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Frame
'Frame' refers to structure - the placement of your body.
Your frame can be large, medium or small.
Alignment
The shape of each tai chi movement must be
carefully aligned in order to convey the groundpath with ease.
Slight adjustments make a major difference.
DIY
Copying the shape of another person does not guarantee that your structure will
be strong.
You must find out for yourself.
Everyone's body is different, so you must explore the strengths and
weaknesses of your own frame.
Posture testing
Try performing a form movement.
Stop at the end of it and hold.
Ask somebody to push along the line of force: can you maintain the structure
with ease?
Are you tensing any muscles?
Inherent
Sustaining your framework without extraneous effort is essential.
The habit of maintaining a good structure needs to become so
natural that you forget it is happening
at all.
Length-strength
Keeping all of the cavities open and the body rounded will help to create a
strong route for the groundpath.
The springy 'bow tension' will ensure that your body is
resilient and ready.
Only you can discover the optimal movement required at each stage of the
tai chi.
You must consider the martial application, groundpath, flexibility, openness,
neigong, economy and comfort.
Large
In tai chi, large frame is only used by
performance artists i.e. 24 step.
Martial artists cannot employ a large frame in
combat so it is useless to them.
Medium
By the end of the intermediate syllabus a student
should have some sense of medium frame.
The test is simple: what happens when the arms are pushed?
Test
If the arms are springy and the pusher is repelled... then this is
promising.
If the arms crumple or collapse, then the elbows are closed; this is weak.
If the arms are rigid and
tense, this is also
weak.
Consciously pushing back is also
worthless.
Small
The advanced practitioner may have begun to decrease
the size of their frame: moving from medium to small frame.
As a student progresses, the mind is employed to a greater degree and the
reliance upon a more obvious physical structure
diminishes.
With long-term experience, the frame changes.
But this cannot be forced, otherwise connection is
lost.
Energy is transferred from the rear
foot to the front foot,
then up the leg and up the spine to the point between the shoulder blades.
From there it emerges from the hand.
(Wolfe Lowenthal)
Page created
18 April 1995
Last updated
09 June 2019