Tai Chi and the word Yielding as an incomplete concept

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Push hands, Tai Chi, Yielding

Yielding is a keyword in Tai Chi Chuan. As a word, Yielding can mean to give way to pressure, being submissive or compliant, but it can also mean being pliable or soft like a yielding material. in Tai Chi, it’s often understood as a main technique, something you do. But I like more the notion of being pliable than being compliant. In Tai Chi, you are taught that you need to use your opponent’s force to defeat him. Yielding is the same as borrowing. To yield, you borrow. In order to borrow, you must first yield.

But I feel that the word “yield” is an incomplete term. Too much focus is put on this word without questioning “why”, “how” and “what then”. In fact, Yielding is only a part of something else. I like to call it “adapting” or “mirroring”. In Tai Chi you adapt to an opponent’s structure by adjusting to the distance, angles and the line of his intent. We are mirroring the opponent’s movement by doing opposite movements to his. We yield to force, but at the same time we must fill in the gaps as well. The opponent has Yin as well as Yang. When there is strength to yield to, there will always be an opening to attack.

One of the mistakes I see Tai Chi practitioners do all of the time is to be single minded, doing one thing but not the other, or doing one thing after the other. Tai Chi is not “first yin, then yang”, but being yin and yang at the same time, which in practice means doing two opposite things at the same time. If you yield, you should attack or adjust yourself into a more favorable position at the same time.

Some tai chi practice is very much the opposite of how you should act and think in tai chi as a combat system. Push hands drills for instance can really create bad habits. Free push hands, applications practice and sparring must be very much different from the drills in the perspective of the drills’ doing one thing after another. In free push hands, you should always apply pressure against your opponent’s weak spot at the same time as you yield.

In tai chi, timing and understanding distance really depend on doing two things at the same time. Often this means yielding and filling in at the same time. Defense and attack become the same thing. In this perspective, yielding is an incomplete term, as it only show the yin side of a bigger context.

Honesty and Responsibility

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Tai Chi

In this world of martial arts, from teachers, practitioners and “knowers” we are faced with Shameless Self-promotion, Money Makers, Master Worship, Mystification, simplified short cuts methods, Over-simplification, Useless Homemade Junk, and much much more.

Everyday when we encounter martial artists, read forums, communicate with groups, watching youtube etc., much of what we receive is based on selfish intention.

How much do we need to know to separate truth from false? What is your own responsible for not getting fooled? Often when I hear people who study Tai chi, qigong, yoga and similar arts, I ask them “what style?” To my surprise, they can not answer. They know very, very little about what they do, what branch, school or style, about their  teacher’s background and even about what they want ton accomplish with their practice.

Are you honest to yourself about what you do? Do you know what you want? Do you have a set goal? Do you take responsibility for what you do with your mind and your body? In the beginning, many of us don’t know what we strive for, what our goal is, what we want. But I believe that these are very important questions that you need to ask yourself. You don’t want to practice something worse when you can get something better. You want the best teacher in the neighborhood, practice the style and art that is suited most for yourself, your personality and your goals.

If you don’t make any effort to understand what is trash and what has value, you might be standing in a garbage bin, day after day, year after year. And one day, suddenly maybe you will wake up and discover where you have chosen to stand. Will you accept that someone else tells you what is trash and what has value, or will you take your own responsibility and examine it all by yourself?

Be honest towards yourself and take responsibility.

Is your head on straight?

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head, Tai Chi, wuji

There’s a very common saying in Taijiquan:

“Keep your head so it feels like it’s hold up by a string.”

In fact, this is not just a tai chi statement. A lot of dancers, ice skaters end several other disciplines use exactly the same phrase

So, what does that mean? Does it mean that your head is on straight? Yes of course it does. Does it mean that you need to balance it all of the time, just like you were balancing a book on your head. No, it doesn’t. Certainly not.

What you need to realize is that the quote is not about balancing or forcing your head to keep the it up or straight. It’s very simple actually: Just stand in a wuji- or beginning [form] posture with your feet shoulder width apart. Stand straight and pay attantion to your jaws. Relax the jaws and all of the face face, relax the neck, the chest and let the breath sink to the lower abdomen. Relax all of your body, shoulders, knees, lower back. Make sure that you relax so much that all of those muscles you tend to use to hold up your body relax and does not interfere. If you stand balanced and relax your body this way, deeper muscles will take over, muscles that can take care of your structure all by themselves. If you let them to do so. It’s very funny actually, but if you relax deep enough, your body will keep up all of the structure by itself. You will feel that all of your body wants to rise, and you will feel taller, and more balanced than you did before you relaxed your body.

“Keep your head so it feels like it’s hold up by a string” means that your head rises and balances by itself. There’s nothing forced, nothing to control, nothing to worry about. Just let go so your body can teach you how to keep your head on straight.