Tai Chi Basics: Energy in Movement

How is it that Tai Chi practitioners seem to glide, effortlessly as though their joints have been injected with Virgin Olive Oil? Why does a good practitioner, irrespective of style or suit, lineage or look, move like a smooth operator?

• It’s often talked about but little explored - this elusive source of flow and energy. But it is not magic or mystical.
• It's simple, mechanical, and attractively juxtapositional.
• It is the juicy embodiment of opposites, favoured by those that opt to embrace rather than confront.
• It’s that polarity and plurality underneath all styles and school that define the art of effortless movement in Tai Chi. 

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But how is it obtained? Where does it reside? What are the ways to build this art of movement into your style? The concept of swing and return is spoken of in some styles, in others as as spirals and circles. But it all amounts to 3 things: 

1. Sink your weight
2. Relax your upper body, especially arms and shoulders
3. Follow your waist

Forget about everything else...

Forget everything else. 
Forget notions of internal fire energy and explosive jin.
Forget diagrams with arrows and geometrical positions.
Forget anyone that says its all about tapping into Ley-lines or Qi rivers. 

1. Sink your weight
2. Relax your upper body, especially arms and shoulders
3. Follow your waist

Forget everything else. Start with these basic ideas, and then let them grow. watch the mini 3 part series below as visual guides. ​

More on Momentum and Swing in Tai Chi 

These 3 short videos are excerpts are taken from longer videos on this theme, each exploring in greater depth the idea of Swing and Momentum. They are taken from the Complete Tai Chi Course - 12 months of exercises, Tai Chi breathing, Form practice, applications, poetry, music, art, and documentaries. Find out how more here.