Wudangshan - Love the Smile at the End!

The Sacrum

Here is a post about "straightening the sacrum" with regard to Tai Chi from Scott Meredith's Tabbycat blog.

My teacher John Kells  always summed it up as "bum in", which to be honest was not a particularly helpful instruction. Many people resort to a forceful tucking under of the pelvis in a desperate and tense attempt to have a straight back.

If you are not careful this can lead to other problems in joints such as the knees. Don't believe me, investigate it. I like the "ideokinetic" approach in the article.


Tucking the Sacrum

Tai Chi TOUCH Training - interesting exercise.

The Third Hand

The third hand is the torso combined with the legs. This is the primary mover, with hands and feet following.

Cheng Man Ching wrote that the whole body is a hand. Famously, he is reported to have said that a dream about broken arms led him to a new understanding. I recently read that it was not about having broken arms, but actually that the arms had broken off.

Therefore the body is the hand.

John Kells used to talk about another third hand, reaching out from the solar plexus area. He described it initially as a fist but later went on to see it as tendrils connecting with the other person.

His later evolution to the figure eight sinuosity in the torso with shoulder and hip blades rising and falling, generating accompanying spirals in the limbs served to make the third hand even clearer.

Play with this.

Have some Vision

I loved watching Northern Exposure because it was so quirky.

The Piano Fling scene speaks to me on different levels but I leave it to you to make your own interpretation.

In Search of the GreatSong

Let your body sing the song of Tai Chi- don't be a stiff

My Favourite Books

I bought a copy of "Primordial Pugilism ( T'ai Chi Ch'uan ) in the early 1980s. It was published in 1976 and written by Tseng Ju-Pai ( Chiu Yien ).

The reason I bought it was because of the fold out charts with pictures of Yang Chengfu, Chen Wei Ming and the author in postures form the Yang long form. It also has a chapter detailing applications to the form. It's interesting to contrast the earlier pictures of Yang Chengfu in the white top with his later, more well known photos.

I love looking at old photographs of tai chi practitioners.