Go, go, gadget, pelvis!

[Path to Mastery 2/12/10 – Wk22 D5 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Sang’s World

Structurally speaking, your pelvis is the most important part of the body you can train.

Picture this. Imagine that each one of your vertebra is a plate, and they are stacked on top of each other, and the pelvis is a big bowl on which all the plates are stacked on. Now imagine that there is masking tape on 4 side of the plates to hold them together. Got the picture? Now, imagine that you tilt the bowl. However you tilt the bowl will strain the masking tape.

This visual example is not that far off from your actual skeletal structure. Your pelvis is like a big bowl, and your entire spinal cord sits on your pelvis. How you hold your pelvis and move it affects your entire structure.

Your pelvis also mediates the movements between your legs and your upper body. This is the reason the Tai-Chi classics say, “Power is generated from the legs, controlled by the waist and expressed through your fingers”. Here, waist control is really how you move your pelvis. If you talk to Tai-Chi masters a lot of them will express that the secret to power is in the Kwa. As you can imagine, to move from the Kwa would be to move where the pelvis joins the femur, your legs.

Yesterday, I was training my standing mediation and then my stance training (Tai-Chi technical jargon for leg training) in the morning. As I was training it occurred to me how much Tai-Chi training emphasizes increasing your pelvic intelligence. By the time I was done doing the standing meditation, the Tai-Chi form and the sword form, my pelvic muscles were relaxed. I felt my pelvic floor well supported, my Dan-Tien full of energy, my legs light and powerful, my upper body loose.

When you train today, see how all training in Tai-Chi affects your pelvis. It will make a difference.

Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

8 Type Pushing Hands

1. Ting Tui-Shou (Covered on 2/2)

2. Da-Lu Tui-Shou (Covered on 2/3)

3. O-Nu Bu Tui-Shou (Covered on 2/4)

4. Chuan-Jang Tui-Shou (Grasp the Birds Tail) (Covered on 2/5)

5. Pi-Shou Tui-Shou (Covered on 2/8)

6.Chin-Na Tui-Shou (Covered on 2/9)

7. Left side Tui-Shou (Covered on 2/10)

8. Linking Tui-Shou (Covered on 2/11)

San-Shou

Part 1:

Ah~ San-Shou. San-Shou means dispersing hands, or free hand. In others words non-choreographed fighting.

Ironically, San-Shou is a 2 person form. It is a form that teaches you how to fight. Of course, you can use San-Shou to mean free fighting, but in Tai-Chi, when you say San-Shou, it refers to the fighting form.

San-Shou is what teaches you to utilize the power generation you learned in the Tui-Shou in an actual fight. The moves are simple, shorter, without any flare. Very practical. At the same time, it is very intricate. It shows how to utilize power generation that you have been training in a much tighter space and shorter time so that you can issue power from unexpected angles and during any move.

You learn that you don’t have to issue a lot of power in order to be effective. You also learn Tai-Chi fighting techniques are very effective, meaning very mean. Most grappling techniques are techniques that break joints instantly. There are no locking and subduing techniques. Those are sensitivity and skill training exercises. All other techniques are quick striking and bumping techniques that take no preparation or any kind of technique.

When I asked Gabriel that this did not use anything like the Tai-Chi we’ve been training, he said “This is what you use when you are in a hurry”. I guess I wouldn’t want to meet a Tai-Chi practitioner when they are rushed.

To do San-Shou justice, I need a little more space. I will continue on Monday.