Timely article Chris for a few reasons here. One, your experience with walking in a balanced way is pertinent to my situation with a herniated disc in the lumbar spine and pain free mobility as I both recover and go forth. Secondly, your point about mingling with the masses when living a relatively quiet life on the ranch. We also live this way and are raising two teenage sons. Taking them to the big city as we happen to do once in a blue moon has been a challenging experience for both. Both have displayed controlling behaviour at times which I now appreciate is born from not being desensitised and adapted to the sheer magnitude of modern metropolitan life. They are simply trying to cope with the chaos and machinery. Whereas my wife and I, even though we are now virtual bumpkins have several years of experience with the town and city life so it’s easier for us to switch, even though the impacts on us to are noticeable. I have realised that our boys reaction is a healthy one. The visceral somatic experience is a whole different animal to the virtual one they get when using their screen based devices.
Very interesting observations Stefan. Sounds like your boys have not yet learned the repressions necessary to contain and mitigate the apparent chaos of sudden emersion in the overflowing, busy life of towns and cities. Thanks again.
I teach a movement and mobility class once a week and yes I practice falling over ...I live on a farm where there can be trip hazards in lots of surprising places. Lots of practices encourage observing the contact with the ground, the buddhist call it 'our feet the ears that touch the earth' or words to that effect. I work with the feldenkrias technique among other practices over the years. I use my observation to see a sequence that may seem to be flowing less efficiently. As in life our bodies capture the ground reaction and as the energy or force travels or spirals up through the body it meets the opposing on the opposite side which would dissipate the in the middle of our body. I had a person that had constant left shoulder pain he was a fell runner and lots of physio etc but no relief. When I watched him walk bare footed I could see he avoided bending and placing his right big toe in gait after quizzing him and him telling me his shoulder was the problem he remembered that he broke it at the age of 10 riding his bicycle. He was using his left shoulder to help in his running motion to compensate the lack of power/drive from the right big toe......fix the toe and the overuse pain in the shoulder would subside....he saw our physio she got the toe mobilised and yes the shoulder pain went after a few months. The feet are the messengers to the rest of the body for me mobility or flow is key to being energy efficient hence I wear minimalist shoes or boots most of the time. X and yes say hi to Lyn x
Hi Lesley- great comment. Love the feet being ears that touch the earth! The Big Toe story is perfect minimum effort-maximum effect. Lyn tells a similar one. She was at a training day with Mark Rashid (excellent horse/person trainer, Aikido background). He got the class to watch as he rode a horse round the arena. He told them to watch for any change. As he came round the curve onto the straight, the horse suddenly seemed to go lame, adopting a really awkward, limping gait. Then at the end of the straight the horse switched back to a perfect stride. He asked the class what he was doing- they couldn't see him doing anything, despite him repeating the process. He told them he was clenching the toes in his right foot, the tension originating from his centre causing his weight to move onto one seat bone so the horse had to adjust it's gait to compensate for the change in weight. X Lyn says hi back x
Interesting breakdown. i have practised internal TCMA for 20+ years and i will agree that you description of 'tai chi' walking is correct for Yang style - very different for for Chen and Hao though. With Bagua Zhang, initially you will spend many, may hours walking in a circle stepping exactly as you say (with the inside foot pointing to the centre of the circle) which builds great strength and stability. As the student progresses you will learn to practice placing the whole foot down as a single movement. But wirth noting that Yang style, while a very complex martial art, is the one to use as the foundation style for all of the others and definitely the one fo the best health benefits. So the maxim 'dont run before you can walk' is very applicable.
Thanks Gary for the comment and detail which I was not aware off. We lack a T'ai Chi teacher locally now and I have gone onto some Chi Kung exercises, Zhan Zhuang, standing like a post or like a tree (following Yu Yang Nian's text and Lam Kam Chuen's book and his videos on You-tube). The exercises are all standing still and so far I have not fallen over once! Thanks again.
What's a DVD?
Ho ho! It was actually an Asian film about the life of Confucius. Not watched it yet. I thought you might ask "what's a car?"
