Blog

Counter-Point Neutralizing in T’ai Chi Sparring
by David X. Swenson & David Longsdorf

Abstract

T’ai chi sparring often relies on the use of pushes, pulls, and joint twisting (chin na) techniques. There are several points on the body that can be touched, pressed, or hooked to briefly neutralize the power and leverage of such an attack. Counterpoints are unusual because they involve much less effort than the forces they neutralize. This article describes six counterpoints and explores how they may work.

Introduction

T’ai chi sparring, whether slow motion choreography or fast free-fighting, is often described as a fluid dance between partners, in which they attack, neutralize, and counter-attack. Attacks are typically redirected by deflecting the blow or moving with the force, but in some instances a skilled attack prevents such reaction and balance is upset. The use of counterpoints provides a rapid response to pushes, pulls, and joint twisting techniques, that briefly neutralizes the force. Counterpoints are points on the body of the attacker that, when touched or lightly gripped by the defender, effectively neutralize the force or leverage of the attacker’s technique. This article describes how counterpoints were discovered, describes six of 18 applications that have been developed, and explores several explanations of how they may work.

After practicing solo forms for several years, many t’ai chi practitioners become proficient at the forms, and increasingly curious about how the forms work. They build sensitivity and begin to explore applications through push-hands (tui shou) and then more spontaneous applications in free sparring (san shou). Some masters have made significant contributions to understanding the mechanics, particularly William Chen, who has exhaustively studied the biomechanics of postures, TT. Liang who emphasized the subtlety of applications, and Stuart Olson, Bruce Kumar Frantzis, Pete Starr, and Don Ethan Miller who emphasize variety of applications. It was in this spirit of curiosity that the Duluth T’ai Chi Study Group began exploring the mechanics of forms in a particular version of slow sparring we have been developing over the past 20 years.

To many people, their experience of t’ai chi is limited to seeing the slow-motion series of postures studied in the early stages of training that are used to meditate, learn proper form, relax deeply, develop balance, and coordinate all parts of the body. In later stages of practice, especially partner practice and weapons training, speed is increased while the same principles of good form, relaxation, balance and coordination are maintained. Learning to spar usually progresses from simple push-hand exercises between partners, to moderately paced and precisely choreographed attack-defend exchanges, to very fast and spontaneous free fighting. When the first author (Swenson) suffered a back injury and was unable to continue vigorous sparring but was unwilling to forego sparring altogether, he compromised the fast and slow aspects and began experimenting with slow but spontaneous sparring.

In slow sparring, the partners move at a consistent pace, either slow or moderate pace, and avoid speeding up or changing pace. This is difficult at first because most players want to speed up to deflect the attack; they want to avoid being hit and want to win. However, in t’ai chi, to “invest in losing” helps students better understand where they have been open for attack and how to correct it. Since the slow strikes do not hurt (they lightly touch the opponent), one can spend time in focusing on the principles of movement and understanding the opponent’s movement, not just on continuously defending oneself.

Sparring at a slow but consistent pace reduces the need for partners to speed up, and therefore reduces competitive and aggressive attitude. It also enhances cooperation and mutual learning among students. This is also a helpful experience for instructors who must model humility by being open to being struck or pushed and learning from it. The sparring proceeds slowly, somewhat faster than the solo form, and as applications emerge, the partners can stop, repeat, and analyze the application. This was how we discovered the counterpoints. Instructor Swenson was sparring with senior student Richard Townsend who began to push his chest. Beginning to lose balance, Swenson responsively hooked his thumb on Townsend’s pushing elbow, and the push was immediately and surprisingly neutralized. The technique of neutralizing the push was so effective that Swenson and t’ai chi partner David Longsdorf began searching for more counterpoints. Although we are continuing to explore more applications, we have currently found 18 counterpoints that effectively neutralize the techniques of push, pull, press, and chin na (wrist techniques and locks).

