The Tai Chi step, learning how to walk all over again

Where to start if you want to learn Tai Chi?  By walking, but not just any walk.

 

You may find this odd because you already know how to walk, or I assume you do. Your balance could be good or it could need work. Either way you have been walking your whole life.

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I am not a lineage fanatic, so purists, please don’t hate me

OK, I teach what works for me.

Opening and closing joints,  soft relaxed movements, balance, timing, coordination, breathing, “zen” focused concentration all done in some type of sequence or form.

Those slightly bent joints you see… there’s a good reason for them

Soft soft soft, I said soft.

How many times did I hear this from my first sensei.  A hundred, a thousand, a million.  The actual number does not matter.  Lets just say it was a constant reminder.

But soft what?  I thought Tai Chi was martial arts based.  What was up with this softness thing.

The passion of balance training, a life skill worth practicing

More than once,  more than a dozen, more than hundred times…  I have been asked “why are you such a fanatic about working on balance with your students?”

The reason is quite simple.  Balance applies to everything we as people do from a standing position.  

Floating the knee, a gentler, more relaxed way to lift a leg to step

Every time you take a step, you need to lift a leg to move it.  When your thigh is  tense it takes more effort than when the thigh is relaxed.  It is like moving a bag of concrete mix vs moving a bag of feathers.

Does that analogy makes sense to you?