After many years of practicing Tai Chi I recently decided to revisit some fundamentals of the Tai Chi 24 form. This one was my first major form which started my passion for Tai Chi.
Over the next few weeks I will go through each posture starting at the beginning and re-explore the breathing part of it. This page will be continuously updated until I have revisited each individual posture.
Opening Posture
The opening posture contains two breath cycles.
The first cycle starts by slowly inhaling when you move your weight onto the right foot and lift your left foot to the left. The first cycle finishes by slowly exhaling when placing the left foot onto the ground and moving your weight to the left foot so that it is evenly distributed across both feet.
The second cycle starts by slowly inhaling when you raise both arms. The inhaling is supporting the raising action of your arms. The moment between inhaling & exhaling is when the arms have reached the top of the up movement and they are about to begin the down movement. The second cycle finishes by slowly exhaling when the arms are lower to the final position.
Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane Posture
This posture contains one breath cycle spread across the two main sections of the posture. The first section is the centering of the body and gathering of the energy, where you visually hold the ball. During the first section you inhale. During the second section where the practitioner expands and steps out to left or right, you exhale to support this movement.
White Crane Spreads Its Wings
This posture also contains only one breath cycle across the gathering & expanding section. You inhale very slowly during the first section (gathering of the energy) where you half step forward with your right foot and hold the ball. Then during the second section you slowly exhale where you unwind the torso and separate the arms into their final position. This releases the stored/gathered energy.
Brush Knee and Step Forward
This posture also contains only one breath cycle across the gathering & expanding section. You inhale very slowly during the first section (gathering) where you get your arms and feet into position before you step forward and brush your knee. During the second section (expand) you slowly exhale while you step forward, brush your knee and push with the other arm but during the last repetition (third) the exhalation is not finalised in this posture since it continues into the next posture.
Playing the lute
This posture contains two exhalations and one inhalation. The first exhalation happens when the practitioner is extending the right arm. This exhalation is a carry over from the previous posture. The inhalation happens when the practitioner brings the weight back on the right foot, brings the right arm back and extends the left arm to the front. The second exhalation happens when the practitioner brings both arms in the final position and lowers the left heel to the ground until it touches.
Repulse Monkey
The breathing is very similar to the ‘ Brush Knee and Step Forward’ posture. It also contains only one breath cycle across the gathering & expanding section. You inhale very slowly during the first section (gathering) where you get your arms and feet into position before you step backwards and push forward with your arm. During the second section (expand) you slowly exhale while you step backwards and push forward with your arm. Each repetition (4 total) is one breath cycle.
Grasp Sparrow’s Tail
This posture contains the following main sections: Ward-Off, Rollback, Press, and Push but it contains only three breath cycles. The first breath cycle is across Ward-Off where you slowly inhale until you hold the ball and slowly exhale when you stepping forward into the archer’s stance. The second breath cycle is across Rollback & Press. Basically you slowly inhale when rolling back and slowly exhale when pressing. The third breath cycle is across the push section. You inhale during the withdrawal part (shifting weight to the back leg) of the push and exhale when you shift the weight back into the front leg to execute the push.
Single Whip
This posture contains two breath cycles and basically two main sections. The first section transitions from the push into the wave hand-like movement. When you move to the left you slowly inhale and when you move back to the right you slowly exhale. The second section starts when you commencing the hook and center your feet and during those movements you slowly inhale. You start slowly exhaling when you place your foot sideways/forward and push out with your hand to complete this posture.
Cloud Hands
The posture basically contains two main sections that get repeated three times. The first section is when both hands are changing the position - the top one (visualize: washing the wall) is moving down and the bottom one (visualize: scooping the water up) is moving upwards. During this section you slowly inhale. The second section is when both hands move sideways while the practitioner is exhaling slowly.
more to come .......