Soft as a Child

Soft as a Child?

Hi there,

I would like to tell you my recent experience. But first consider these questions.

Do you know that many people practice the Taiji form softly like a child but are very stiff in push-hands? Why and how to fix this problem?

On the other hand, some people are always very tense and use a lot of force in the form and it gets worse in push-hands. Why and how to fix it?

Below are my answers to the above questions.

1. The reason why people train very soft but push hands very hard is that they do not lift the top of their head up and sit on their legs during training. As a result, they cannot build up the strength of central equilibrium, which gives them good support in defensive or offensive moves. Once they are pushed their whole body tenses up and they use brute force in the hope of not getting thrown off balance. So tense up and use brute force is the only thing they can do as there is no other options (except getting thrown off balance).

2. The reason why people are tense in the form is possibly because their fighting intent is too strong or they are nervous. They are tenser in push-hands because they want to win and not lose (human nature). Before they push, they usually bend they knees and tense up their muscles, which is clearly visible in their face and arms not covered by clothes. The reason they tense up their muscles is because they do not have the strength of central equilibrium and so have to rely on their muscular force.

(With good strength of central equilibrium, you can just turn your legs and torso and strike any time you like).

How to fix these problems? The above two cases are just the two sides of a coin. It arises from lacking the strength of central equilibrium. In the past years, I did not understand the reason why students tensed up in push-hands and just told my students to relax and not use force. Of course none could do what I had told them.

A fortnight ago, someone from Switzerland came to train with me in my classes, doing push-hands and standing practice. In the last push-hands session with him and two other students, I accidentally found out the main cause of using brute force in push-hands - lacking the strength of central equilibrium because of not lifting up the head top and sitting on their legs.

I ask my students to always lift the top of their head up (through the roof) and sit on their legs. When their legs are firm (from sitting on their legs), lifting the head top helps to bring the firmness up to their upper body, giving them a lot of support and so making them easy to attack and neutralize. They now do not need to use a lot of brute force in push-hands. The other reason they are not so tense is that their mind is on maintaining this central equilibrium, and there is little time for them to tense up. With training, their strength of central equilibrium will get better and better and they will rely less and less on brute force. Finally they will be soft in the form and also in push-hands and yet not get push around like before, and they can discharge power any time they like.

It has taken me almost ten year to find this out and I am very excited about this. It will help me to be a better teacher.

Finally I would like to repeat what I have been saying every so often. Lift your head top up as if it will go through the roof (to bring up your energy to the upper part of your body) and sit on your legs (so that your legs are firmly connected to the ground) during training. Try to make sure that your legs are firm and that your head top can bring the firmness up to your upper body. If you do not meet these requirements no matter how hard you train, it will be just a waste of time.

This body alignment has a good balance of Yin and Yang and can make you soft like a child and strong like a tiger. Very light, and yet very heavy. Very slow, and yet very fast. Very tense, and yet very relaxed. Well rooted, and yet very agile. The list can go on and on. This is the key to mastering Taijiquan, and standing practice can help you reach your goal five times quicker.

Happy training.

Tu-Ky