Around the Platter Variation: Two Teachers

Around The Platter Variation – No Variation “Across The Pond”

BY EV HANSON, SIDLESHAM, WEST SUSSEX, UNITED KINGDOM

This is the second movement using the forward/backward weight shift. Let’s first review the feet. Sink into the ground with slightly bent knees. Shift the weight to the right foot. Lift the left foot and place the heel straight in front of you. Shift the weight softly to the left foot until the weight is entirely on that foot. This bends the front leg and straightens the back leg. When the knee reaches the toes, move slightly from the T’an T’ien, lifting the back heel slightly off the floor. Then slowly shift the weight back to the back foot, straightening the front leg and bending the back leg, ending with resting your weight on the back leg. Repeat this movement several times – envisioning massaging the soles of your feet in a bubbling thermally heated spring. Bring the left foot back and repeat the movement on the right, reversing the movement.

Now let’s look at the arms and hands in conjunction with the forward/backward leg movement. This is a variation of Around the Platter that adds the principle of polarity. Start the movement with hands at chest level, palms facing the floor, fingers slightly apart, soft wrists tracing a circle. Place the left heel in front and form a ball with the hands (feel the polarity) in front of the left shoulder. Shifting the weight onto the front foot, carry the ball forward, stacking the spine like a pile of smooth rocks. Reaching the forward-most point, gently open the hands and release the ball to the ground as the circle is completed clockwise around the platter, while shifting the weight to the back leg. Repeat this movement nine times; come back to the resting pose.

Repeat the movement with the right leg forward, forming the ball near the right shoulder, carrying the ball and gently releasing it in a counter-clockwise direction around the circle. Repeat the movement nine times; come back to the resting pose.

Forming the ball on the side of the front leg and moving the circle towards the back leg allows the weight shift to move the arms naturally. This in turn allows the Chi to flow through the open meridian channels in our body.

Around The Platter Variation – Challenges Overcome

BY RON RICHARDSON, TUPELO, MS

This movement is challenging because of the position of the hands as the student holds (or tries to hold) a ball of energy. Most students are hesitant to put the hands in a position that says, “I am holding a ball of energy that looks and feels like I am holding it.” One reason for this hesitancy is the student finds it hard to imagine that a ball of energy is really being held. This is indicated when the hands, in an upright position, are open on the front side as the student moves forward. It appears as though the student is pushing the ball of energy. This may mean that the thought of actually holding a ball of energy is not taken seriously. A second reason is that when doing so, balance is slightly aggravated. The impulse is to guard against being out of balance. Open hands may be an attempt to deal with the awkwardness that comes with this variation part of the movement. This is normal but it also takes gentle reminders to make the needed refinement.

I demonstrate Variation by putting my hands in the Around the Platter (ATP) position in front of my chest. I move my hands, circling to the left, as my body moves forward. When my hands are in front of my left shoulder I begin to gently cup my hands around a ball of energy. They are now in an upright position. I begin letting go of the ball of energy by gradually opening the hands and bringing them into an ATP position at the front of the circle thus ending the variation part of the movement. My hands continue moving in an ATP position, circling around back to the front of the chest where I again cup my hands around a ball of energy in front of the left shoulder. After a second time around, I then ask the students to follow me with an emphasis on feeling the ball of energy.