an introduction to tai chi chuan

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An Introduction to Tai Chi Chuan

By Ray Pawlett


Contents

1. Introduction and Training Tips

2. The Ten Essences

a. Background

b. Understanding the ten essences

c. Essence number 1 - Lift the head to raise the spirit

3. Thoughts about the history of Tai Chi

4. Tai chi Warm-up Exercises

5. The Tai chi form

a. Tai Chi footprints

b. Wu chi

c. Left Ward Off

d. Grasping the Sparrows Tail

i. Ward Off

ii. Roll Back

iii. Squeeze

iv. Push

e. Single Whip

f. Closing Form


Tai Chi Introduction

and Training Tips


Introduction and Training Tips

The aim of this information pack is to supplement your training sessions by giving you something to

remind you what the basic movements look like. Tai Chi beginners invariably struggle with

remembering the sequences of movements in both the warm-up exercises and the form itself.

The photos and descriptions are intended to help you jump that first hurdle. There is a lot of added

detail that could be included such as applications, stances, Yin and Yang concepts etc.. This detail

has been avoided in this information pack to keep things more simple. In the early days, that is what

you need to do – keep it simple!

Possibly the most important aspect of Tai Chi is a good understanding of body alignment and

position. Without understanding these factors, it is impossible to progress with your Tai Chi

development. If you can understand the Ten Essences described later then you will be well along

the way to improving your posture.

The traditional method for teaching body alignment was to make the student practice for many

hours so that the student’s muscles eventually relaxed and something like the correct body posit ion

was achieved.

Whilst there is no substitute for time spent practicing Tai Chi, most modern people just do not have

the time to dedicate to this sort of practice. There is however a quicker route towards achieving the

correct body positions required for Tai Chi. To learn more quickly, you need to take responsibility

for your own improvement – you cannot leave everything to your coach to correct. This means that

you need to spend time thinking about your body position and how you are training. Read books,

question your teacher and other students, and watch other styles and sports.

The more that you put into your understanding, the more accurate that your training becomes. In

modern times it is easy to get information – we just need to integrate the information into our

training when we have found it.

For instance, look at a first class archer. You will see much kinship with Tai Chi such as relaxed

shoulders, straight back, deliberate weight distribution and coordinated movement throughout the

whole body. Why is the archer doing this? What are you seeing him or her do that correlates with

your understanding of Tai Chi? Dig deep, the answers are all there!

You will find that some sports and pastimes do not follow the rules of Tai Chi. Why is that? For

instance, in some style of horse riding, it is a requirement that the shoulders are pushed back

slightly. This is counter intuitive to a Tai Chi player because in Tai Chi, the chest should be rounded –

not the back. The reason for this is to do with how the body is used in the saddle. Not everything

follows the rules of Tai Chi, but a lot of things do.

This sort of research helps you to integrate what you see outside the world of Tai Chi into your Tai

Chi and vice versa. Sufficient exploration will result in you being able to feel within a micro second if

your body alignment is wrong – whether you are doing Tai Chi or just taking the dog for a walk!


The Ten Essences

Background If you have ever looked at other Tai Chi books or Tai chi web sites, you will have come across many

different formulae to help the keen student understand their Tai Chi better. Examples are “The

thirteen postures”, “The eighteen loci”, “The song of the eight ways” and so on. Usually there is a

number in the title to remind the student how many points there are to remember.

I had studied Tai Chi for a number of years before I met my current teacher, Christopher Pei. I was

aware of these formulae and had actually got around to reading some of them. Just reading

something is different to understanding it though and none of these formulae made very much

impact on my Tai Chi. At least that is until I learned the “Ten Essences” from Christopher Pei.

Coach Pei has studied Tai Chi for many years with some of the top masters from many different

styles of Tai Chi along with other martial arts and acrobatic styles. He also has the advantage of

being able to talk to the Tai Chi masters with whom he has studied in their own language, so that the

nuances of the teachings are not lost in translation.

This experience brought him to the conclusion that the Ten Essences, originally devised by Yang

Cheng Fu, contain much of what the Tai Chi practitioner needs to understand if they are studied in

depth. Coach Pei did however rearrange the sequence slightly so that they flow through the body

and actually give ten levels of understanding for your Tai Chi.