Applications

The principle behind counterpoints is that they involve applying a relatively light pressure on a point on the body (usually a joint) that has the effect of neutralizing a very strong pressure (e.g., push, pull, twist, etc.) on another part of the body. To demonstrate this concept, have a partner push on your chest with their right hand (see Fig. 1). At the same time, lightly hook the crook of your right thumb and wrist to their right elbow. Although you do not apply pressure against their elbow, their effort to push you tends to increase the pressure against that elbow point. This light pressure counteracts their push, thereby neutralizing it. The interesting aspect of this technique is that the defender does not need to apply an equal amount of pressure to the elbow that the attacker is applying to the chest. A minor pressure will neutralize a much stronger push.

Figure 1. Elbow counter-point to neutralize single-hand push

We reasoned that if a counterpoint worked effectively to neutralize a push then it might work on a pull as well (see Fig 2.). Have a partner grasp your wrist and pull downward and back in order to break your posture and imbalance you. First try resisting using strength and without using the counterpoint. Usually you will find that you are using a great amount of effort as well as becoming quite stiff, which would enable your opponent to take advantage of this to unbalance you. Next, while your wrist is being pulled back and down, maintain good upright posture but relax, let your arm go slack, and lightly touch the shoulder of the partner with your free hand. This will effectively neutralize the pull.

Figure 2. Shoulder counter-point to neutralize rearward pull

The technique seems to work as well against double-hand push. As your partner pushes against your chest with both hands (see Fig. 3), either place your fingers or palm against the back of the elbows and lightly pull toward yourself as they push, or place the palms against the front of the elbows and lightly push forward and upward as your partner pushes forward.

Figure 3. Elbow counter-point to neutralize push

Press is a technique unique to the soft arts, and especially applicable to sparring when closing with an opponent. It can be effectively used when one folds the arm from a punch or push into closer proximity to the partner. When your partner begins to press against your forearm and shoulder, lightly touch his shoulder, opposite the pushing hand of the press (see Fig. 4). If the attacker pursues the press while being neutralized by this counterpoint, he loses balance and the press is significantly diminished.

Figure 4. Shoulder counter-point to neutralize a press

The splitting technique of diagonal flying can be used to block a strike or single hand push and then upset the opponent over your leg into a throw. The defender can counter this by touching the attacker’s upper shoulder (see Fig. 5).

Figure 5. Shoulder counter-point to neutralize diagonal flying

Even chin na techniques appear to have some counterpoint applications. In response to the wrist turning technique (see Fig 6.), the defender is usually turned to the side, breaking posture, and being thrown to the ground. Resisting the turn only results in significant wrist pain and eventually moving with the throw. Using counterpoints we have found that the pressure and leverage of the throw can be largely neutralized. In the figure, notice how the defender’s arm rises into ward-off posture. The ward-off lightly presses against both wrists of the attacker.

Figure 6. Ward-off to neutralize lateral wrist chin-na

Mechanics of Counterpoints

There have been several attempts to explain how counter-points work, especially since the amount of effort applied by the defender appears much less than that applied by the attacker. Many t’ai chi practitioners are comfortable simply saying that it is accomplished by using “neutralizing energy.” While that may or may not be true, we have been interested in understanding the biomechanics of this interesting technique. We have considered misdirection, suggestion, counterforce, and motor circuits as possible explanations, and we have explored these with other martial artists, physical therapists, and exercise physiologists.

A common demonstration of ch’i at tournaments and conferences is to have three to five people in a line push against a single t’ai chi player. The demonstration looks impressive and even comical in that the line of people make no progress in pushing the player back; one would expect five people to easily overpower one person. On careful examination however, it can usually be seen that the t’ai chi player uses misdirection by having the line of pushers slightly redirect the push into his leg to root more strongly, while at the same time he slightly uproots the first pusher who is likewise being pushed from the rear by others. The effect of this uproot is to make the first pusher attempt to regain balance, and does so by resisting those pushing from behind. Thus, the t’ai chi player only needs to imbalance the first pusher who then resists those behind him. In principle, a well-placed counter-balance reduces by magnitudes the strength of the push.

