Speed in Taiji

For me, this sounds like part of the lessons we were focusing on at the last Maple Ridge workshop. It seemed that the points of focus that stood out for me were spiral movements working toward a single point (as with the pole exercise) and using direct lines of movement when coming into the opponent (as with the partner work we did). I think, in many respects, these two items are the same. While so much of this statement rings true and is in keeping with what I do understand, the struggle is ongoing.

Conceptually, the notion of streaming your movements so the rear end is bigger and moves to a single point of focus (fingers) and then beyond, is really well put to practice when doing the pole exercise. That is, big rotational movements that are not spiralled to the target point are useless and, even worse, result in moving the end of the pole (or one’s hand) as it becomes off target. And yet, when I do the first movement of the form, I am consistently corrected for having "moved" my hand. This week I reflected on this and realized that the hand can better stay on track when I place my mind intent on the application of this move; the stick between my two hands representing the opponent’s arm (something learned from a previous workshop). Now, conceptually, I am closer (from what I gather at least). The next challenge, how do I make the big movements from behind support this? It was a great relief to hear Master Chen tell us that the shoulder movement, as in "don’t move the shoulder", relates specifically to not changing the line from shoulder to kua; it must stay connected. I tend to tighten up when I try to keep everything connected and it feels like I am fighting myself. This is in keeping with the concept of "everything is locked and only one thing moves". I feel that the answer is that we need to be strong as we rotate but I tend to confuse strong and "locked" with a notion of fixed in place. If I understand it correctly, the hinge we create is kept in position. With no useless movements occurring, the structure is maintained and the hinge is not lost.

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