Four Aspects Warrant Special Attention

Carry the Ball to the Side is one of the T’ai Chi Chih moves that clearly demonstrates the hands/arms following the weight shift. Because it’s easy to demonstrate this principle to students, they can feel that principle more easily. Allowing the arms to follow the movement of the legs as they step to the side (as the weight shifts from side-to-side) helps one feel that aspect more clearly. It is almost impossible for the arms to move ahead of the weight shift without causing confusion in the movement.

Another part is the greater emphasis on one hand over the other during the lower part of the curve of the hand movement. Though this might not seem like a major part of the movement, it does in fact have a definite influence on the effect of the movement. I find that when I emphasize the leading hand (the hand pushing the ball), there is a much stronger sense of the movement of the Chi.

Complete shifting of the weight is another principle that very much affects the quality of any movement and affects the speed of the movement. The more I concentrate on doing a complete weight shift, the more the movement slows down – the more effective it becomes.

The final aspect of the movement is the swiveling of the hips. What I have found is that many practitioners have been doing this for some time even before emphasis had been placed on it recently. At the 2008 conference, we had the opportunity to work with it more consciously. I had a difficult time with the swivel because it felt artificial; it was very distracting to concentrate on it as I practiced the movement. Frustrated, I let go of the emphasis temporarily and just practiced as I had been. To my amazement, I found that I had been doing it without knowing it. It’s true that the swivel is minute but it is there nonetheless. And, although there is no directive saying that the hips move back on the down stroke and forward on the up stroke, that seems the most natural flow.