I shot this with my phone camera. I did bring my Canon, but I haven't processed the images yet. More photo's to come!
The Details:
It was a balmy 40 at the house this morning. Sunrise was at 5:50. It's cloudless, blue sky with little to no wind. It had warmed up considerably (60's?) by 10 am when the WTCD group formed at Dial/Self on Federal Street in Greenfield, MA 01301
The Practice:
I went into Greenfield to practice with the group that assembled for World Taiji Day at Dial/Self headquarters on Federal Street. Many thanks to Sensei Jeff for organizing and orchestrating the event again this year. There were between 15 and 20 participants. About half were Taiji players and about half were there to support the event and partake in the training. I started doing WTCD events back in the early 2000's. Jeff's has been hosting the event since I retired in 2016. There was a good turn out and I got to see and touch hands with a number of my long term students. That felt great.
First Jeff led through a warm up consisting mainly of the first half of Master Haywards Warm Ups. He explained a number of internal concepts, emphasizing Song and Peng.
Next he did several two person exercises to build a connection from contact point to feet.
Next he did a Round on the right side with folks just following along unless you already knew the form. After practicing on my own for the past 6 months, I found practicing with folks that didn't know the form a little distracting. I simply looked down and went inside my own form. It was great to see folks that didn't know the form making and effort and hopefully they will be inspired to learn Taiji at some point in the future. For those of us that are already practitioners it was great to practice with a group again. I'm looking forward to Tuesday morning at The Studio. It'll be my first time back to teach a class this season.
Here's some food for thought the next time you practice Taiji.
Yang Cheng Fu's Ten Essential Points of Taiji Quan:
#3 Relax The Waist.
Master Paul Gallagher's commentary:
"The waist is the controlling axis of the entire body. If on can relax the waist, then the feet can develop rootedness and strength and one's stance can be secure. The interchange of substantial and insubstantial all derives from the rotation of the waist. Hence the Classics say, "The original source of the meaning (of the Thirteen Postures) is in the waist."
"If one's postures lack rootedness and strength, one must seek the cause in the legs and the waist."
I did a little push-hands with Jeff and Phil, reviewing a drill that I haven't done since last February with Jeff in NSB.