Specialise Tai ji Vocabulary and i-Taiching Review

[Touchstone57]

I have recently started taking Tai ji quan lessons, and it would be great if people could share any learning resources regarding Tai ji. I'm specifically looking for vocabulary lists for commonly used words in Tai ji, any lessons or useful content for learning would be great as well. 

 

One option is to start watching tai ji videos (there are a lot available) but they are not always that easy to dive into from the beginning, without getting subtitles first etc and learning to much at once!.

 

I'm post HSK 4, so I have a reasonable listening ability and conversational fluency, but I'm sometimes slow to react to the teacher when introduced to lots of new words.

 

Particularly words related to the following -

 

Body movements - as the teacher instructs us they will introduce lots of different movements for the body, specific body parts, how one stance will affect our position and stability etc, so lots of unfamiliar words here.

 

Philosophical concepts of tai qi - there are quite a few philosophical concepts used in tai qi to explain the effects of different movements on the body. I'm more concerned with getting all the movements and actions nailed first but I'm still interested in learning these as it is deeply rooted in Chinese culture. 

 

If its of interest to any one I will post a review of of taking tai qi courses and the various things involved with it, as I'm taking the course with i-Taiching in Shanghai (a well known brand apparently). 

[imron]

意念 also sometimes just 意 - Focus/intention (focus is where your attention is at, and intention is where it intends to move, both expressed by the same term in Chinese, but which I think are better expressed with different words in English).  Your focus and/or intention should always be somewhere for each move.  This is probably the most important concept to grasp in Taichi.  Practicing Taichi is all about training the internal movement of your 意 to coordinate with the external movement of your body.

 

This is why Taichi is performed slowly because when you start out, if you move quickly it's difficult to coordinate the internal movement with your external movement.  Slowing down makes it significantly easier.

 

By internal movement, all I mean is that it's possible to transfer your focus to any point in your body just by thinking.  For example, if I say to focus on your left hand you should be able to feel your focus move to your left hand.  If I say focus on your right hand, your focus can jump instantly to your right hand, likewise if I say your left elbow, the tip of your nose, or anywhere else.  Normally in Taichi you want it to move from your waist, to your shoulders, to your elbow, to your wrists and then out to your fingers - a concept known as 节节贯穿 i.e. moving through each 关节 in turn, which corresponds to how you should be making each move (almost every move in Taichi should start at the waist - 以腰为主).

 

At the beginning, you'll probably only be able to jump your focus from point to point, e.g. shoulder, elbow, wrist, but as you get more practice you can start to move it smoothly between them (try holding out your arm, focusing on your shoulder and then jumping your focus from the shoulder to your elbow and then to your wrist, now try it again but instead of jumping your focus try to move it smoothly from one point to the next, you'll probably find it much more difficult).

 

For all intents and purposes this is also your 气, because you 以意运气 (use your 意 to move your 气), and where your 意 goes, your 气 follows - but don't get caught up in any sort of mystical or magical concepts of 气, it's nothing like that.  When you are focusing on some part of your body, that's where your 意 is, and by definition that's where your 气 goes.  You should think of 气 as that feeling of internal focus, nothing more and nothing less.

 

Anyway, the more you 放松 (relax) the easier moving your focus will be.  You can see this for yourself by holding out your arm again.  First clench your fist and tense the rest of your arm up completely and and try to move your focus smoothly from your shoulder to your elbow to your wrist.  It will feel like the movement is blocked.  Now try relaxing your arm (but still keeping it outstretched and with an open hand) and doing it again - you'll notice it's much easier and your focus can flow much more smoothly.  During your training, if you are regularly trying to move your internal focus with your movements, you'll find that sometimes this movement feels blocked.  This typically indicates you have reached a muscle that is tense when it shouldn't be and you should make a point of relaxing it before moving on.

 

Note however that relaxing does not mean going limp.  These are very different concepts and you should never be limp in Taichi.  You always need to use enough strength to hold the correct position.  Think of it like a garden hose.  When the tap is off and no water is running through it, it is limp.  When you turn on the tap and have water running through it, it is still flexible and pliable but it will also have a small amount of soft pressure straightening it out from the inside.  This the feeling you want to reproduce for yourself - fluid and soft, but enough internal pressure to keep your limbs in the correct position with a slight straightening out.

 

Well, anyway, this post is getting a bit long now, and when I started writing I was going to write out a bit more vocab, but then got sidetracked by my own ramblings.  Hopefully the above will still be useful to you in some way.

 

A couple more useful terms:

 

扣脚 - move your toes inwards, with the heel as the pivot point.

开脚 - move your toes outwards, with the heel as the pivot point.

蹬脚 - if talking about your stance, moving your heel outwards, with the ball of your foot as the pivot point.  If kicking, kicking with the heel out and toes pointed back.

松脚 - moving your heel inwards, with the ball of your foot as the pivot point.

