Supporting My Technique

         I had a lightbulb moment last night in class, while practicing Lao Gar 1&2, and it was gifted to me by Sifu Langner.  There's a technique in Lao Gar 2 that just wasn't connecting for me, and I knew it was because my lower half wasn't harmonizing with my upper half, I just didn't quite understand why.  Then Sifu Langner demoed the technique and really slowed it down, and this provided me the opportunity to really look at his feet and his transition from stances, and I immediately knew what it was I was doing that wasn't supporting the technique I was trying to do.  Timing is everything, and it is going to be one of those lessons that I will be reminded of many times throughout my career as a martial artist.  It is not enough to have your lower half pointed in the direction you want your energy to go, which is what I was doing, but when to release so that the timing of the stances solidifying aligns with the upper half.  I essentially was doing what my problem is in Tai Chi, which was solidifying my lower half before my upper half finished.          My thoughts/intent up until now was that my feet and hips needed to point in the direction that my technique was going, and didn't occur to me that because I was doing that too early, I wasn't getting the 'snap' of the technique as my upper and lower half end at the same time.  The next time I went through Lao Gar and got to that section, I released my stance later and the end result felt much better.  I'm sure there was still some disharmony between my harmonies, but it felt much more solid, and actually felt like i had power there, not just putting my arms and hands out.  Now, I'm sure I'm doing this elsewhere in other forms too, so time to go through them and find the places where this might be the issue.