Zhou and Lu In Tai Chi: How The Elbow Directs Rollback Energy
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- You're aware of the idea that Tai Chi is a relaxing practice, and it involves directing energy and strength with softness. But how exactly does it do that? The answer is in the elbow.
In this video, discover the importance of the elbow, Zhou, one of the 8 classical Tai Chi energies, in guiding your energy and that of people you are working with. As you master this quality, you will be able to relax your arms and shoulders more completely and profoundly.
When you transform the tension in your arms into the lightness of energy and the freeness of your mind, how will you be feeling? How will that affect your Tai Chi? And your life?
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Thank you. I like your elbow explanation. I will try it next time I train.
Fantastic! Maintain your relaxation and let your elbow direct the intention and energy, like a headlight shining down the road. 🙏
I enjoyed reading your very generous responses to the questions raised in the comments. Thank you 🙏
Thank you! I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to watch, reflect, and comment in any way. My teacher once told me that it's when you become a teacher, that you really learn. People's questions have helped me open my mind to insight so much beyond what my own thoughts have. So they have been beneficial to me, as well as to every one else in this Tai Chi community!
I got it to work against pushes most of the time. I can’t get it to work against punches at all. Is Tai Chi like wrestling?
That's a good observation. Tai Chi is like wrestling in the sense that it maintains contact with the opponent and influences their balance and body control. You found it easier against pushes or other similarly long actions. When you improve your body's capacity to maintain Song relaxation at the moment of impact, you'll begin to influence punches. The results may not be as dramatic with punches because what you are doing is borrowing their force to cause them to lose balance. The more committed they are to the action, the bigger the force you'll borrow.
Here's a process to develop your capacity to do this. Get familiar with maintaining Song relaxation. You can watch the video series about it for exercises to improve that. And then ask a partner to punch you in the chest. When they punch, put your arm up in the way with Song. Don't forcefully try to parry them. Just put it in the way. When you have the proper Quality, their punch will lose its force. Once you accomplish that you'll start to see the effects of roll back more and more!
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Doesn’t work for me.
It's great that you tried it! Here are some tips that may help you. All of Tai Chi starts from a state of relaxation, called Song (鬆). Some people think of it as the Wuji (無極) state from which Tai Chi arises. As you establish this state free from unnecessary tension, conflict with the opponent disappears.
When there is conflict, the opponent can find how to struggle and resist you. When the conflict is dissolved, your Intention can then direct the energy and the movement with Zhou.
Another important aspect related to this is that, even while understanding Song, you may not yet be familiar with staying relaxed when someone attacks you. As you feel the physical pressure or their attack or push, you can remain relaxed as you support their pressure with Peng energy and disperse it using Kao (靠) intention.
Finally, there is a certain mentality to Lu, and that is one of accepting your opponent and including them as an extension of yourself. This is a mental emotional quality that you can cultivate during meditation and in Push Hands, which you can think of as a type of moving meditation for this purpose.
So as you bring these mental, emotional, physical, and energetic qualities into alignment, you will begin to experience the particularly pleasant qualities of Tai Chi. I know the video is short and makes it sound quite simple so it's very helpful that your experience helped promote this conversation. We will be discussing each of the concepts in future videos!