 

Also important with regards to your stance, note that your knee should never extend out beyond your toes.  Also note that your knee should be vertically aligned with the direction of your foot, which is to say if you move your weight forward or back the knee should move along a straight line directly above and in the same direction as your foot.  It should never be leaning inwards or outwards.  If you don't pay attention to this, it's very easy to slowly cause yourself an injury.

[Touchstone57]

Thanks, for your reply Imron - exactly the type of thing I needed, as well as some background information which helps make sense of things. 

 

More common phrases that I need to learn are "bend your knees lower!", "back straight", "lower your shoulders" etc etc. I find the balance of both keeping your body in a correct, upright position whilst simultaneously being relaxed quite difficult - I assume this is something you will be able to develop over time.

 

How is 'channeling your qi' meant to feel? I find difficult to transfer my focus to different parts of the body when you find you are already tired...! 

 

Any other useful resources out there or should I just jump and start watching the myriad of videos out there? 

[imron]

How is 'channeling your qi' meant to feel?

First of all, don't think of it as 'channeling your qi'.  That only mystifies something that is quite normal.  Just think of it as your focus and intention and it feels exactly like what I described above.  It's really quite a normal and ordinary feeling, it's just that most of the time people either don't pay attention to it or don't try to coordinate it all together.  You definitely won't feel anything magical or mystical.

 

Initially it will be hard to transfer your focus, but start with small things and work up.  It's also something that will get easier and easier the more you practice.

 

You'll find it's much easier to transfer your focus in large jumps from point to point rather than moving it smoothly, so start with that.  If you find it difficult when you are tired, find a time of time when you are feeling fresh and relaxed and try practising it then.  You don't need to do the form along with it, just practise moving your focus around.  Your arm is probably the easiest place to start with because it has a couple of nice big joints to move from (shoulder, elbow, wrist).  Hold it out in front of you and practise transferring in jumps, and when that feels ok, try to move smoothly along the bones.  If it feels difficult, first make sure the muscles are relaxed (but not limp), then try going more slowly.  You can also try using your eyes to guide your focus.  Once you get better at doing it slowly, you can start to increase the speed.  If you practise this for a bit you'll find it much easier to incorporate this in to your regular training.

 

Any other useful resources out there or should I just jump and start watching the myriad of videos out there?

Videos will be next to useless - not least because it's difficult to know whether the person is any good.  There are plenty of videos of so-called 'Masters' that have all sorts of problems - raised shoulders and elbows, not moving from the waist, superfluous flourishes, stances that are too deep and violate principles mentioned above about the knee and so on.  Even if it's a video of someone who knows what they are doing, it's also likely that if you try to copy the video then you'll start to incorporate incorrect technique because you're not getting corrections and feedback and while you might think you're doing something 'exactly the same', in reality there is likely to be many problems that you simply don't recognise.

 

Finding a good teacher is really the only good way to learn.

 

More common phrases that I need to learn are "bend your knees lower!", "back straight", "lower your shoulders" etc etc.

You'll often hear '蹲' for bending your knees, e.g. 蹲下去、蹲低点 

 

Instead of "back straight" you'll often hear not to do something e.g. 撅屁股 - stick your bum out.  冒腰 (not sure if it's that 冒) bend your back forward.  仰身 - tilt your torso backwards.  低头 tilt your head down. Each of those will probably be prefaced with 不要 or 别.

 

Lower your shoulders will be 松肩 - relax your shoulders.  This phrase will often be followed by 坠肘 - sink your elbows (sinking your elbows is a core principle of Taichi, elbows should never be sticking out or sticking up).  松肩坠肘 is something you'll hear a lot of.

 

In regards to your stance, you might also hear that it is too wide 宽 or too narrow 窄 (a narrow stances is a very common problem for new learners and it makes many things more difficult because it tends to lock up the hips and make it difficult to turn them).

 

Also pay attention to the direction of your hips and your shoulders - they should always be in line with each other.  If you discover that your hips are and shoulders are not facing the same direction then you've done something wrong - probably you've been twisting your upper body, rather than turning at the waist.  Your entire upper body should move as one unit.

 

I find the balance of both keeping your body in a correct, upright position whilst simultaneously being relaxed quite difficult

This is something that does get easier with time.  Also don't think of relaxed as 'limp' and completely without any effort.  You do need to exert some effort - just don't be tense.  Also have a look at your structure.  In Taichi, everything should be aligned so the weight is being taken by your skeletal structure rather than your muscles (this is why the back is straight rather than tilting forward or backwards).

[XuanWu]

About the philosophical concepts,"tao te ching" is a must.

 

Dont think about qi now. You will never "feel" it, unless you have jin and you wont get jin unless you practise it like a bradypous

 

oh and enjoy what you doing!

[abcdefg]

I just discovered this thread. Very helpful.

 

My teacher often shouts to remember my 步法, which I finally worked out to mean "footwork."