It’s Not About the Hands

Did you know that T’ai Chi Chih is done primarily below the waist? Do you move as though this is true? Justin Stone emphasized this regularly. I’ve come to appreciate it more and more over the years of practice. It simplifies how we move, reduces muscular effort and encompasses most of the basic principles of how to move for increasing Chi flow.

The tan t’ien is about two inches below the waist, so if we flow from that center, we are moving primarily below the waist. As the tan t’ien moves forward, the weight shifts forward, moving the hands along with it. It’s as though the hands and arms have no power to move on their own. They can only move with the tan t’ien and the shifting of the weight, forward and back, side to side, or even up and down in a few movements.

When first learning TCC, it is natural to pay more attention to the hand movements. However, at some point we discover that the hands are powered from below the waist. Even though most people first feel the flow of Chi in their hands, it comes from below. The Chi is rooted in the feet, comes up through the legs, is distributed by the waist and manifests in the fingers.

As we relax, moving with softness and continuity, the Chi flows smoothly through the meridian channels of the body. Letting go of muscular effort allows the hands and arms to be moved by the tan t’ien and weight shift.

We focus on the soles of the feet, feeling the weight shifting slowly and gradually from one foot to the other. At the end of the full weight shift, there is a moment when you are no longer moving forward, but haven’t yet started moving backward, a moment of stillness. It’s like when you throw a ball straight up in the air, there’s that moment when it’s no longer going up, but it hasn’t yet started coming down.

Next time you practice TCC I invite you to really feel your way through the movements in the soles of the feet. Instead of moving the hands and arms yourself, let the weight shift move them for you softly, effortlessly. May you enjoy doing TCC primarily below the waist.