Coordination | ||
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What is coordination?
It is the skill of making things work together in
harmony and unison.
In business this means managing a team/office and the associated resources
efficiently and effectively.
Coordination assumes some aspect of leadership, control or
responsibility.
Your body
Coordinating your body is more challenging than you may realise. The task is
hindered by the fact that most people have little idea how to use their own body
skilfully.
'Physical education' in school didn't teach you very
much. PE is usually just sport.
Body management
We all accumulate habits of movement and body use throughout life and not all
habits are good. Coordination involves:
Moving different parts of the body together in harmony
Gait (manner of walking)
Controlled movement
Balancing
- left and right sides of the body
- front and back
- upper and lower
- hands and feet
- elbows and knees
- hips and shoulders
Eye/hand coordination
Kinaesthetic awareness (knowing where your limbs are positioned without needing to look)
Ambidextrous use of the limbs
Smooth movement
Good skeletal alignment
Common health problems such as bad back or
painful knees are often the result of poor
coordination (either during the day or when exercising).
Your life
The ability to
coordinate the responsibilities of your life is known as 'time management'.
It enables you to determine for yourself how best to use your time.
Coordinating multiple variables, addressing (often conflicting) needs and
wants, as well as fulfilling your own agenda is a skill that requires
practice.
Dance?
At first glance tai chi form practice may look a little like slow motion
dance. Many of the same skills are required. But there are also significant
differences, particularly in terms of purpose.
The purpose of
tai chi
Tai chi for health was adapted from the fighting method of
tai chi chuan (dynamic balancing boxing).
Tai chi uses ancient Taoist insights and principles of body use to employ
martial skills in a very powerful, effective manner.
Every movement is designed to coil the body, store kinetic energy and then
release it in combat.
Not only must the body be exceptionally well-coordinated, the resultant
movements are also extremely strong.
Harmony
The necessity of highly-skilled coordination makes tai chi ideal for
everyday body use. It trains the individual to use their body in an
extremely efficient manner.
Every step is balanced and all parts of the body ultimately work together in
harmony.
Large movement
It is easy for most people to perform large, extended movements that rotate
the shoulder joint or bend the elbow. No particular skill is involved.
Our students are not taught to practice in this way. Whilst large movements
may indeed exercise some of the muscles and the joints, they fail to address
the full range of potential movement.
The real skill lies in the small, in the subtle.
Slow movement
Making very small movements is difficult initially. In modern society, our
bodies are not encouraged to make small, smooth, controlled movement.
Everything is jerky and abrupt.
Example
In the first movement of the Long Yang form, we must place the palms down
(as if on a table) then smoothly lift the arms up to shoulder height.
As the arms lift, the wrists must gradually flex so that the hand changes
from a flat shape to a bent shape. The arms then lower and the hand moves
from bent back to flat again.
Crude & clumsy
In this example, the movement of the wrist must be very slow, smooth and
gradual. If you simply flick the wrist, the joint is not exercised properly.
But if you move the wrist more slowly, you feel very notable work taking
place in the wrist muscles throughout the entire exercise.
We have yet to encounter a single new starter who could perform this simple
movement correctly at first.
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Page created
18 March 1997
Last updated
16 June 2023