It could be argued that expectation and suggestion tends to bias the outcome in a demonstration. There are stories of Cheng Man-Ching who got a new student to jump up and down by tapping on his head, but which elder students knowingly smiled at, saying that it was the student’s exaggeration. Sifu Swenson often uses a demonstration involving a series of subtle suggestions to enable easy pulling down of an outstretched arm– that even worked successfully with Arnold Schwartzenegger many years ago. Naive students, wishing to please a teacher, consciously or unconsciously tend to cooperate, not wishing to embarrass the teacher, or because they too believe in the “power” of the technique. To rule this out, we have tested the technique on a variety of people who neither knew our skill level in the martial arts nor were informed of the outcome expected. The effects of the counterpoints does not seem to be affected by their expectation.

Counterpoints may be explained by the simple idea of a counterforce: that is, a direct force (e.g., push) is countered by an opposing force that is equal to the attacking force. However, the lesser force of the counterpoints suggest that it is not just a direct counterforce. Physical therapists and exercise physiologists who have experienced the technique have suggested that the counterpoint stimulates a motor circuit outside the level of consciousness. It may be that the line of force applied in the counterpoint does not block the force head-on, but disrupts the balance of the person so that effort is reapplied to maintaining attacker’s balance and is therefore taken away from the attack. A related explanation is that the counterpoint does not affect the attacker, but merely helps maintain the balance of the defender.

While these various explanations unfortunately leave us without a decisive explanation of how counterpoints work, the real value is in the asking and exploring of such questions. What is needed is further testing with biometric equipment in which actual force and balance measurements can be assessed while the techniques are being applied.

Counter-counterpoints

As much as we have found counter-points to be interesting and effective, there are counters to counter-points as well. This should not be surprising to most t’ai chi players since the interactive and dynamic nature of t’ai chi is more like an ongoing game of rock-paper-scissors. In sparring, each of the players is sensitive to the maneuver of the partner and moves to adjust to and take advantage of the partner’s attack and posture. Taking the line of thinking that any technique should likely have a counter to it, we explored how counterpoints could be overcome. It did not take long to find that when the attacker found the push neutralized, a circle or spiral could be used by the attacker to push again and overcome the neutralization. This spiral is much like the silk reeling energy technique (chan suu jin) of Chen style t’ai chi.

Finally, we considered that the chan suu jin counter might also be countered. After much more experimenting, we discovered that by the defender following the same spiralling used by the attacker, the attacker’s counter could also be neutralized. The important idea throughout all this discussion of counterpoints is that such neutralization, though temporary, gives the defender a moment to counter with an alternate technique. By learning the counterpoints, t’ai chi players come to a deeper understanding of this complex and subtle art, as well as learn practical skills for application in self defense.

Much of this is reminiscent of the story of the little boy who asked his father how the world is held up– what is the mechanism? The father decisively replied that “an elephant holds up the world.” The curious child thought about the answer awhile, then asked again, “so what holds up the elephant?” The parent, seeing where this was going, quickly said, “it’s elephants all the way down.” In t’ai chi, every technique has a counter, every counter has a counter, and it’s counters all the way down.

Remember to check out our other articles on Tai Chi Training!

As a former educator and a lifelong student and teacher, I have often reflected upon what makes successful teachers and students. Recently, my friend Nasser Butt, publisher of the award-winning UK Martial Arts publication, Lift Hands Internal Arts Magazine, recently sent me his excellent study, “Whose Line is It Anyway? Part of this study presented a scholarly in-depth analysis regarding Cheng Man Ching’s (CMC) Tai Chi Chuan training and his relationship with the legendary Tai Chi Chuan Master Yang Cheng Fu. Regardless of one’s position regarding this controversial topic, I applaud Nasser’s courage in tacking topics sure to ruffle some Tai Chi feathers. Kudos to him for providing more sorely needed academic investigation into important Tai Chi issues.

Nasser’s study triggered a reexamine of my own thoughts regarding what makes successful Tai Chi teachers and students. Who cares if teachers are extraordinary people or mendacious jerks? What if their ability is modest, or superlative, or if they were great fighters but couldn’t teach, or great teachers who couldn’t fight? Why are some students successful and so many are not successful? What makes a good teacher or a good student? As serious Tai Chi students, what do we need from our teachers? What are our responsibilities as students?  As serious Tai Chi teachers, how do we help our students achieve their goals?

