The Waist Turns & The Hips Swivel

“… the waist turns and the hips swivel.” This statement has been the topic of Justin’s verbal teaching and demonstrations in videos sent to the annual teacher conferences over the past few years. In it Justin shows the strokes of a baseball batter, golfer, and tennis player. In viewing these intriguing messages, I often wondered what that meant, and more importantly, was I doing this in my own T’ai Chi Chih practice? I had the opportunity to ask Justin (during a visit a few years ago) about the hip swivel and he said, “Don’t worry about it; you are doing it already.” A bit flustered about not knowing what I was doing, I asked how he would explain this to a new student. He said it was as though the pelvis, besides turning at the waist, was also moving in an elliptical shape – an almost imperceptible oval. I noticed this happening in the continual side-to-side movements of Carry the Ball to the Side; Pulling Taffy, Variation #3, Perpetual Motion; and Passing Clouds. The waist turns (or opens) slowly as the weight shifts to the first side, creating the imperceptible forward oval. It then returns to the other side with the back part of the imperceptible oval. In writing this, I must warn everyone about looking like you are using a hula hoop or describing a figure 8, or of trying to do something artificially. (See Justin’s book, Spiritual Odyssey, on page 15.) What I would like you to do is to be aware of what is happening in the pelvis during this movement. Most likely you are, as I was, already incorporating the swivel naturally in your form if you are flowing from the center (the tan t’ien), one of the six principles of movement found Justin’s Photo Text and Spiritual Odyssey.