The notes on the white board; On the left Jeff's notes from yesterday and on right my notes for this morning class. I had four folks email or text me that they were unable to join in this morning. Last week I had a recent record of 11 students join me, we had some awesome energy coming from the group. This week I only had 4 students join me but they also brought some excellent energy and questions to our practice.
As written on the right hand side of the whiteboard (above) the theme for this mornings class was "Refining". Once your past the 'new' aspect of your study (sequence), for the rest of your practice life you will be Refining movements and postures that you already 'know'.
There are many avenues of refinement in Tai-Chi training. One of the most important (IMO) is simply holding at the end of postures. The next step is observing (w/ a meditative point of view) and adjusting (without emotion) the alignment and quality of your:
1. Feet - The quality of the contact - Weight dead center
2. Legs - Which one is working - Which one is resting
3. Waist - Evenly relaxed/releases 360 degrees
4. Shoulders - Like a suspension bridge - Elbows down
5. Head - Chin slightly in - Open the upper spine - "Rub The Neck On The Collar"
We started with the above ideas and went on to a short Warm Up
Then a Round (right side) pausing at the end of postures to observe and adjust (Refine) Part I. Then we did Parts II and III without pausing but still observing from the perspective of what we learned from stopping in postures during Part I. It's much more challenging to observe and adjust on the fly but eventually what needs to happen to reach the ultimate goal of fully realized T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
I stayed after class to work with Lucy on the Tai-Chi Jian Form, The Dance and Single Arm Push-Hands.
At the end a little talking about Breathing and her older, failing Mom.
I needed to get back to the house to meet my Granddaughter Genna who was coming up to help us with yard work. Really great to have her here! Win/Win!!
Here she is weed whacking the southern fence line.