Harmonizing Upper with Lower

           It’s been about 3 weeks now since I started Tai Chi, and it’s funny how I’m experiencing a different obstacle than what I would doing Kung Fu. In Kung Fu (and in my golf swing), it’s my upper body that tends to want to finish before my lower body, where in Tai Chi, my lower body is the one that is finishing before the upper body.  The nice thing with Tai Chi, is the slower pace of the movements, I do find it easier to begin to harmonize the two; that’s not to say they still are, just easier to feel out that timing.  I can already begin to see how this will translate into my Kung Fu, and working on the flow of the two halves, and on the harmony of them working together and finishing at the same time.

          The other detail I’m noticing is the attention to detail in how my body is feeling doing the movements. It was a simple thing that made a huge impact on my Tai Chi form, that Sifu Dennis pointed out to me, the fact that I was turning my leg from the knee and not from the hip and how that was impacting my foot positioning and thus the rest of the flow of the form.  Again, it was so simple and by doing that it automatically corrected my foot placement, and I thought about my Kung Fu and if I was doing similar things in my forms.

          Overall, I’m excited to see where my Tai Chi journey leads me on my Kung Fu journey.  My hope, my intention, is that Tai Chi will help me better get in-tuned with the way my body moves, so that it can move more in harmony and in a flow, so that I’m not muscling my forms and techniques as much, and that my power is coming from my technique and how my skeleton is aligned.