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Emphasis
A lot of taijiquan people like to
talk about 'qi energy'.
In fact, most of their focus seems to be upon qi energy.
According to The Tai Chi Classics it means
breath not energy.
Energy
There are three kinds of energy that can be explored with
certainty and conviction:
Do you personally feel tired or energised?
Trapped energy
Kinetic (movement) energy
1.
Energy
levels
The first consideration needs to be energy levels.
This is about whether you feel fatigued, tired or vigorous.
Some activities leave you feeling wiped out, whilst others don't.
People can also drain you; with negative emotions and being needy/demanding.
Draining
A lot of things can make you feel drained:
- bad poise/posture putting the body under duress
- not being moderate; doing too
much
- failure to rest, relax, stop
- time management/commitments,
personal life,
work
- strong stretching,
exaggeration, over-commitment, disconnected
movement and exertion are all physically
taxing; wasting energy
- tensing the muscles e.g. body building, being sedentary, being
uptight
Energy deficit
Modern life saps energy.
People are often exhausted, unhappy,
frustrated...
They are frequently
emotionally, physically and
psychologically unbalanced.
Feeling drained is commonplace. Getting
angry is normal.
This is not a healthy way to live...
Spend your time wisely
You can address a lot of things to conserve energy:
Posture
Poise
Healthy joints use
Flexibility
Healthy skeletal alignment
Optimal body use
How your muscles work
Timing
How and why to relax your body
Balanced use of the body
Proprioception (relative position of body parts/awareness of how much strength is being applied)
Rhythm
Mind/body unity
Leverage
Kinaesthetic awareness (knowing where your limbs are positioned without needing to look)
Footwork
Biofeedback
Ambidextrous use of the limbs
Gait (manner of walking)
Faux energy
Sugar, caffeine, energy drinks, alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, sweets, over-stimulation,
over-activity, loud music,
TV,
distractions... these all provide bad energy.
Why is it bad?
Some of these energy sources affect your
mind and your emotions, whilst others provide a short-term
gain which costs you in the
future.
Unbalanced
Many people are essentially
borrowing energy from the future just to
get by.
None of the faux energy sources affect your life in a good
way.
Over time you start to look old and feel really
strung out.
Rest
When tired, rest.
Eating food or taking stimulants to stay active and alert is unhealthy.
Seeking activity is unwise.
Just stop and rest. Your body needs to stop. It needs to repair, recover and
grow.
2. Trapped energy
If you took a towel and twisted it very tightly; the towel would contain
stored energy for as long as you held it.
Like a loaded spring...
When the towel is released, it will unfurl;
producing kinetic energy.
Tension
Our muscles operate in a similar way to the
towel...
An inefficient muscle holds trapped energy because it is tense and weak.
Relaxing the muscle releases that energy.
But this has nothing to do with qi (breath).
3. Kinetic energy
The other kind of energy used in taijiquan is more to do with
physics.
It involves the storage and release of 'kinetic' energy - movement energy.
Like a rock launched from a catapult or an arrow launched from a bow...
We use kinetic energy in combat.
When
torrential water tosses boulders,
it is because of its momentum;
when the strike of a hawk breaks the body of its prey;
it is because of timing.
(Sun Tzu)
The effect
Kinetic energy can be seen by a simple demonstration.
Strike a focus mitt but do not push upon impact.
As soon as you hit the mitt, stop and withdraw the hand.
The effect of your strike should cause the mitt and the arm holding it to
continue moving.
This is different to an external
strike, where your aim is to punch
through the target.
Whole-body strength
Whole-body strength is different to
external strength.
You never tense the muscles or lock the
joints.
Your limbs feel mobile and
relaxed at all times. They are imbued with
inherent strength.
Neigong is cultivated by paying attention to
how an action is undertaken.
Rather than move the body in a 'normal' manner, a
whole-body action must be trained.
Once the new way of moving is familiar, you no
longer realise that you are moving in a contrived manner.
Energy transmission
The taijiquan movements serve to supply
a pathway for the transmission of kinetic energy.
Energy travels from the ground into your hand.
Your body simply provides the means by which the energy can be transferred.
If you are stiff and unyielding, disconnected or
flaccid - this transmission will be unsuccessful.
Conduit
Once you regard your body as being a channel for the transmission of energy,
you can start to understand what taijiquan striking
involves.
You do not punch or kick using local muscle groups.
The energy is transferred from the ground, passing through your
frame and out into the opponent.
Your limb is simply the part that makes contact with the opponent.
Wave
A student learns how to generate an undulation
wave.
This is passed throughout your entire structure, storing and releasing
kinetic energy.
We develop this wave by learning whole-body movement.
Every strike involves every body part moving as
one.
It is this rippling action that performs the delivery, rather than local
muscle strength.
Coiling & releasing energy
Imagine twisting a towel as tightly as you can and then letting go?
The towel will unfurl by itself.
Why? Your twisting action stores
energy.
This is what opens the towel again.
Taijiquan twists and turns the body in order to store and release energy
using the soft tissues of the body.
If your body is connected and has peng, you will be capable of greater
release.
Dead movement
With awareness it becomes possible to feel when the kinetic energy is
flowing and when it is impeded.
Certain movements performed incorrectly will create 'dead' movements - these
are actual stopping points where the kinetic energy flow is lost.
Impediments
It is quite easy to maintain the kinetic flow, just avoid the
impediments:
Compressed cavities
Closed joints
Collapsed muscles; usually thighs and front of body
Over-commitment, pushing and exertion
Hands too close to the body or too far away
Disconnected movement; arms and legs moving independent of the body
Awareness alone should prevent any of these mistakes from occurring; it is
essential to feel the blockage.
13 postures
All styles of taijiquan employ 13
expressions of power.
These 13 postures were detailed in The Tai Chi
Classics.
Every taijiquan movement is essentially a
combination of the 13 kinetic energy expressions.
Our energy is more precious
than all the gold in the world. It is a more powerful anti-aging tool than
anything else.
Energy regenerates our liver and other tissue cells, flushes toxic waste
from the body, helps maintain our ideal weight, keeps our skin smooth and
our hair healthy.
The more energy we have, the better we feel and the more beautiful we
become.
(Kimberly Snyder)
Page created
12 January 1995
Last updated
05 August 2017
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