Questions & Answers: Daughter in the Valley

Daughter in the Valley

Question: Would you clarify the second half of Daughter in the Valley, regarding the placement of the hands as they are being drawn back toward the face? Jeanne Jacobs, Stanwood, WA

Dear Jeanne: Thank you for your question about clarifying the return movement of the hands on Daughter in the Valley, the complementary movement pattern to Daughter on the Mountaintop.

Justin and I differ slightly in the way we execute this particular movement, and since Justin is the originator of T’ai Chi Chih, you might prefer to consider his explanation. Since you asked me, I will do my best to describe and explain how and why I perform the movement as I do.

The basic formula for each T’ai Chi Chih hand movement is: half of the particular circular pattern is accomplished while shifting the weight from one foot to the other, then the completion half of the circular pattern is accomplished as the weight shifts back again to the beginning foot. This applies to front-to-back movements as well as side-to-side movements.

Justin intentionally named the 2 “Daughter” movements to generally describe their complementary patterns. Daughter on the Mountaintop signifies that we start with the hands at a low position in order to raise them to a high position (mountaintop), while shifting the weight to the forward foot. This accomplishes half of the circle, and as the weight shifts to the rear foot, the circle is completed by bringing the hands gradually back to their low starting position. Daughter in the Valley is essentially the opposite idea, though the hands describe a slightly different, reverse pattern of Daughter on the Mountaintop.

Daughter in the Valley signifies that the hands “start high to go low,” with “low” being the hand position from which we begin our returning portion of the movement. Let’s go through the complete pattern as I understand it:

Daughter in the Valley Notes

Center your weight fully on your right foot, knee bent, with your left foot extended to the front, resting on the heel. Your hands are a few inches in front of your shoulders in a pushing posture with palms facing forward, fingertips upward.

While gradually shifting your weight forward, simultaneously bring your hands out away from your sides and downward in a nearly vertical descent – an arcing downward motion that describes the bottom half of a circle – until the palms nearly meet, 2-3 inches apart at the instant that the weight is fully displaced on your left, forward foot. The hands are approximately 1 foot above the left knee, fingertips down, with arms nearly fully extended. The objective of “starting high to go low” is accomplished at this halfway point.

To continue the movement: as the weight gradually shifts to your rear (right) foot, simultaneously lift your hands upward, out away from your torso, with arms nearly fully extended. Your hands remain 2-3 inches apart during this ascent until you reach the double weighted phase of the weight shift. At this double weighted phase, your hands have reached shoulder height and they are still out away from your torso, with arms nearly fully extended. From this point, as the weight continues to shift to the back, your hands begin to separate while being drawn back toward your shoulders in a horizontal “V” shape, until they reach the starting position (pushing posture) at the precise instant that the weight is fully displaced on the rear (right) foot.

From my understanding, based on practice and compliance with the principles of movement delineated in the “T’ai Chi Classics,” to the best of my ability, the above description of Daughter in the Valley is sound. In my opinion, if the hands rise prior to the backward shifting of weight (returning), proper synchronicity is broken and the potential unification of flow is severed, because the hands push up independent of the leg movement, which the T’ai Chi Classics refer to as a “hollow move.” In other words, if after having arrived fully on the front foot we find ourselves pushing our hands upward before shifting our weight to the back, we are making an empty hand movement, without the simultaneous power of the shifting weight to support it.

To summarize: Daughter in the Valley “starts high to go low” (Valley). The general formula for all TCC movements is to describe the first half of the circle while shifting weight from one foot to the other, then to complete the circle while shifting the weight back again. The hands reach the extreme positions of the particular circular pattern at the instant the weight becomes fully centered on either foot. If we deviate from this basic principle of movement (formula), we are moving hands independent of the legs, and therefore miss the potential power of the movement. T’ai Chi is done primarily from the legs and waist, without separate hand movements independent, “ambitious hands” are not T’ai Chi hands. If you find that you are performing what might be called “Daughter Halfway Up the Valley Wall,” you might want to pattern the movement as described here, and you will likely find that you get more “juice” from the movement.

JOY,

– Steve