Since those early days of being introduced to the Ten Essences, I have also done research around the

subject and have found no better methodology than the Ten Essences to way mark progress and

assist in the understanding of the form.

I have also found that if you can understand the Ten Essences, other systems like those quoted

earlier and many more besides will actually be saying the same thing in a slightly different way.


Understanding the Ten Essences If you are serious about improving your Tai Chi, you need to understand the Ten Essences

thoroughly. This will become the toolkit that helps you to evaluate your own Tai Chi or if you are a

Tai Chi coach, the Tai Chi performances of your students.

The first thing that you will need to do is to be able to recite the Ten Essences in their sequence.

Without being able to remember the Essences in sequence, you will struggle to work with them

quickly and efficiently.

1. Lift the head – raise the spirit

2. Sink the shoulders – lower the elbows

3. Loosen the chest – round the back

4. Loosen the waist

5. Separate the substantial and the insubstantial

6. Coordinate the upper and lower body

7. Continuity in movement

8. Unite the internal intent of the mind and the external frame of the body

9. Use mind and not force

10. Seek stillness in motion and motion within stillness.

Mere recitation is obviously a long way from learning but it is a good first step. I see the Ten

Essences of Tai Chi as a kind of poem that means different things to you depending upon your level

of knowledge when you read it and other factors such as your aspirations and dreams at that point

in your life.

For example, the Tenth essence could be seen as imparting profound knowledge in a similar way to a

Zen koan – or self-contradictory nonsense.


Essence Number 1 – Lift the Head to Raise the Spirit

This is possibly the easiest of the ten essences to get a handle on in the early days. Sometimes

though, the apparently simple things in life have more to offer us if we are willing to dig deeper.

An easy way to think about this essence is to imagine that you are going into a job interview. You

are trying to present yourself as a person who is confident and able to do the job in question. How

do you look to the interviewer? Do you walk in, look them in the eye, smile at him or her and greet

them? Or do you shuffle into the room, gaze at your shoes, mutter something under your breath

and look terrified?

Obviously, we try to do the former and not the latter – even if we really feel like doing the latter.

This already brings us to a very interesting concept. We know that other people notice our body

language when we are confident or nervous .

If we can lift our heads and straighten our backs then we look more confident. If we look more

confident then we start to feel more confident and the cycle becomes self-perpetuating. Think

about some famous people who are well known for their confidence. Even when times were hard

for them, you did not see great sportsmen like Jesse Owens or Mohammed Ali staring at the floor

when they were doing their stuff. They looked the world in the eye and took what it had to throw at

them!

On the other side of the coin, look at children when they are nervous. Usually, children are less

adept at controlling how they feel and when put under pressure will do anything other than look a

person in the eye.

If you practice any of the disciplines that are said to develop the body/mind/spirit whether they are

Tai Chi, Yoga or other forms of meditation – they ALL have this message encoded into their teachings

somewhere.

The implication here is that this kind of inner confidence can be trained and that methods such as

martial arts and meditation can help with that training.

If you lift up your head, the first thing that physically happens is that you become more balanced.

Think about how much your head weighs. Typically an average human head weight is about the

same as five bags of sugar. Your centre of gravity is in the Tan Tien point, just below your belly

button. The distance from the middle of your head to your centre of gravity is roughly the same as

the length of your arm.

Next time you go shopping, try this one. Grab a few bags of sugar and hold them out in front of you

at arm’s length. It takes quite a lot of effort!

So, the person who walks around with their eyes on the floor for most of the time is inadvertently

putting pretty much the same sort of mechanical stress on their bodies – just by not paying attention

to their body posture.


Now, another exercise, if you are reading this the chance is that you have your eyes gazing

downwards to look at the printed words. Keep your head in that position for a moment or two.

Perhaps even let it drop a little further. What I suggest that you do here though is really observe

yourself. How does the “stooped” position make you feel? How are the muscles? What about your

inner self? Do you feel balanced?

Now, put the book down and lift up your head to a nice neutral balanced position. How did that

make you feel? More balanced? Less muscular stress?

