Five Things That Never Change In TCC Practice

After teaching T’ai Chi Chih for many years, it dawned on me that some things never change throughout the movements. When I started using this idea in my classes, students liked it and I could immediately see an improvement in how they moved. The five things are:

The shape of the hands: While the position of the hands changes often, the shape of the hands (relaxed and slightly rounded, fingers separated) does not. It’s almost as if at the beginning of practice you put on a pair of invisible magic gloves that hold your hands in this soft, comfortable position for the duration of the practice.

This is the most important of the five things that never change. When the hands are softly relaxed (not collapsed, of course), the rest of the body is more likely to relax. When one’s hands are tense it’s almost impossible to relax the wrists, arms and shoulders, thus hindering rather than encouraging the flow of the Chi.

The position of the shoulders: They remain down, never rising up toward the ears, which is a common mistake with beginners. How often do we see the shoulders rising as the hands/arms rise in Rocking Motion?

The position of the head: The head remains up, never down. This is helpful for those who have a tendency to lower their head when they lower their hands. Our motto becomes, ‘Head up, shoulders down.” They seem to go together.

The spine remains vertical: There is no leaning in any direction: forward, back, or to the side. The legs do the work of carrying the erect, but relaxed, torso wherever it needs to go.

The elbows always point down: I borrowed this from a story in The Vital Force. Imagine that your elbows have weights on them, so that no matter what position the arms are in the elbows are pointing down, not out to the side, as we often see in the “Taffies”, and not pulled up into a straightened arm, as is often seen in Push Pull.

This list could be extended, of course, but these five points, when introduced early and reviewed at the start of each session, easily address some habits that beginners almost universally develop, and which can take the longest to correct.