All tai chi styles include forms that use what is called spiral
force. Spiral force is also known as silk reeling because of the spiral
movements involved in unwinding a silk cocoon. Silk reeling exercises (drills)
are repetitive spiral movements that place an emphasis on ground connection,
waist connection, dan tien rotation, knee alignment, and opening and closing of
the kuas and folds of your arms. The exercises train the body to move as one
unit led by the dan tien.
This is Part 3 of a brief (very brief) introduction to the
concept of spiral force. You need an experienced teacher to help you master
these skills. You will not learn enough from this article to proceed very far
on your own.
Part 2 discussed how to use the spiral force to move your hands. (You probably should read this one, too)
Part 3 discusses how to extend these ideas to
simple tai chi forms. (That's this one)
Note:
Since I
published Part 1, there has been extensive discussion on LinkedIn about the use
of the terms "silk reeling" and "spiral force", with little
agreement. It is clear that they are not the same thing but they are related at
a very deep level. In this article and others, I will continue to use the terms
as I have before. The title here is Silk Reeling, but most of the article is
about developing the spiral force from the ground and moving it through the dan
tien.
Figure Eights
The next step is to learn to use spiral force to move your
dan tien in a figure eight. This is the first exercise that actually has a
weight shift.
Begin in wu ji and step out into a slightly wider stance. Push off with your right heel. Allow
your body to rotate to the left and shift your weight to the left foot. Push
off with your left heel. Allow your body to rotate to the right and shift your
weight to the right foot. Continue this motion and your dan tien moves in a
figure eight in a plane parallel to the floor.
Wave Hands in Clouds
This exercise combines the figure eights with hand
movements. Push off with your right heel to rotate your body to the left. As
you begin to push off with the right, step out to the left and shift your
weight to the left foot. Bring your right foot in. Push off with your left heel
and rotate your body to the right. Push off again with your right foot and step
out to the left again. Repeat as often as you wish. Also, practice in the reverse
direction until you are comfortable moving both directions.
Now, add in the hand motions. Place your left hand in front
of you, about shoulder height in front of your right shoulder, with the palm
facing forward. Place your right hand in front, about waist height, with the
palm facing down. Push off with your right heel and allow your body to rotate
to the left. Keep your hands in the same relationship with each other. Allow
your waist to lead the movement and let your hands follow the movement of your shoulders.
Shift your weight to your left foot.
When you have turned all the way to the left, bring your
left hand down with the palm down and bring your right hand up with the palm
forward. Push off with your left heel and allow your body to rotate to the
right. Keep your hands in the same relationship with each other. Allow your
waist to lead the movement and let your hands follow the movement of your
shoulders. Continue the movement back and forth in figure eights, opening and
closing the kuas and folds.
Other Forms
In addition to Cloud Hands, spiral force can
easily be seen with an empty stance as in White Crane Spreads its Wings and in
Playing Lute. When working with movements that use the bow stance, such as Ward
Off, Brush Knee, and Single Whip, it is important to distinguish between yin
and yang in your feet. When shifting your weight forward, push off with the
outside of your back foot (yang) and receive with the inside of your front foot
(yin). When shifting your weight back, push off with outside of your front foot
and receive with the inside of your back foot. There is a nice video here that shows this principle.
For movements involving bow stance, like brush knee, ward
off, or parting wild horse’s mane, push off on your back foot to use spiral
force to move the dan tien and let the dan tien move your hands. Settle and
express force with the front hand.
The other important point in here is to keep your back knee
“over your foot” (actually “in line” with your foot) with a broad stance. Your
crotch is the capstone in an arch that separates your knees. The way to make
this happen is to pay attention to the opening and closing part of the form.
When your weight is still on the back foot, you are in the yin position and the
weight is on the front (toe) and inside (instep) of your back foot. Your hips
are closed in this posture. As you shift your weight forward, you are moving
into the yang position. Push off with the back (heel) and outside of your foot.
Your hips open as your weight shifts forward.
The energy flow is foot, hip, shoulder, elbow, wrist, palm.
As you start to move from yin (back) to yang (forward), you push off with your
foot, the hip starts to open and the waist starts to turn. As soon as the hip
starts to open, the shoulder starts to open. This causes the elbow to start to
open, causing the wrist to start to open and the palm starts to open. This is
the order the energy flows and the order you move. When moving from yang to
yin, the flow is reversed. These principle applies to all forms that involve
moving in bow stance.
Summary
This has been a brief introduction to the concepts of Silk
Reeling. Most tai chi instruction on this topic starts with circular hand
motions. I believe this is too complex from most students to easily master.
This introduction describes a method to begin learning the principles. An
instructor can use this method to get students started before moving on to the
more complex, but much richer, traditional Silk Reeling drills.
© 2012 Eric Borreson
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