When you let your head drop forwards, it creates a physical stress in your body that is similar to that

that you felt when you did the sugar experiment in the supermarket, but you gain nothing from it. It

does not even burn calories for you!

Your body mind does not really differentiate between physical or mechanical stress of this sort and

nervous stress. So if your neck is not balancing your head freely then the effort taken by the rest of

your body to just maintain that position is depleting your energies and putting you under stress that

is possible to avoid!

It sounds easy! Just lift your head up and reduce the muscular stress in your body and the reby

reduce the nervous stress. If only it were that easy, we would all be Yogis and Tai Chi masters.

The first thing that most people have to contend with is habits that are already programmed into our

bodies. This is especially true if you spend a lot of time using computers, telephones or driving.

These are notorious for training our bodies into bad posture. Along with environmental factors such

as these, there can also be congenital factors such as muscular skeletal problems.

What can happen is that the core muscles that should be used to lightly balance your head on the

top of your neck become atrophied and the more external muscles become overworked and tight,

leading to bad posture and all of the well documented problems that are associated with bad

posture.

How do we solve the problem? A good way to start is with Tai Chi because it teaches you awareness

of your posture. The Tai chi training will also help you with softening the external muscles and

training the internal core muscles to support your body better. A few nice massages will help as

well!

Once the physical side of things starts to improve, your body will straighten and your head lifts –

perhaps imperceptibly but this will change your energetic structure. Issues that previously would

have made you nervous or stressed will probably still have an effect on you but the difference will be

that these events have less impact on your body and mind. You are starting to regain your internal

balance!


Some thoughts about the History of Tai Chi The famous George Orwell quote “He who controls the past, controls the present”, always comes to

mind when I look on an internet search engine for “Tai Chi History”. Many of the web sites that you

see will have a family tree on it that starts with Yang Cheng Fu or Chan San Feng and finishes with

the teacher for the club whose website you are looking at.

Something along the lines of “The immortal from the south trained a secret group of students the

hidden secrets of Tai Chi and one of those students was the grandfather of my teacher who has now

given me exclusive permission to teach my Tai Chi to the public”. OK, so I am using exaggeration to

make a point but you do actually get web sites that make such claims.

It is not just Tai Chi that suffers from this affliction. Teachers of all disciplines seek to connect their

teaching to the original source – not just because it looks good but also as a form of both internal

and external validation.

Let’s try and put this very human phenomenon into a Tai Chi context. In Tai Chi, we are always

looking for balance. This balance is not just a physical balance – remember that Tai Chi is an art form

that trains mind, body and spirit.

Think now about another type of balance. That between the past and the future with the present –

the here and now being the pivot point in the middle of the two. In meditation, one of the aims that

we try to achieve is to live in the here and now and experience the moment as it is.

When one becomes truly aware of the moment, then ones consciousness expands and a new kind of

awareness develops. Many religions and mystical systems around the world operate either directly

or indirectly on this premise.

So, if we mentally re-visit the Tai Chi web site that is making claims about lineages to the fourteenth

century – do you think that the author is concentrating on the here and now or the past?

Alternatively, the Tai Chi master who has forgotten the traditions of Tai Chi and is trying to claim the

“one true way”, seems to also be missing out on the essence of the “here and now”.

In Tai Chi, we need to be mindful of the past and also be able to define ourselves in our own terms.

This is what all of the great teachers have done and will do. To become obsessed with the past is

like being the martial artist who is convinced that he will win or lose the next tournament depending

upon the result of the last one.

Each day, each moment should be a new experience. The past gives us our grounding and the future

gives us our impetus to move forwards but it is the only the present that we can change.

In this context, our internal relationship with the past and the future is interplay of Yin and Yang.

We can only truly learn to live in the moment when we balance our Yang tendencies to look forward

to the future and our Yin tendencies to look towards the past.


Tai Chi Warm Up

Exercises


Tai Chi Warm Up Exercises

If all that you gained from your Tai Chi practices was an understanding of the following warm up

exercises and practiced them regularly then you would have gained a valuable tool to assist you in

your fitness program.