In my over 50 years of internal arts study, I have been blessed with two amazing teachers, Professor Huo Chi Kwan and Master Tuey Staples. They taught that there are several essential components and communalities in successful Tai Chi students and teachers.

What makes successful students?

1. Students must have a destination and sufficient motivated to achieve it. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there. There is no right or wrong road, but every student needs a direction and plenty of motivation.

2. Potential and beginning students should begin with developing specific goals and time frames. What do you want to learn? Do you want martial excellence, enhanced health, spiritual growth, etc.  Why do you want to learn it?  When a student understands why they want to learn a subject, they become much more motivated.

How quickly do you need to learn it? Tai Chi is a lifelong process. Much of the art is counter intuitive, martial mastery is a long and difficult process. Are you willing to commit the serious time and effort necessary to achieve your goal?

When a student can answer these questions, they are ready to find a teacher. 

What makes successful teachers?

Tai Chi teachers must have the knowledge and teaching ability to help students achieve their goals. Tai Chi Teachers are human beings with all the good and bad that being human entails. Teachers can come in all shapes, genders, ages and ethnicities. They don’t have to be legendary fighters. Angelo Dundee was Mohammad Ali’s lifelong boxing coach. I doubt that he could have beaten up Ali, but he had the ability to help Ali become a legend. Teachers do not necessarily have to be long term students of traditional masters. Knowledge can be acquired in numerous ways.

Tai Chi teachers do need to have a solid understanding of Tai Chi Chuan, its principles, applications, a commitment to teaching, and the ability to communicate effectively. They should be able to understand and execute energy-based movement. Professor Huo Chi Kwan often told me that Tai Chi is boxing for physical and mental health, the self defense is secondary.  However, teachers need to understand the self defense to be able to convey to their students the full benefits of the art. Master Tuey Staples’ great insight is that all application of principles is contextual. Good teachers must understand the principles and their contextual application to help students reach their full potential.

When teachers understand principles, application, and have sufficient communication skills and a commitment to teaching, they are ready to teach.

Caveats

Some additional thoughts for both students and teachers.

1. Good teachers encourage student questions. Students should never be afraid to respectfully question their teacher. They need to strive to understand the “what and why” of what they are doing. Tai Chi is not slow-motion arm waving. When students understand the why of Tai Chi, it will help them to create to own art. Good teachers should be able to answer student’s questions in ways that they can comprehend. Good teachers will not pretend that Tai Chi is not a martial art because they are uncomfortable or not knowledgeable about martial energetic movement. Tai Chi is boxing for physical and mental health, but the martial provides the key to understanding.

2. Students should avoid teachers who respond to questions with Master Somebody said that we do it this way. Tai Chi is an art of constant change. Avoid those who say it is always this, or it’s never that. Learning is liberating, not encapsulating. Good teachers will provide the tools to help students find their own answers.

3. Teachers and students should be skeptical of magical answers. With all due respect to the old Chinese Masters, they learned and taught within the parameters of their own culture. We can and should honor their culture and abilities, but we’re 21st century westerners, not better, not worse, just different. Like everyone else we learn best within the context of our own culture. Using obscure Chinese terms may sound cool and that you posses some secret knowledge, but if you can’t explain it is simple English, then you don’t understand it. Good teachers will explain things in language that students can understand.

4. Teachers and students need to practice slowly. The art is practiced slowly so that you can listen and feel what is happening. Use the move beats and constant centering to discover what is happening. I always seemed to move too quickly and Master Tuey Staples taught me to inhale on beats 1 and 3, exhale on beats 2 and 4. The purpose was to slow me down and force me to listen.  If you can’t do the moves slow, you can’t do them quickly. Good teachers will constantly try to slow students down.

5. Students should avoid teachers who are ego driven. They are damaged people and usually poor teachers. It is not about them being Master Somebody, good teachers are committed to growing their students.

