kua
Learning Tai Chi from an ice cream cone
Turn your body, turn your body!
That’s what I’ve been hearing throughout my Tai Ji journey.
All movements should be whole. As the hand moves, the body moves, the leg moves - everything should move in perfect harmony.
In the last reality check, I haven’t found this unison yet. I found something more subtle - the turning radius [...]
Taiji figure 8 training
The figure 8 training method is to draw a figure 8 on a horizontal plane while you’re in a horse stance, using your body as the pencil, and the butt as the pencil tip (or more precisely, the bottom of the vertical axis running through your body as the pencil tip). Please let me know [...]
Lesson update - relax kua technique
It’s been a while since i’ve last written about my private tai chi lesson. I’ve finished the Sun style form some weeks ago, and now i suppose it’s fine tuning. The usual suspects are still there - relax, relax, relax! Such a simple word and yet the permutations of body parts that can be relaxed [...]
What is kua?
Kua is the link between your hips and your thighs. That’s my basic understanding of it. But a good test of a relaxed kua is when you can’t find your kua! The tension between thigh and hip disappears. I’ve actually felt this in a teacher. But I can’t reproduce it myself. Only very rarely that [...]
Tai ji is a pain in the knee!
Knee pains are really common in Tai Chi. I remembered my first time (!) when I had a knee pain from doing tai ji training. It was quite frustrating especially when I asked the teacher and all the teacher said was… “yes, there must be something wrong with your stance”. The teacher might have good [...]
Different people different hands
Different people different hands, sounds obvious but often forgotten. We have to treat each hand differently, that is we have to treat each opponent differently. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Everyone has their own preferences and dislikes. Everyone pushes in a different rhythm.
However the best ones have no preferences (or dislikes). The best ones [...]