The sequence shown is a traditional set of Tai Chi warm up exercises that have been used by Tai chi

players throughout the world for many years.

Just because they have been shown here within the context of Tai Chi, it does not mean that they

are limited to Tai Chi. The way that they systematically flow through the joints starting at the wrists

and going down to the feet means that all of your joints are mobilised with is useful for any sport or

just for health and fitness.

As with all Tai Chi exercises, be careful. Do not force yourself to do an exercise that you do not like.

If it hurts it is your body’s way of telling you to not do it.

If for some reason you do not like an exercise – do not do it. The exercises work on many different

levels through your body, mind and Energy. Listen to what your body is telling you and follow it.

There will always be an alternative exercise that you can perform or just wait for the next exercise.

The exercises all have health benefits, martial applications and Energy applications.


Wrists

Stand in a relaxed position Gently link your fingers together and rotate the wrists Keep your elbows down so that your shoulders stay relaxed Ensure that the movement is rotational rather than pulling the wrist joint up and down to avoid injury. This exercise is especially useful for people who use computers or drive because it helps you to relax the wrist and forearm.


Elbow Rotations

(1) Extend your arms out in front of you with

the palms facing down. Your intent should be in your finger tips at this moment Time your breathing so that you exhale at the full extension of your arms

(2) Pull the elbows back as you inhale

Rotate your forearms so that your palms face upwards

Try to make sure that you do not pull your elbows past the midline of your body Do this by turning your waist

(3) Keep your arms moving as you start to

exhale

Rotate your forearms again so that your palms face the floor Repeat the movement cycle by going back to (1)

This exercise is vital for the understanding of Tai Chi as it embodies many of the main principles


Shoulder Blades

Start by locating the acupressure point called “the gate of clouds”. It is located on your inner shoulder and illustrated by the red dot on the photo. Poke around with your thumb until you find a bit that is a slightly more tender. When you find the point, place the back of both hands on the point and make a rotational movement with your elbows. Try to make the rotations as large as possible with the elbows describing the biggest circle that is comfortable for you. Breathe naturally with the exercise.

Reverse the direction of movement. This exercise works with the lung meridian and is therefore associated with helping your breathing. It is excellent for loosening the shoulders and increasing the blood circulation in the trapezius muscles.

A version of this exercise that will test your coordination more is to have the elbows moving in opposite directions. You will have to ensure that your waist is moving to achieve this. If at first you find the coordination difficult, persevere. You will eventually “get it” and when you do – it means that you have improved your coordination in a visible way.


Windmills

This exercise continues from where the last one left off with loosening your shoulders and energising the lung meridian. Locate the “gate of clouds” and put your finger on it. This serves a dual purpose of stimulation the acupressure point and giving you a mental reference to help you to not raise your shoulder during the exercise. Swing your arm several times in one direction and then several times in the other. Repeat with the other arm

Try “upping the game” again by swinging in both directions. When you can manage this easily, try changing the direction of the arm swings. When you have mastered the exercise you will be able to change directions with both arms easily.


Neck Loosening

With the following neck exercises the ideal breathing pattern is to exhale as you work your neck and inhale as you come back to the centre. If, however this gets a little bit out of sync, then do not worry. You will not cause yourself harm and practice will improve your breathing and movement coordination. For the first exercise, look to the left as you exhale. As you inhale, come back to the centre and then when you exhale again look to the right. Repeat several times.

Now bring your ear in the direction of your shoulder as you exhale. Inhale and come back to the centre. As you exhale, bring your ear towards the other shoulder. Try to bring your ear to the shoulder and not your shoulder to your ear.

Move your chin in semi circles to the left and to the right. When practicing these exercises – especially with your neck, you will probably hear popping noises from the joints. This is not something to worry about unless it causes you pain. If in doubt check with your coach or doctor. Neck mobilisation exercises will not guarantee that your neck will always be 100% pain free. They will help you to maintain your neck and I find with my clients that if they do exercises for their necks, they recover from neck injuries more easily


Neck and Shoulder Massage

Grab the muscles in the back of your neck with your hand and squeeze them up and down your neck. Repeat with the other side of your neck with the other hand.

