How to Move Properly in Tai Chi; The Role of the Feet, the Dan Tian and the hands

Where does Tai Chi movement initiate from? The Tai Chi classics say that all Tai chi initiates in the feet. Each Tai Chi form starts at the feet, it bursts through the thigh, it's governed by the Dan Tian and then it flourishes in the hands.

The hands and the arms are the last expression of the movement. And too often what we see in Tai Chi, is that the emphasis is on the hands. It may be beautiful and the arms and the hands are leading the movement, but that is a backwards approach. This is why I have this planter here just to sort of demonstrate this to you.

If I tried to move this planter by moving the fronds, then I'm not very effective. And so the fronds are analogous to your arms, your upper extremities. They're just kind of out there. They're light, and yes, they can bend and move with the wind. But they're not going to be very effective in initiating the Tai chi movement.

Conversely, if I move this planter from the bottom, now I can rotate the whole planter with ease, and then it moves up through and out to the fronds. So if I did a quick movement, you can see that there's a power generated out there, sort of like Fa Jing, and we have a wave or whip like motion out at the ends. It's like tai chi and it's like we have the heavy weight at the bottom, and then we have the upward rising weight at the top.

So as we are doing our practice, it's important that our Tai Chi movements initiate from the feet and then move up through the body, and that we have this division of heavy and light, expressing Yin and Yang in equal proportion.

Once you understand this key concept of movement in Tai Chi or any of the martial arts and you feel it, you'll be able to see it in other Tai chi or martial arts players. You'll be able to tell whether they're leading with the arms or leading with the feet. We want to lead all our Tai Chi with the feet. When we do this, our Qi will flow more readily, we can grow our Qi, develop more martial arts power, and move with more strength and effectiveness with a whole lot less effort!

For private lessons, retreats, workshops and live streaming lessons & classes, please visit me at: www.taichisusan.com

To connect on Social Media:

  / flowingmobilitytaich  

Thanks for letting me part of your Tai Chi Journey!