Timely article Chris for a few reasons here. One, your experience with walking in a balanced way is pertinent to my situation with a herniated disc in the lumbar spine and pain free mobility as I both recover and go forth. Secondly, your point about mingling with the masses when living a relatively quiet life on the ranch. We also live this way and are raising two teenage sons. Taking them to the big city as we happen to do once in a blue moon has been a challenging experience for both. Both have displayed controlling behaviour at times which I now appreciate is born from not being desensitised and adapted to the sheer magnitude of modern metropolitan life. They are simply trying to cope with the chaos and machinery. Whereas my wife and I, even though we are now virtual bumpkins have several years of experience with the town and city life so it’s easier for us to switch, even though the impacts on us to are noticeable. I have realised that our boys reaction is a healthy one. The visceral somatic experience is a whole different animal to the virtual one they get when using their screen based devices.
Very interesting observations Stefan. Sounds like your boys have not yet learned the repressions necessary to contain and mitigate the apparent chaos of sudden emersion in the overflowing, busy life of towns and cities. Thanks again.
I teach a movement and mobility class once a week and yes I practice falling over ...I live on a farm where there can be trip hazards in lots of surprising places. Lots of practices encourage observing the contact with the ground, the buddhist call it 'our feet the ears that touch the earth' or words to that effect. I work with the feldenkrias technique among other practices over the years. I use my observation to see a sequence that may seem to be flowing less efficiently. As in life our bodies capture the ground reaction and as the energy or force travels or spirals up through the body it meets the opposing on the opposite side which would dissipate the in the middle of our body. I had a person that had constant left shoulder pain he was a fell runner and lots of physio etc but no relief. When I watched him walk bare footed I could see he avoided bending and placing his right big toe in gait after quizzing him and him telling me his shoulder was the problem he remembered that he broke it at the age of 10 riding his bicycle. He was using his left shoulder to help in his running motion to compensate the lack of power/drive from the right big toe......fix the toe and the overuse pain in the shoulder would subside....he saw our physio she got the toe mobilised and yes the shoulder pain went after a few months. The feet are the messengers to the rest of the body for me mobility or flow is key to being energy efficient hence I wear minimalist shoes or boots most of the time. X and yes say hi to Lyn x
Hi Lesley- great comment. Love the feet being ears that touch the earth! The Big Toe story is perfect minimum effort-maximum effect. Lyn tells a similar one. She was at a training day with Mark Rashid (excellent horse/person trainer, Aikido background). He got the class to watch as he rode a horse round the arena. He told them to watch for any change. As he came round the curve onto the straight, the horse suddenly seemed to go lame, adopting a really awkward, limping gait. Then at the end of the straight the horse switched back to a perfect stride. He asked the class what he was doing- they couldn't see him doing anything, despite him repeating the process. He told them he was clenching the toes in his right foot, the tension originating from his centre causing his weight to move onto one seat bone so the horse had to adjust it's gait to compensate for the change in weight. X Lyn says hi back x
Interesting breakdown. i have practised internal TCMA for 20+ years and i will agree that you description of 'tai chi' walking is correct for Yang style - very different for for Chen and Hao though. With Bagua Zhang, initially you will spend many, may hours walking in a circle stepping exactly as you say (with the inside foot pointing to the centre of the circle) which builds great strength and stability. As the student progresses you will learn to practice placing the whole foot down as a single movement. But wirth noting that Yang style, while a very complex martial art, is the one to use as the foundation style for all of the others and definitely the one fo the best health benefits. So the maxim 'dont run before you can walk' is very applicable.
Thanks Gary for the comment and detail which I was not aware off. We lack a T'ai Chi teacher locally now and I have gone onto some Chi Kung exercises, Zhan Zhuang, standing like a post or like a tree (following Yu Yang Nian's text and Lam Kam Chuen's book and his videos on You-tube). The exercises are all standing still and so far I have not fallen over once! Thanks again.
Lovely stuff Chris-ji, and please pass on lots of happy birthday wishes to Lyn xxx
Thanks Obi-Chris, wishes passed on and received with thanks xxx.