Tai Chi Chuan Stepping

Have you thought about your Stepping in your Tai chi chuan Forms? Its time to look closely at how high you step, how far and how this all effects your :

- balance

- leaning

- knees

- back

- head

When I train stepping, I make sure it introduce the concept of Yin and Yang into my stepping training. When weight shifts from empty to full, full to empty, let that emptiness of the leg without weight travel through all the joints , the ankles empty, the knee empty, the hip on the Side of the leg without weight, empty. Emptiness represents Yin, insubstantial, not full weighted. Full weighted is Yang, Fullness, Active. The emptiness must feel as light as a feather, this creates Song in the limb, this creates speed in the stepping if used for Martial purposes.

Distinguishing between empty and full , insubstantial and substantial is very important in Tai chi chuan as the art is passed on the elements and Yin and Yang. And practically it makes sense.

Stepping height

Now we come to the idea of , how high should I raise my knee when stepping?

So consider the following:

- is the step used to step behind an opponents leg, in order to use Peng to trip the person or unbalance them over your leg, for throwing as an example? to Disrupt their foundation(legs).

-is the step a simple quick step forward or to the side, to change position, move in or out or left or right.

- how rocky is the ground, observe the area you train in, this also creates awareness of surroundings which is of utmost importance in a confrontation where tai chi could be used.

So with the above points, there are factors to consider. This is my point of view and how I train: - if surroundings are smooth with no rocks, I always throughout the whole Form step with my foot traveling about 5cm above the ground, very low with the exception of Twist step (twist step can be used to stamp a foot, kick a shin or knee). - Keeping the foot just above the ground in the process of stepping means that you have the option to immediately put it down should the need arise, to change the yin and yang aspect , close is quicker therefore I do not lift my feet high when stepping, sometimes it floats so close to the ground not too different from Bagua Zhang stepping (another internal martial art that moves in circles).

How to train the above practically

Do you stepping training in this order and try to make steps closer to the ground all the way through the transition of each foot going forward or backward: 1. keep hands on waist, and do normal tai chi stepping forward

2. Perform stepping training with low ward-off

3. Perform stepping training with high ward-off

4. Perform stepping training with Brush knee

5. Perform backwards stepping with Repulse the monkey

6. perform sideways stepping training with Cloud hands

As always Waving bamboo Martial Art Studio wishes you well in your training as you learn to distinguish between Yin and Yang in your movements and applications.

Feel free to contact me for private lessons:

0824341050

wavingbamboomartialartstudio@gmail.com