Friday Evening Class

Notes from a very enjoyable evening class:

Open / Close exercise was followed by Loosening Exercise 1 with hands on assistance guiding through the sinking and releasing process.

Form practice up to ward off left involved detailed instruction of the transition from the "Opening" to "Ward Off Right".

Clarification of how moving and squaring into position for "Ward Off Right" is the same as the downward movement in the Open / Close exercise, except we are turning, we only drop the back knee an inch, and we have the right foot shoulder width which facilitates the moving forward.

We clarified how after transferring the weight (80%) for the transition from ward off right into Ward off left, that as we turn towards the corner, there is a definite shift of the central equilibrium (the line that runs from the top of the head (bah hui / martial crown) through the body to the perineum) in order to facilitate this turn we need to sink through the right foot (which brings up the left hand slightly, while the right arm follows the sinking process slightly).

Pivoting on the ball of the left foot, necessary to keep the hips relaxed and to step empty into a shoulders width, avoiding stepping into narrow stance.

Transferring the weight from 100% in the right foot while facing the corner, we follow the line between the heels and sequentially transfer the weight and sink into 50-50 so as the toe touches the body arrives,facilitating a release through sinking.

We use the hips to turn the right foot in by sinking through the left foot until the hips are facing between the wall and the corner.

We Square to the front by loading (dropping the back knee towards the foot an inch, relaxing both hips and sinking into both feet simultaneously with the tailbone tucking under, the weight distribution of 55-45.

We discussed and went through the beginning of section 2, up until Rollback.

We looked at the activation of TianTu (heavenly chimney) as a means of relaxing the chest and assisting the sinking process.

Finally, we discussed the “Towel of Tai Chi” as a metaphor for sinking the shoulder blades letting a towel gently fall off the shoulders connecting the arms to the body and were somewhat sidetracked by the notion of a Taichi shimmy, which is never a good thing!