Natural, freer breathing?

Improved body use, decreased muscular tension and a more flexible body all result in easier, fuller breathing. The student learns how to slow, lengthen and deepen the breath in everyday life.

This leads to a more calm, emotionally-centred sense of being.

Strengthening & flexibility

The effectiveness of tai chi as a physical exercise can be overlooked. It is easy to dismiss the seemingly mild training as being ineffectual.

However, tai chi provides a very effective workout. It moves the body in a safe, therapeutic, healthy manner and has no known side-effects.

There is a substantial amount of evidence to support tai chi's medical and health claims.

Tai chi seeks moderation. Not too much and not too little. Neither passive nor overly-active. 'Doing less' and 'letting-go' are big themes in the training.

Not forcing

Students are taught how to allow things to gradually unfold, rather than forcing a result. Forcing promotes resistance whilst allowing leads to release.

Gentleness is cultivated. The body is treated with care and respect.

Finding balance

As a person becomes more balanced - physically and mentally - their health naturally improves. Balance is fundamental to tai chi. We must become aware of what is balanced in our lives and what is not...

Without awareness, life can become hurried and stressful. The emphasis in tai chi is upon enjoying yourself and being happy with who you are and how you are living your life.

 Yin and yang are not in competition or conflict with each other but are complements of each other.

Balance is not a state but a process.

The Tao is a process, a dynamic condition of balanced moving. 

(Ray Grigg)

 Front and back arise from each other.

Difficult and easy determine each other.

High and low define each other.

Long and short measure each other.

Sound and silence echo each other.

Being and non-being are each other.

(Lao Tzu)

 

Real life...

In reality, we typically experience a mixture of positive and negative events. Sometimes things go in our favour, sometimes they do not.

Although this is less palatable than continual success, it is simply how things are. Balance involves good and bad, difficult and easy, favourable and unfavourable. This is what balance means...

Seeking to avoid the negative?

Usually, we desire one element (success) whilst seeking to avoid a less desirable alternative (failure). Happiness without sorrow. Health without illness.

Unbalanced is the norm?

Do you sleep well? Are you clumsy? Is your life hurried and rushed? Do you have time for yourself? Is your back aching or stiff, especially around the base of the neck and the shoulders?

Are your moods erratic? Do you get headaches a lot?

Most people experience imbalance: it often involves work, relationships, diet, poor body use and careless exercise. People come to accept the lack of balance in their lives and do not imagine that there can be another way.

 Research shows that people’s ability to stand on one leg is an indicator of health and that getting better at standing on one leg can add to fitness and potentially lifespan. The inability to balance on one leg for 20 seconds or longer is linked in otherwise healthy people to an increased risk of small blood vessel damage in the brain and reduced ability to understand ideas.

The human body, when standing upright, is inherently unstable. We have a very small base of support relative to our height and width. When in good health we rely on our central and peripheral nervous system to integrate all the information coming in from our balance senses (eyes, inner ears and feedback from muscles and joints). We then engage the right muscles (feet, ankle, leg and core muscles, sometimes even the arm muscles) at the right time to make the necessary adjustments to our posture to stay upright.

(Professor Dawn Skelton)

 My aim is only to move forward.

(Afro Samurai)

Don't pull your punches!

A well-practiced student hits comfortably and easily, with their hands finding their own way to the targets. They are also used to being hit and do not flinch from fear.

When a punch is pulled, both the attacker and the defender suffer:

1. Inability to assess range accurately
2. No sense of commitment
3. Unaccustomed to the threat of actually being hit
4. Unfamiliar with impact
5. Inability to counter-attack effectively

An unskilled striker will often hurt their own hand when they hit their opponent because they are not accustomed to impact.

The bite...

Upon impact, your hand/elbow/knee sinks slightly into the opponent before bouncing back off again. This process occurs naturally and need not be contrived.

If you pull off too soon, 4 ounces of pressure has not been established and the power will diminish.

 

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction

Do not push on impact. That way, the kinetic energy will travel out of your body instead of just bouncing back. Your intention goes through the opponent. Your punch does not go through your opponent. The effect goes inside your opponent.

How much of the force you are delivering is actually going into your opponent?

If you are tense, then much of it will bang off your attacker's body and back into you. There is a concussive shockwave that travels along your arm, into your spine and throughout your body.

This is not good for your health. This is why 4 ounces of pressure is fundamental. The moment of contact must be heavy, soft and penetrating. Do not push.

Biofeedback

You need to feel what happens when you physically strike somebody.

Do you feel a jarring, unpleasant jolt upon impact? Adverse feedback up your arm and into your neck? Did the blow have the intended effect? Were you hurt yourself? Hitting another person skilfully may not be as easy as you imagine.

 Ideally, you should end by actually hitting something. When you practice explosive technique just by doing taijiquan, your own antagonistic muscles stop your fist or foot.

(Frederic Delavier)