Grab the shoulder muscles with your hand and massage them by squeezing up and down. Repeat on the other side with your other hand.

Most people enjoy having their neck and shoulders massaged – and it is good for you! It helps to the circulation in the muscles and relaxes them. It is not always possible to get somebody else to do it for you. Whilst it is not as much fun and less effective than being massaged by somebody else, we can get some of the benefits by massaging our own muscles.


Open the Chest

Inhale and cross your arms in front of your chest with your hands facing down.

As you exhale, pull your elbows back. There is no need to be highly vigorous with this movement. Keep it gentle in the beginning stages. Later, when you have become accustomed to the movement, you can make it more vigorous.

When you inhale again, cross your arms again but this time with the palms facing upwards

As you exhale, open your arms. Repeat the exercise from the beginning several times. This exercise is excellent for opening the chest. It also helps to open the heart chakra.


Side Twists

Side twists make the sides of your body softer and more supple and can help with your breathing by making your chest area less stiff. Raise your hands in front of your chest and inhale

As you exhale, twist your body gently to one side. This first twist should deliberately be quite easy to get your muscles looser for the next twist.

Inhale and come back to the centre


Now perform the twist again to the SAME SIDE but this time move your body further around. Repeat for the other side. The idea is that the first part loosens your body and the second twist really does the work. Moving in the light twist allows your body to relax more and you get more from the exercise.

Waist Rotations

Put your hands on to your kidney area and rotate your waist in a spiral. As the muscles loosen the spiral gradually gets larger The most common mistake with this exercise is to let you head move up and down instead of moving your waist. Stop this from happening by fixing your eyes on something. If the object that your eyes are fixed upon looks like it is moving up and down then you are moving your head up and down. If it looks stationery, then you are working with your waist correctly


Repeat the exercise in the other direction. Gradually build up the size of the movement and gradually reduce it when you have finished. You should never suddenly start or suddenly stop with these Tai Chi exercises.

This exercise helps you to look after your lower back. The majority of back pain is in the lower back so if you practice the exercise regularly you will be reducing your chances of getting the most common type of back pain.


Turn the Waist to Swing Your Arms

Start with your feet shoulder width apart and start to swing your waist. As the momentum increases, allow the arms to be thrown out by the circular motion. Do not try to throw your arms out – allow them to move as a result of your waist rotation.

When you decide to finish the exercise, do it by gradually slowing down the motion of the waist. Suddenly stopping this movement can cause injury

There is a playful quality to this exercise that seems to remind people of the school playground and uplift them. The exercise is very good for your spine provided that you keep the spine straight.


Hip Rotations

The following exercise is simple. All that you need to do is to make big circles with your knees in all directions. The sequence does not matter. In the photos the knee is making anti clockwise, clockwise, heel push and then heel down circles.

In the beginning balancing will be the biggest issue. Start by holding on to a wall or the back of a chair but gradually wean yourself away from these props. You can also make the exercise easier by placing your foot on the floor in between movements.

Doing the exercise slowly makes it harder but try to not rush it in the early days. It is better to do two knee circles really well than it is to do several at a more rushed tempo.

When you have completed with one leg do the same for the other.


Knee Rotations

Put your hands on your knees and focus your eyes on a point on the floor in front of you. Now start to gently rotate your knees. Do a few circles in one direction and then repeat in the other direction. NEVER make the circles too large as this makes it easy to damage your knee.

This exercise helps your balance and if done gently helps your knees to stay strong.


Ankle Rotations

Place your big toe on the floor and make circles with your ankles. Repeat in the other direction Then repeat for the other leg

As well as helping to keep your ankles supple, it assists your balance and opens the Energy meridians in your ankle.


The Tai Chi Form


The Tai Chi Form

The complete Tai Chi form comprises of 105 moves and takes around thirty minutes to complete.

However, there is much repetition in the form. These opening moves are repeated several times

during the whole sequence. If you can perform all of the movements described in this introduction

you can actually perform around 20% of the whole form and have a good basis for working with the

rest of the form.

During my years of teaching Tai Chi, I have found that the people who pay attention to these

introductory moves find that they understand Tai Chi better than the ones who decide to learn the

whole sequence and then correct it later.

