What This Trainer Has Learned

Having taught teacher accreditation courses and intensives for several years, some recurring teaching techniques have become standard for me. These tips have surfaced over and over again in helping folks to overcome weaknesses in posture and to experience how correct movement feels.

Justin often reminded us that, “We do T’ai Chi Chih mostly with the waist and the wrists.” The fact is, when the wrists (and whole upper body) are not soft, it is because the waist holds tension. Another way to say this is that when looseness of movement is not allowed in the waist, or the practitioner fails to let go in the waist, (as during Rocking Motion at the beginning of one’s routine), the Chi will only flow weakly.

I have found that one useful antidote to this challenge is the notion of setting up both forward-backward and side-to-side movements by sliding down the wall. As the knees bend and the body sinks down, the lower back relaxes (becoming somewhat flatter), the buttocks tuck under and the tailbone drops, feeling as if pointing downward. Once a person feels this movement in the waist (it is also felt very much in seated TCC), he or she is more likely to feel waist flexibility/looseness while shifting the weight. For this reason, I often start new students with Rocking Motion sitting down (provided that appropriate, armless chairs are available). Folks tend to learn TCC by moving the upper body, and even seasoned practitioners are often not aware of stiffness in their waists. In yinning and yanging, getting folks to feel where to lead from can be very helpful.

Feedback, both from repeat students in everyday classes and serious learners in intensives and accreditations, has confirmed that feeling the weight shift as if leading from the knee (forward and side-to-side), and as if leading backward from a place between the tailbone and small of the back, changed significantly the feeling of flowing from the center and encourages looseness in the waist. The knees are then more likely to let go (soften) sooner and more evenly, allowing softness in the waist and a favorably aligned posture.

One must learn that when the weight arrives on either foot, it is the waist that lets go and the knee that softens (as a result), bringing one gracefully into upright elegant alignment, with the foot and leg as a firm but relaxed foundation.