With the left foot forward and the left arm raised, contact your partner's strike to the head with the outside of your forearm and lead their force down by emptying the whole of left side and sinking through the right foot. After rotating the left elbow anticlockwise, bring the left hand on top of your partner's right wrist and use the sinking force through the right foot to provide leverage for a pull as you step back. As the body turns to the left the root is transferred gradually to the back foot. As a result of the storage of force from you opponent an upward force begins to arise as you add the force of the turn of the waist to channel the combined t'ai chi forces from the back foot to the right hand.
It is important to listen to the movement internally. First as you empty you lead your opponent's force through your body to foot. There is an accumulation before you are able to direct the upward force to the hand.
At the beginning it is helpful to practice slowly and wait for the force to manifest but you need to understand how to maintain dynamic movement even when slow otherwise the force will stagnate.
Bristol 8.1.09
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1 comment:
Hi Al
As a "blogging virgin", I'm not sure how blogging works, but it seems, 'so far, so good'!
Anyway, just wanted to say I really like and appreciate what you are doing by posting summary's from the classes on your blog.
I think it will really enhance home practice away from the class. Having your written guidance to refer to gives a means to focus on whatever aspects of the form are relevant at the time.
It's also useful to read what other classes are doing.
One question I have is how to understand the idea of "drawing out the bones". I would welcome your comments on that.
Rob (McChi)
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