Tai Chi Footprints The following images or “Tai Chi Footprints” are designed to help you understand how you should

shift your weight when practicing Tai Chi. A dark footprint carries the weight and a light footprint is

“empty” or not carrying weight. Examples are shown below.

Tai Chi Footprint

Tai Chi Footprint

Tai Chi Footprint

Weight is carried equally in both

feet

The left foot carries the weight

and the ball of the right foot

touches the floor gently

The left foot carries the weight

allowing the right foot to be

opened to a 45o angle


Wu Chi

Wu Chi is the name given by the Taoists for the state of the Universe before the complementary

forces of Yin and Yang came into existence. It is sometimes called “the great nothing”.

Wu Chi is the start of the Tai Chi form and is symbolic of that primordial state of the Universe. In Wu

Chi, we train our bodies to be straight and relaxed and our minds to be calm. When practicing Wu

Chi, we do nothing.

Doing nothing is not as easy as it sounds! Sometimes it is difficult to even stand still physically for a

beginner.

When we practice Wu Chi, we set ourselves up for the rest of the Tai Chi form. You cultivate mental

stillness and physical relaxation. Errors made in Wu Chi will usually be reflected throughout the rest

of the form.

The experienced Tai Chi player will use the Wu Chi posture to create the internal and external

feelings that he or she will then carry through the Tai Chi form.

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and parallel. Go through the following check points:-

Feel your feet in contact with the floor. Check if the weight distribution is even. Push your toes into the floor gently.

Check that your knees are not locked. If they are release them.

Tuck under slightly with the sacrum so that the spine is straight

Feel upwards through the spine and relax

Feel your shoulders dropping away from your spine Keep your neck straight, head up and chin down

Eyes forward

Relax your breathing into your lower abdominal area

Re-check your feet and legs Let your mind relax and become “empty” of random

thoughts. Tai Chi Footprint


Common Mistakes

It is important when practicing Wu Chi to let the body and mind relax. As the body relaxes, so does

the mind.

If we have tensions in our body and mind, they will be reflected in this posture. This means that if

the mechanics of the movement as described above are correct, by just standing in this posture will

help you to start to dealing with those inner tensions.

It is therefore helpful to not consider imperfections as mistakes or even to judge them as something

bad. If, for example when you are practicing Wu Chi, your shoulders become stiff; it is good to

regard it as an opportunity to improve yourself. This way, our posture will gradually relax.

If you decide that the stiff shoulders are a problem rather than an opportunity for improvement,

then the path towards improving your posture and calming your mind will be slower.

It is good for Tai Chi practitioners of all skill levels to practice Wu Chi as a standing meditation with

this kind of intent.


Opening Form

As the Energies in Wu Chi, the great void began to coalesce; they created the polarities that are

called Yin and Yang.

The opening and closing movements of the Tai Chi form are the same. At the beginning of the form,

they represent the formation of Yin and Yang from the void. At the end of the form, they represent

the closure of the current cycle of Energy with a return to Wu Chi, giving readiness for the next cycle.

In the Tai Chi form, we start to sink the weight and create intent. These are the only movements in

the form where the weight is equally distributed in both legs.

Point your fingers forwards

Relax the elbows

Inhale

Tai Chi Footprint

On the exhalation, push your fingers outwards and extend the Chi through them

Tai Chi Footprint

Side view

Side view


Inhale and sink your elbows, thus drawing your hands towards your body

Tai Chi Footprint

Exhale and press your hands down

Tai Chi Footprint

Common Mistakes

When you practice this movement, you need to be aware of your intent. If you are just waving your

arms up and down without thinking about it, there is no intent and the movement is not being true

to the requirements of Tai Chi.

Side view

Side view


Left Ward Off

In “left Ward Off”, we create the first of the “eight Energies” of Tai Chi with the strong ward off

Energy. We also have the other energies present. We are starting to define ourselves on our Tai chi

path.

At the beginning of the form, the movement has us making our first steps into the routine and

teaches us the beginnings of the Tai Chi footwork.

