Looking at you hands

When i first started Tiaji quan, they always say that where the eye looks is importand and it can either make your break your routine. At first i thought it would be good if i get my body postures and alignment right first, then i would go on to do my eye coordination. Well, that's what i did!
However, half way through getting my postures and alignment correct, I started to realise the use of the eyes.
The eyes actually help in getting the postures and body alignments correct! At the same time, it helps you to watch where your attack is going to land and helps you to focus your energy.
By always keeping your hands in sight, you can sometimes observe the movements of your hands to every last turn or twist and can thus improve your routine. One of my teacher says it can even be used to improve your eyesight!!!I don't know if that is true though...
However after learning taiji, i realise that i can respond markedly better to catch things that drops accidently. I wonder if it the result of better hand eye coordination.

Thoughts Before Blogging 3: Elbow and Kua

In Fu Zhong Wen's book, he always says to move the elbows here or there or, he would say to draw in the kua. This is extremely important i think as in Lan Que Wei(Grasp the Sparrow's Tail), for the arms, it is important not to place too much emphasis on the eventual position of the palm as that tends to segregate the movement of the body from the arms and can easily lead to the shoulders being hung up and not sunk.

Thus by placing emphasis on the elbow instead,
1. You can always ensure that the elbows and the shoulders are sunk.
2. You will not use your arm muscles to resist an incoming attack.
3. It is easier to deflect someone else's energy away by pulling back or moving the elbow forward.
4. Your body will be in the correct position to transfer the power from the body into your arms and hands.

By placing emphasis on the kua, you train the kua to be strong. Thus, as in the lu of Lan Que Wei(Grasp the Sparrow's Tail), you do not use the forward leg's muscles to push yourself back to the sitting position as this would compromise your safety if someone trips your forward leg. Thus , you should draw in your kua to move yourself to the backward, sitting position, and the forward leg changes from a full stance(Shi) to an empty stance(Xu) in a split second.

Thought before Started Blogging 2: Knee and Feet Alignment

To make sure one's posture is strong, the upperbody must be supported well by the legs. Thus, the legs must in the correct alignment to support the body. The knee must be supported by the feet. If the upper body's weight pushes against the knee, and the both knees are too wide open, the strength from the feet is not transferred to the knees. The knees then easily collapses upon pressure. Imagine the letter A. The feet and knee must have such an arangement. So lets say a force is pressed on the apex of the A, the letter is stable due to its structure and won't collapse. That is the idea between the knee and feet alignment.
At the same time, the knees must not go past the toes, or else it would be bad for the knee and one can get pulled over easily. With the A line sturcture of the knees coupled with the knees not exceeding the toes, one can have a stable and strong lower body structure.

However one query that i have is that, if they say that the knee does not go past the toes, do they mean this:

Where the blue line is the line of sight by which to judge if the knee exceeds the feet.
This is because many of the pictures of the masters that i see practise with their knees like this, meaning 90 degrees. And personally i feel this is the correct way.

Or should this be the correct way? Where the knees do not exceed the perpendicular line drawn from the ground starting at the tip of the feet.

Thoughts Before Started Blogging

1.The Taiji player, starts from emptyness.
When starting the routine, in the wuji position, be totally relaxed! Think of nothing. Just let it all flow.. Gather yourself. Get the postures right. Align your body parts. Relaxxxxx.....
2. Mother to ying and yang, when it moves it spilts, when in stillness, it returns back together.
Start to move, open your legs, raise your hands, keeping your mind in stillness. Watch the posture, lock in the balance!

That's all for the first few lines of the classics that i can ling wu so far....