John’s Tai-Blog @ Camp Tai ChiTai Chi and anything I can relate to Tai Chi … like life

Tai Chi “In The Present Tense”

No Waistee, No Tai Chi!

One of the most difficult things for new students seems to be using the waist to drive movement, and sometimes it seems just moving the waist at all is a challenge.  I think Yang Chengfu may have missed the boat on this one because he didn’t include it with the 10 Principles of Tai Chi Chuan.  In fairness though, he was pretty darn good and you would probably learn to use your waist if you did everything else right anyway.

The thing to remember, and practice of course, is to use your waist to drive your movement.  The waist turning drives the turning of your front foot in the bow stance.  It moves your shoulders and your arms, providing a clear pathway for the energy and providing power.  There are many drills that can help with turning the waist and it’s a good idea to practice at least a few of them on a regular basis.

When turning the waist, allow your shoulders to “go along for the ride”.  Most of the time new students focus on turning their shoulders.  Over time though, with enough practice and drills, we learn to use the waist to turn our shoulders.  It helps to think of your upper body as one unit, and when the waist turns it moves the shoulders.  In the not too distant future I’ll record a video showing a drill for practicing turning the waist.  Until then, don’t turn your shoulders turn your waist!

What’s your waist looking like these days? 

John

P.S.  I found this pic here:  http://fortifyservices.blogspot.com/2009/04/does-not-play-well-with-others.html

Spiders, Snakes and Tai Chi

I was just reading an interesting article on LiveScience.com.  It was about our animal instincts: the knowledge we have, that we either don’t know we have or don’t know how we came about it.  I see this kind of thing in tai chi all the time.

Whether we realize it or not, we all have pretty similar abilities.  Aside from those rare few who can touch their tongues to their noses, our bodies and what we are actually capable of remains very similar from person to person.  Now I know some of you are saying to yourselves “John’s not paddling with both oars today”, so allow me to splain myself.

Richard Bandler and Dr. John Grinder discovered that, with the right mental strategies, you could teach anyone to do what anyone else could do, assuming of course they weren’t limited by some physical difficulty.  The world is filled with people who have limited physical resources, yet have achieved things everyone else thought was impossible.  Spud Webb, a professional basketball player in the 80’s & 90’s, comes to mind.  Because of his short stature he garnered little interest from college scouts.  This despite consistently impressive performance on the court all through high school and his early college years.

When Mr. Webb joined the ranks of Earl Boykins and Muggsy Bogue, as the third shortest player in the NBA, he measured in at a full 5′6″.  (He was a grown man by then so he didn’t get any taller either.)  I remember watching the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk contest where Spud Webb walked away with the trophy.  Spud and a student of his, Nate Robinson, are the only two NBA players under 6 feet tall to have ever won the competition.

John Bandler - remember him, the mind over matter guy - experimented with hypnosis and placebos to help people heal in a number of ways.  He didn’t bother with the sugar either.  He just gave people empty capsules and told them, under hypnosis of course, that he was giving them empty capsules.  He also gave them the suggestion, “the more you think about the fact that you are taking placebos, the better they will work.”  When they woke up he handed them the empty capsules and said, “These are placebos and they’re particularly effective for your condition.”  This worked so well in fact, that when Bandler and a partner tried to market their brand of placebos, the FDA shut them down.  How’s that for a great example of, “I’m here from the government and I’m here to help”?

By now I imagine you’ve forgotten all about the LiveScience.com article haven’t you?  We’ll let’s get back to it.  The article is titled “Fear of Spiders Can Develop Before Birth” and deals with our ability to learn from previous generations.  Not by reading grandpa’s diary, but more like sleeping with a book under your pillow before the big test, and then acing the test without ever having cracked the book.  Pretty cool stuff hey?

Well, with students I sometimes ask them to feel the energy in their bodies.  Often I get, “I doesn’t feel nuthin’.”  Yet, when I ask them to imagine it and then tell me “what it would feels like if’n they coulds”, or better yet where it starts and ends, they can almost always describe it with remarkable accuracy.  I even point to the wrong part my own body just to make sure they aren’t saying what they think I want them to.  Then I ask them to pretend they’re feeling it as they move, and viola, their movement improves dramatically.  Wha’s up wit dat?

Given the right techniques and mental processes, we can all learn to do what we already even do better.  We may not all be Spud Webbs in the rough, but we can all do much more than we realize.  Yea, that includes you too.

Your thoughts?

John

P.S.  Now go read the LiveScience.com article:  http://www.livescience.com/animals/fear-of-spiders-100218.html, you’ll like it.

Tai Chi, A “Secret Key” To Happiness

We all seem to be striving for that future state of happiness. We work long hours so we can have our dream homes, dream cars, go on dream vacations and ultimately experience our dream retirements.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t strive for these things. They have their place and each has it’s own value. I know when I’ve achieved something noteworthy, like buying a new house or having the kitchen remodeled, I feel pretty good about it and also gain a feeling of happiness from achieving it. It feels good.

What if you could not only experience that happiness for brief periods when you accomplished something you wanted - be it planting a special tree in your yard, finding a particularly comfortable and cool looking pair of shoes, or being promoted - but could also get that feeling for a little while each day? Wouldn’t that make life a little better, a little more worth living?

Sounds good doesn’t it? Imagine yourself feeling happy: no worries, no concerns, no outside pressures. That state of mind when realized, reduces stress levels, helps reduce blood pressure, relaxes the body, fortifies the mind, and strengthens the immune system.

Great, so how do you get there? It’s actually much simpler that you might think. It comes from a state of mind you can easily learn to adopt at different times during the day, and the more often you do it the more you find yourself feeling good for no particular reason. The key is to ‘let’ yourself experience it and to do this, all you do is let go of your worries and concerns for a few moments. It’s called mindfulness.

One way to to experience this state is simply by closing your eyes and focusing completely on the sounds in your environment. By this I mean the sounds, not what makes the sounds. When your mind runs off thinking about what the sound means, let go of that and just listen for other sounds. Focus on the direction of the sound, it’s pitch, it’s volume, while at the same time listening for other sounds.

Using your focus in this way for 5 minutes can give you an incredible sense of well being. This is what practicing tai chi does for you and it’s one of the reasons why people become addicted to it. On top of feeling better on an emotional level because of that state of mindfulness tai chi cultivates, it also strengthens the body in a multitude of ways.

So whether you’re interested in tai chi or not, find something you can focus on completely, several times during the day. The simplest way to do this is to focus on one of your senses completely without analyzing any of what you experience. The brief sense of well being you experience will make the rest of your life seem even more worthwhile. The good times and the not so good times will take on more meaning when your stress levels are lower and you can keep things in perspective.

Oh and one more thing.  When we’re not stressed out we tend to make better decisions, leading to even lower stress levels.  Your thoughts?

John

P.S.  I found this pic here:  http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/3d__and__animation/sound_and_vision

Tai Chi Drill Post Exercise - Part Two

Following up with yesterday’s post on the basics of Yang Style Drill Post Exercise, this video demonstrates how to do additional drills that can be done in the same standing position as the drill post exercise.  These additional drills can be done to add some variety and to practice incorporating turning the waist.

Your thoughts?

John

Tai Chi Drill Post Exercise - Part One

I posted this drill some time ago and I got some pretty good feedback.  So I was thinking to myself, why not do it again?  If one time was good, twice has got to be twice as good.  Hope you like it.

This video demonstrates how to do the drill post exercise for Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan.  Tomorrow I’ll follow this up with additional drills that can be done to add some variety, and to practice incorporating turning the waist.

Your thoughts?

John