phrase, we act as if we want to "live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse."

But, given what I said in earlier posts on the nature of the tao, we, as heirs of Platonic thought, could have done little else.

Take, say, Plato's ideas about an observable quality of certain material objects: roundness. Nothing in this world is absolutely, perfectly round, he said, but there is a Form or Idea of Roundness on a higher metaphysical plane. It (in our parlance) takes the quality of roundness "to the absolute limit."

Ditto, Plato's highest Idea, the Form of the Good. It takes goodness to the limit.

That which doesn't take roundness, or goodness, or whatever-it-is "to the limit," Plato basically said, suffers from a deficit of intelligibility ... or, more than that, a deficit of reality itself.

And we inherit that to-the-limit notion in our culture today. In fact, we've long had a take-it-to-the-limit culture in the West. That explains why we've also favored "thou shalt not" religions. It's why our God has been called the Grand Old Disapprover.

For if we are to take our lives to the limit, we need to be clear on what the limits are.

But now the hold of the Grand Old Disapprover over us has, for many people, been weakened by cultural change. Lots of people don't believe in God, or at least, not all that strongly. The venerable "thou shalt nots" don't much constrain them. They (in the 1960's expression) cheerfully let it all hang out. They act as if they have no shame (see this post in my other blog).

If they had a sort of "inner chastity" — an instinct to "to experience things, all things, respectfully and to drink them in only when ... ready for them" — the missing "thou shalt nots" wouldn't make all that much difference. Taking it to the limit would not be the watchword of their lifestyle.

The Taosim of the Lao-Tzu or Tao Te Ching is a prescription for "inner chastity": knowing contentment, knowing when to stop. It promotes the opposite of taking it to the limit, and it does so without resorting to a bunch of "thou shalt nots." I think we in the West really need something like it just about now.

posted by eric @ 1:16 PM 0 comments