Issue 78 - Tse Qigong Centre

Shoulder To The Wheel
I
have always been impressed and
fascinated by my Sifu’s Taiji. When I
watch him perform a slow form I can
see quite clearly how his body opens and
closes with each posture in a very
dynamic way, how the upper body
reflects the energy of the legs. For
example, in the move “Jin Gang Comes
Out From The Temple”, I can see the left
side of the chest opening up from the
push of the right foot. This is known as
Yin/Yang ribs – no, not a delicacy from
your local restaurant, but an example of
the waist governing upper body energy
via the push of the legs.
Some moves, such as “Lazily Tying
The Cloth”, contain not only an opening
of the front of the shoulder but also a
prior opening of the rear of the shoulder.
“White Crane Spreads Its Wings” contains
both, plus a forward spiral of the point
of the shoulder. It’s like putting your
shoulder to an enormous rotating wheel.
So, Taiji is quite complex, but endlessly
absorbing too.
Our forms can be performed in
so many different ways. If we pay
particular attention to the opening and
closing of the upper body, usually in a
fairly high stance, taking care also to be
nice and straight and upright in postures
There is something very addictive about Taijiquan. You can
get lost in practice as there is so much to see and so much to do.
However, we must always remember to train “Smart” and then we
can make good headway.
such as “Jin Gang Pounds The Mortar”
and some of the kicks, our routines leave
us quite light and energised. However,
leg strength is important too and if we
stay low, particularly through
the longer forms, making it
harder also to work the
waist, then we really
feel it at the end
(or about a third
“Some moves
contain not only an
opening of the front, but
also a prior opening
of the rear of
the shoulder.”
page 10 Qi Magazine Jan/Feb/Mar 2006
of the way in if I’m honest!).
We can make our movements big
and round or accentuate the various Fa
Jing (explosive energy) opportunities such
as “Single Whip” or the shake just before
“High Pat On Horse” in the Xin Jia. When
we sink or sit down on one leg we should
be careful to distinguish between these
and other postures which may require an
active (ie- pushed) transfer of weight from
one leg to another. It’s a bad habit to
simply rest the weight on one leg if the
posture requires that we should have
pushed our weight over from the other
side. A good example of this is the
opening moves before “Wade Diagonally
Forward”. If we don’t “push” the weight
over, we can’t open the upper body
properly either.
Smaller details are important too.
Too many Taiji players keep the fingers
open on the pushes. We should close
our fingers and the Hegu acupuncture
points (between thumb and
forefinger), thus bringing strong
energy to the palms and the base
of the fingers. It also makes it
harder for an opponent to
grab or twist our joints.
When we’re opening up
the arm in a circular
fashion, for example in
“Single Whip” or “Lazily
Tying The Cloth”, we
shouldn’t tilt the little
finger too far upwards,
this raises the shoulder too
much – keep the hand
slightly flatter.
At the risk of
repeating what I’ve said in
previous articles, the hips
are fundamental. (See a
thousand previous
rhetorics, all entitled “It’s
always the hips!”).The
inguinal creases in
front of the groin
should always be
hollow as if
we’re sitting
down. If the
hips aren’t right,
t h e n n o t h i n g
else will be – it’s that
i m p o r t a n t . Bad hips
can cause the knees to
buckle in and give pain and will
also affect the shoulders.
So there’s always something to
improve in our Taiji, the forms should
always be new and exciting. All we need
is another fifty lifetimes to put our
shoulder to the wheel
by Julian Wilde.
jules@qimagazine.com