Working with Principles

Since the presentations made by the four teacher trainers at the international TCC teacher conference, I have been consciously incorporating basic principles and reminders in my practice. Below is my understanding of what I was seeing and hearing. I would appreciate feedback from the presenters or other conference participants.

“From the pressing down, comes the lifting up”

In accordance with my emphasis in staying grounded and aligning and elongating my spine, I now raise my flexed wrists from mid-hip bone to above the hip bone. This contributes to my overall goal of having my heart lifting and open, whether sitting or standing. It keeps my shoulder blades more relaxed down my back, and I feel the weight of my elbows releasing my shoulders.

“Dimes sink . . . “

From April’s presentation, I am focusing on feeling that my feet are actually pressing through, or “smashing dimes into” the floor. This is consistent with my ongoing efforts to activate the gluteal band when standing or moving to prevent tripping as I age. I am now more aware of grounding on the back foot until I feel the tan t’ien contract. I appreciate seeing that April’s fingers flow by her waist in Passing Clouds and that her feet stay flat and grounded even in the side-to-side movements.

“No bend at the waist, slight bend in the knees”

From Daniel’s presentation, my decades-long awareness on not over-bending my knees was strengthened. I recently rewatched him doing Rocking Motion and can clearly see that he begins to move the pelvis to shift the weight, that his knees barely bend, and that his feet pretty much stay grounded, beyond the slight lift in the heel and the ball of the foot. Dan’s knees bend only enough to allow the back-and-forth weight shift, and they come back without locking. My notes say, “moment of transition on balls and heels.” I don’t know if that is a quote from Dan or just my perception, but it is certainly something I experience.

“Less is more with the arms”

From Pam’s presentation, I heightened my awareness of coordinating my arm movement with yinning and yanging. I am able to feel the weight of my elbows relaxing my shoulders, but I realize I was using too much arm movement when crossing my hands in the taffies. Pam reminded us that our hands crossed a little behind center. Otherwise, we are still leading with our arms.

“Wrists, not arms, in Working the Pulley”

From Sandy’s presentation, I reduced the arm movement to the back of the waist to ensure that my arm does not disappear. Because I work extensively on spinal twist, I have a flexible waist, but I realize that I was actually moving my upper arm instead of just bringing the open wrist around while allowing the weight of the elbow to relax the shoulder. I noticed that Sandy and other teachers appear to swivel both feet a little bit in Working the Pulley. My ability to pull my waist back seems to alleviate the need for me to swivel my foot, but I will have Sandy check that out in Albuquerque in 2024.