Tai-Chi-Ch'uan

If your tai chi teacher follows the classic Yang Family 108 movements Long Form, there is a good chance that Y. K. Chen's TAI-CHI CH'UAN can help you. I am 73 years old, no athlete, and my memory is not what it used to be when I was 15. My mind is analytical and I like to know the names of the tai chi movements. In my last lesson my teacher introduced Chen's movements 78 and 79, "Snake Creeps Down" and "Golden Cock Stands on One Leg" (right leg). Chen devotes 1/2 page of text and 1/4 page of drawn illustration (featuring presumably himself) to each of these moves. To give you a feel for his words, "Snake Creeps Down" ends "Sit down on your right foot as low as you can, and lower your left hand below your left knee, and stretch it forward beyond the toes of your left foot. The right foot stands still. The left leg is straightened (Fig. 62)." These words and illustrations do no more than confirm what my teacher demonstrated in a bit more detail. But they give meat and drink to my analytical powers, imagination and memory. My teacher is constantly after me to spread my feet wider, to suspend my head from an imaginary string, to hold my torso perpendicular to the floor and such like. To me at least, however, my biggest problem in tai chi is that I am an old geezer and sometimes have trouble remembering "what comes next" when I am practicing alone at home. Since Chen and my teacher are in sync on what comes next, as on everything else, Chen provides a good refresher/reminder. His texts are dense and require close reading, but almost always are a big help to me. Beyond the 108 postures, Chen's booklet provides insights into the taoist principles behind tai chi -- an art which is the introductory basis or skeleton for all the more advanced Chinese martial arts. Y. K. Chen emphasizes the waist, balance, softness, fluidity, calm, correct posture. Chen analyzes all tai chi movements in terms of circles. Hands, feet, tongue on roof of mouth, alertness, yielding while an imagined opponent attacks, attacking when he yields, it is all there. Towards the end Chen moves beyond solo practice of the movements to working with a live partner, first Joint Hand Operations and then Ta Lu. All this lays a systematic foundation for later training with weapons. Need Jackie Chan worry about a new rival? Not in my case! I do tai chi for fun, for balance and for good health. My hat is off my balding head to both my teacher and to Y. K. Chen. -OOO-