Hip Swivel

For many T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) teachers the hip swivel was never introduced during their learning of TCC. It is not a movement that is used in all the movements, but it is used in all the side-to-side movements. Justin took every opportunity to demonstrate it because it is so important and because many incorrectly thought we were doing what he told us to do. He always made it look so easy, and it is. However, the tendency is to add more movement than is necessary. 

The movement is done from the waist down with almost no movement from the waist up, except for the movement of arms and hands. It is done with the hips. The swivel starts with a slight shift of the hips towards the back of the body in a slight curve — from right to left as the hands carry the ball across the bottom curve of the shape they are making with their hands and wrists. Then, as the hands move across the the top of the curve, we let our hips make a slight tilt towards the front of the body, feeling the Chi as it moves from left to right.

If you are wearing a belt with a buckle (or if you have fastened a pin to your clothing to where your belly button is), you have a very good way of demonstrating the movement of the hips without your shoulders turning. Be sure that you don’t stiffen your shoulders. Relax and let them move slightly, perhaps the width of your thumb.

When giving instruction for the side-to-side movements, Justin would also say: “Nose to the front.” Doing this would prevent our head from leading the movement instead of feeling the movement flow from our all-important tan t’ien. In fact, keeping our nose to the front is important in other movements such as Around the Platter, Variation of Around the Platter, Working the Pulley, and others where we might let our nose and head take the lead instead of the tan t’ien.

Mindful of the tan t’ien, we increase our remembrance of our True Home, which keeps us from thinking too much and increases our ability to ground the Chi. Grounding the Chi is one the most important things to do during our practice. The benefits are numerous. Balance, awareness, and stability are necessary to everyone, from our first steps through older age. I was recently watching a program about a couple on a date. The passenger reminded the driver to play attention to their driving instead of turning away from the road during their conversation. Awareness can save our life. It teaches us many things especially to love and share the Chi.