This is one of the requirement in our Zhao Bao Taiji Quan. When I do meditation in a Horse Stand 馬步, I can let my body weight transfer to the ground with minimum blocking by my joints, especially the knees. This is also true when an opponent try to push or pull you. In order to achieve this goal, every part of my muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints have to be aligned in the right position.
Today I use one of the Yi Jin Jing exercise to demonstrate how to divert a horizonal pulling force to the heels. First I tried to explain what was a wrong reaction. I asked the student to use her body weight to pull me backward in order to reach a balance with my pulling force. However, she was under my mercy at this time because her balance was totally dependent upon my pulling force. If I suddenly withdraw my pull, she was going to fall back because she was not self balanced. Later, I asked her to divert my pull from her arms to the ground by going through her waist, knees, and heels. Although her body configuration was not straight, she was able to transfer my pull to her heels. This is called Force straight through a curved posture 形曲而力直. Of course, this requires a lot of practices, especially the core muscles on the waist, back, and hips.
Comentários