Tai Chi Notes, January 15, 2019

Back to normal this week. On Saturday, I asked about your hands during the push at the end of Six Sealing Four Closing, wondering whether I should push with my palm or the heel of my hand; the answer was that the push should start with my palm but I should be spiraling more (starting with my elbows more to the side than how I currently do it, with the elbows then spiraling down) and with energy spreading from my palm out to my fingers. Which is definitely not the answer I expected!

While doing the form on Saturday, I noticed myself getting uprooted during The White Goose Displays the Wings; and in the beginner’s class today I noticed myself getting uprooted right at the very start of the form. So that continues to be something that I seem to need to pay more attention to right now. (The other thing I noticed from today’s beginner’s class was my teacher saying to move my hands back while moving my left foot forward after raising my left leg in the Jin Gang Pounds Pestle; I probably do that some already, but worth thinking about, and maybe thinking about in contrast to Xinjia?)

We did a review of the parts of the Xinjia first form we’ve learned so far on Saturday, which was a useful opportunity to refine my understanding. During the opening, I’m not supposed to do a Ji at the end of raising my hand, though my fingers should extend and rise some while the heel of my hand sinks when bringing my hands back down. When doing the push in the Xinjia Six Sealing Four Closing, I should be pushing more down rather than straight ahead. When my arms are spread at the end of Oblique Posture, my weight should be somewhat to the left. And when I’m pushing out my hands and lifting my knee very shortly after that, I should be pushing my hands down somewhat.

This week was the Sunday class, and with the new year we restarted the second form. Which I’m looking forward to: I only learned about half of it last year, and even in the parts I did learn I’m sure there are tons of details I got wrong. The main detail I noticed on Sunday was that, in Turn Around, I should sweep my feet twice, like a standing version of the move later in the form where you sweep your leg with your hand on the ground. And during the first sweep your right hand should be on top, horizontal at maybe a little below eye level; and your second hand moves on top in the second sweep, while your right hand smoothly comes up and pounds down at the end of the second sweep.

I’ll be on a business trip next week, so no class; and it’s in Delhi, where the air quality is quite bad, so I don’t think I’ll practice outside, either. I’ll try to find time to do silk reeling and Qi Gong in my hotel room, though…