Sam Beatson, MSc on tai chi chuan
My first experience of the ancient Chinese martial art, tai chi chuan, is that of being introduced to a Yang Style master by the name of Wu Hongliang. At the time, I attended regular hatha yoga classes, but had just found a Chinese girlfriend - May - who is now my wife. Master Wu agreed to take me on as his only British tai chi chuan student and he insisted I began regular training on a daily basis and continue to do the tai chi chuan exercises he gave me each day.
The benefits he told me he received were that of having a clear mind and being able to relax consistently but have a lot of "qi" energy to keep him fresh and agile mentally for his studies and physically strong and energetic for his football... He started with some fundamentals of tai chi chuan. Firstly, he said the most important thing in tai chi chuan is to RELAX.
Relax your body, relax your shoulders and joints, relax your mind, so your mind is clean or clear for the practice. Particularly, in fact RELAX (song) YOUR WAIST. Waist in the Chinese tai chi chuan aspect does not mean the part of your body around which you place a belt literally. Rather, waist in tai chi chuan refers to all the muscles, ligaments and internal organ aspects around the waist area. This is because in true tai chi chuan, the movements are all being performed from the center of the waist also known as the Tan Tien, Dan Tiien or body's center of gravity "hara center" in yoga. So it's very important to relax the waist whilst doing the exercises. After practice and learning, there becomes very little actual movement. All movement is controlled from the waist creating the illusion aspect of tai chi chuan.
Master Wu gave me some simple exercises to do to clear the mind and relax the body before tai chi form practice and also to give strength and supplety to the muscles. He said that after a while my legs would become very strong like his and the tai chi chuan would heal my body and any mental conditions while giving me increased spiritual awareness ad a positive shift towards spirituality over bad habits, from poor eating and sleeping to moral choices and behavior.
He said that the first exercise - what I had known to be called the horse stance - was one all students had to do every morning for half an hour at the tai chi training institution he had attended. If students pulled out of the stance or were not low enough, they would be whacked with a stick - much like the stereotypical training for zen meditation. Secondarily, he asked me to stand in the "bow stance" or "dragon" and gently twist my whole body from side to side from the waist with my arms outstretched to get a feeling of the natural surroundings and develop awareness of the qi energy in my body and in the universe. I would also do a squat exercise and "Roll back and press¡" part of the posture "grasp the sparrow's tail". Master Wu asked me to practice these exercises 9 times because 9 is a "lucky" number in Chinese - considered the biggest number or longest number - and therefore relating to longevity, long lasting health and long marriage - which is why my wife chose to marry me on the 9th of the month.
After these 9 sets of four exercises, he started to teach me the beginning postures in the tai chi chuan form. In this case, it was the yang style 108 postures tai chi chuan form. To view the continuation of this series of tai chi chuan articles, see this website's Tai Chi Article Directory - http://www.tai-chi-kung-fu.com/art
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Integer faucibus, nisi quis facilisis tincidunt, nibh risus pretium neque, sed egestas urna nisi eget mi. Ut eu massa. Fusce et magna nec diam auctor sodales.