13. Bring Out Your Flow

Tai chi, if not musical, is at least rhythmic. It has its own notes: the
individual moves or techniques. But what of the spaces in between
the moves? Are they empty? We’ll find out in this lecture, and we’ll take
a break from introducing any new movements. Instead, we’ll dive into the
spaces in between the moves by taking a look at how tai chi flows from one
movement to the next.
The Progression So Far
● As a refresher, here is the sequence we’ve covered:
1. Commencing form
2. Grasp the bird’s tail
3. Single whip
4. Step up and raise hands
5. White crane spreads wings
6. Brush knee and twist step
7. Right hand strums the pipa
8. Sealing and closing
9. Parry and punch
10. Diagonal flying
11. Punch under elbow
12. Repulse the monkey
13. Fair lady works at the shuttles
14. Part the horse’s mane on both sides
15. Cloud hands
16. Single whip
17. High pat on horse
18. Kick with right heel
19. Box both ears
20. Separate left foot
Tai Chi’s Flow
● An important principle in tai chi is continuously moving without a
break, also known as flow.
● From a practical point of view, how do we make sure that we’re
getting this smooth, continuous motion? The way is by learning to
make more curves.
● It’s very typical that when you’re first learning a new movement,
there are angles, and there are breaks in the movement. For
example, when we learned brush knee, we started out with one
hand pressed down, one hand folded in, then stepped out and
pushed forward. Those movements aren’t that smooth. They’re
very angular. We call that segmented motion.
● Imagine that you have a square piece of wood, and for a while, the
square piece of wood is fine. But then you come along one day
and you cut off the edges of the square corner, and now you’ve
got something that’s a little bit more rounded.
● Then after a while, you cut off the square edges of each one of
those corners, and then do it again, and then again, until finally
you have a round shape. Then you come along with sandpaper
and you smooth the edges around until you have a complete
circle, smooth all the way around. That’s the way that your tai chi
movements are smoothed out.
The Slide
● One way to work on flow is with something called the slide. In hug
the knee and push, for example, when the left hand pushes down
to hug around the knee, it doesn’t just push down and then go out
around the knee. It slides through.● In box both ears, there is also a slide. After you step up and
expand, you fold in, but there’s no stopping right there. After you
fold in, you slide straight on down. The move doesn’t pause at
the hips, but rather swishes on past the hips and around to box
both ears.
● There’s a completion point here, but there’s no pausing. It finishes,
and then a new move begins, like another wave on the ocean.