New Meaning in Movement

Hope Ridley, San Mateo, CA

Recently I made a discovery for myself regarding the 20 moves of T’ai Chi Chih. It was as though a light went on and it helps me explain the moves better when teaching.

What I’m talking about is the fact that each move contains both tension and release to relaxation. I have heard “softness and continuity” so long I didn’t realize the tension part. For example–in Bird Flaps Its Wings, we tense wrists as we flip out and then release to softness when coming back to face hands in front of the body. Even in moves like the platters there is a little less relaxed part as we circle close to the chest before releasing to softness as we circle away from the body.

Check for yourselves. Every move has that formula. So interesting to me and it helps me get more out of each move by being conscious of the release.

If everyone else has discovered this already, please forgive my mentioning it.