Swinging & stepping

I've picked up small details from lots of sources apart from tai chi that have influenced the way I do the movements. Observing how squash & tennis players play their shots, how batsmen bat. How swimmers move, how divers dive. As a musician I know rhythm, the phrasing of movement. The stepping in tai chi should be smooth, very close to natural walking but with more waist turn, deliberate sinking with every step. One of my current students Troy I taught in a different way because his movements were raw but strong, so I showed him a stepping pattern from the form both sides, sent him down to the carpark & back like XingYi. Taiji patterns are usually repeated just a few times but Troy was doing 100 metres more, turning around & returning. Step sink swing, step, sink swing. Know where your centre line is all the time, swing just enough. Allow the arm to fall by its own weight, know the cardinal points. He did the one pattern until he'd nailed it. He kept showing up & doing that, no problem. But he did have a massive anger problem, road rage. He rang me about hypnosis & I told him to come & train with me for nothing, so he did. A year later his short form is relaxed, loose, memorised. He's training to do security work. Better work than night shift @ the saltworks so he shows up when he can. He's been keen to know the applications & has sometimes launched himself @ me without warning which has been good for me, has amused, amazed the others because even though Troy has a lot of strength & focus I was able to divert, was nice to know that my receiving skills are spontaneous & loose. I continue to learn a lot from my students & it keeps my own training relevant.

Variations on the swinging techniques - 1

With the feet together - double weighted as if preparing to do a standing broad jump or bunny hop the leg spring - torso bend - rocking motion is similar to riding a horse @ a canter. These core movements come from using the leg bows & the spine bow. The Chinese often refer to Mah, horse as the stance, feet in the stirrups which is quite different to pedalling a bicyle with a narrow saddle. If from the double weighted stance one turns as a rider on horseback to shoot an arrow to the side or even further, behind especially - it is essential that the stance is sunk & solid. This is all back to basics.

Many people are taught tai chi & a other martial arts by the hands here, step here method - learning stepping long before they have learned to sink into the saddle. As the saying goes, if you can't stand, you can't fight. But more than that if you can't sit in the saddle properly your balance - strength - stability are questionable. Back to the archer in the saddle discharging arrows left - right, a 90% spin around or even more if turning to shoot directly behind, turn 360. The flexibility & stability of the waist is paramount.

Then there is the Yin Yang, the + & - of movement & of the internal flow of Q which is stimulated by sinking the whole foot into the earth.

In 2005 our group walked with Bi Shirfu in the Lao Shan Mountains just outside Qingdao. Before dawn we crammed into the small van & went off on adventure, nothing much said. As I am a good deal older I said I'll go ahead when we got out at the bottom of the track. I walked steadily & after an hour or so found some people selling trinkets & water. I bought a bottle of water & continued. Midmorning I was surprised to meet a young monk in traditional grey with leggings. We bowed, smiled said, 'Ni Hao,' bowed & smiled again. He was as surprised to meet me as I was to meet him.

By midday I came to another water station with a good variety of Daoist & Buddhist items for sale so I bought a couple of things while I waited for the group to catch you. They'd met the monk & Bi Shirfu had had a jovial chat with him. Yes, they said, he was surpised to meet 'white uncle' earlier. They'd stopped to chat & take photos. I asked if we could go into the small Daoist temple nearby. Bi Shirfu asked the gatekeepers. The reply was, 'it's ok to go in if you pray.' So we folllowed Bi Shirfu. I picked up joss & lit them after Bi following his gestures carefully finally placing the burning incense sticks into the sand in the same brass vessel. He turned to me & spoke. Matthew said, 'he's asking what did you wish for?' I said that I had just been following his gestures as carefully as I could. Bi Shirfu spoke again. Matthew translated, ' he says, 'you should have wish for your wife's leg.' I must have told Bi Sirfu earlier that my wife had had the veins of one of her legs 'stripped' & that it had been a hard day's work for the surgeon.

The downhill section in the afternoon was interesting. Many people struggling up steep steps without handrails, some in lighters being carried by porters. Despite the large numbers of pilgrims, very little conversation. The water from mountain stream crashing down the ravine & the clouds swirling entranced the people. Many people were wearing trinkets they'd bought. Talismans to keep the memories alive. Daoism, the love & respect for mother nature is alive & well in modern China. At the exit we went to look thru a newly renovated temple complex. Even tho going there was obviously 'something to do' on a nice day there was a feeling in the air that the ancient traditions of China that were hammered under Mao are being valued again by the government & the people.

Bi Shirfu is Michael & Matthew Corrie's teacher of 'Mei Hwa TangLang Taiji.' They met Bi Shirfu when they were teaching English in Qingdao in the late 1990s & return ever year or so to stay with him personally, with his seniors, or with other people he finds are able available. Matthew & Michael started training in my backyard with Li Rong Hu my friend from Shanghai in 1989 when they were still in high school. While we were staying in the village with Bi Shirfu's father Bi arranged for Pan Laoshur, his kungfu sister come teach us Tui Shou. She came every day for 10 days & demonstrated Bagua forms, sword routines apart from training us. She spoke rapidly in Chinese & slapped us around to fix our postures. I looked a Matthew & he shook his head, the Chinese was far too fast for him. So we just followed & we learned a lot just because we had to watch carefully. Pan began training with her father from the age of 8 & had been a professional 'kungfu' teacher all her life. This morning Dave & I stood on the riverbank with our backs to the sun & did some of the patterns we learned from Pan to finish the session & to absorb some fresh qi.