Inhale

Shift your weight on to your rigt leg and open your right toes to a forty five degree angle

Turn your waist

Relax your elbows

Tai Chi Footprint

On a continued inhalation, shift your weight back over to your left leg

Soften the elbows

Tai Chi Footprint

Side view


Exhale and step forwards

Left hand rises to create ward off

Right hand presses down

Look to the right

Tai Chi Footprint

Common Mistakes

The most common mistake with this movement is to forget about keeping the feet shoulder width

apart and step narrow. When this happens the bow stance becomes unstable. The feet should be

as though they are on either side of a railway track – not a tight rope.

If you are training in a room that has floorboards or other straight line markings, the beginner can

use these to make sure that they have maintained width in the stance as well as length.

The cause of the narrow stance is sometimes because you are trying to make your stance too long

and are unable to balance sufficiently to make a wider stance in that position. Both points should

be noted.

It is also common for the beginner to look the wrong way in this stance. You should be looking to

the right.

Side view


Grasping the Sparrows Tail

Inhale Sink your weight on to your right leg

Repax your elbows

Tai Chi Footprint

As your inhalation continues shift your weight on to your left leg

Pick up your right foot and touch the floor with the ball of your foot

Keep your elbows soft

Tai Chi Footprint


Step forward with your right foot and place it flat on the floor in a bow stance

Look to the front

Tai Chi Footprint

Right Ward Off

As you exhale push from the back leg and expand into right ward off

Tai Chi Footprint


Push your weight down into your right leg

Turn your waist clockwise

Allow your arms to float upwards with the movement

Tai Chi Footprint

Roll Back

Sink your weight back on to your right leg as you exhale

Turn your waist anti-clockwise Pull back with your left elbow as you push out with your right palm

Tai Chi Footprint


Inhale as you sink further into the left leg

Squar your hips

Touch your right inner forearm with your left palm Relax your elbows

Tai Chi Footprint

Squeeze

As you exhale, push your body forward from your back leg

Lift your arms up and push outwards with them

Tai Chi Footprint


Open your hands

Tai Chi Footprint

Inhale and sink back on to your left leg

Pull your elbows back to your body

Tai Chi Footprint


Push

As you exhale, push your weight froward from your back leg

Push with both hands

Tai Chi Footprint


Single Whip

Inhale Sink back on to your left leg

Pull your elbows in

Tai Chi Footprint

Adjust your right foot by turning it slightly to the front Turn your waist

Shift the weight back on to your right foot

Tai Chi Footprint


Push the weight from your right leg to your left and extend your arms

Tai Chi Footprint

Sink the weight back on to your right leg

Turn your waist clockwise

Tai Chi Footprint


Adjust your left leg so that you are in the empty stance

Push out with your right hand

Make “ward off” with your left hand

Tai Chi Footprint

Step acrross with your left leg to make a bow stance – keep your weight in the right leg at this stage

Make a “hook” with your right hand

Place your left hand in front of your body

Tai Chi Footprint


Shift your weight forward on to your left leg

Extend your left arm

Tai Chi Footprint


Closing Form

Shift your weight on to your right leg Turn your right toes inwards

Raise your arms

Tai Chi Footprint

Exhale and sink lower into your right leg

Make a “chopping” motion with both hands

Tai Chi Footprint


Step forward with your left leg so that both feet are parallel

Continue in the direction of the previous chopping motion with the arms to sweep close to your chest

Tai Chi Footprint

Extend both arms forwards

Tai Chi Footprint


Separate your arms

Tai Chi Footprint

Rotate your forearms

Tai Chi Footprint


Pull your elbows in

Tai Chi Footprint

Press down

Tai Chi Footprint


Relax your wrists

Tai Chi Footprint


Tai Chi Sequence


Wu Chi

1

Opening Form

2 3 4 5

Left Ward Off

6 7 8

Grasping The Sparrows Tail

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19


Single Whip

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Closing Form

27 28 29 30 31

32 33 34 35

an introduction to tai chi chuan

Documents

understanding of tai

tai chi form

tai chi footprints

tai chi chuan

tai chi beginners

history of tai chi

tai chi development

ae tai chi introduction