6. Hopefully, by diligent study and arduous training students and teachers can learn to believe in their own abilities and ultimately find our own answers. We will then transcend from the need for a superhuman teacher and attain the ability to accept our teachers and ourselves for who we are.

Conclusion

Ultimately Tai Chi should be a vehicle for physical, mental, and emotion growth. In time, one should transcend from imitating some teacher to make their own art. Serious students are not puppets. They don’t need to be governed by a particular style, form, or teacher. Tai Chi Chuan study is like a scaffold used to construct a building. When the scaffolding comes down, the building has to stand on its own. Like the building, Tai Chi students must stand on their own regardless of who were their teachers. It is all about personal commitment. Confucius’ Doctrine of the Mean states that the superior person finds in themselves what lesser people seek in others. The answers we seek are within ourselves.

Don’t forget to check out our other great training articles!

 

In Taijiquan (太極拳) the concept of harmonizing yin (阴) and yang (阳) is commonly given in dualistic statements like having neither excess nor deficiency. But avoiding excess (yang) and deficiency (yin) means that one needs to be where yin and yang meet/unite. When the energies are united, then hard (yang) and soft (yin) mutually help each other (刚柔相济 gang rou xiang ji).

Practitioners often view yin and yang in a dualistic manner concerning oneself and one’s opponent. Phrases like “use soft to overcome [or control] hard” (以柔克刚 yi rou ke [or 制 zhi] gang) further this perception by reinforcing the view that “internal” styles like Taijiquan should be soft relative to “external” style opponents who are hard. But there should also be a unification of yin and yang (e.g. soft and hard; passive and aggressive; receiving and issuing; retreating and advancing; etc.) within oneself.

Uniting yin and yang results in non-duality, and is sometimes called the “middle way” or being neutral. On a large scale this concept can be illustrated by one side of the body receiving/neutralizing an opponent’s force and using this to turn one’s body such that the other side of the body simultaneously attacks that opponent (making the defense and attack one action). However, uniting yin and yang within oneself has many degrees which can vary from large and obvious to being so small that it is unnoticeable to an outside observer.

I will begin with swordsmanship to better illustrate the concept of uniting yin and yang because, when using a single weapon, the complexity of interactions is much more limited, and therefore clearer to see, than weaponless combat where many simultaneous interactions, through multiple points of contact, often occur. Since Taiji saber/dao (刀, refers to the single edged sword and is sometimes called a “broadsword”) often spars with limited blade contact, it can provide a clear example for using the middle way in one’s spacing/distancing with an opponent.

In western fencing matches, observers often see the competitors lunging forward to attack when they think that they may have an opening, but then jumping back to try and get beyond the range of their opponent’s attacks or counterattacks. This is using primarily yin or yang; a separation of these qualities.

For Taiji saber/dao we may instead try to unite yin with yang by maintaining a closer distance that allows a practitioner to evade (or deflect) the opponent’s attack while remaining within counterattacking range. We do not want to disengage (jump out of range) because that would represent just yin. Likewise we cannot get too close (too yang) since the opponent’s edged weapon can easily cut us if it makes contact. Our retreat (yin) should contain the potential to counterattack (yang); our attack (yang) should not be over-committed and should contain the potential for changing to defense (yin) without getting too close to the opponent.

We seek to maintain a range that allows us to evade the opponent’s powerful saber/dao attacks while retaining the ability to counterattack. We hope their attacks leave them vulnerable to counterattacks, rather than us moving away merely to get out of range. We want our defense to set up our offense. In practice, some counterattacks are nearly simultaneous with the defensive movement because, as soon as the opponent can reach us with their weapon, we also are within range to reach them. Often this translates into intercepting their wrist (截腕 jie wan) since it is the closest body part to us.

This principle of maintaining the range rather than retreating outside of attacking range, is sometimes expressed by dodging with one’s body while attacking with the saber/dao, often using a back weighted posture when attacking. This can also be expressed by leaning the body backwards to avoid the opponent’s attack and returning to upright in order to be within range when counterattacking; or by lifting a leg to avoid a cut and stepping back down when counterattacking. Depending on one’s forms and training drills, many other techniques illustrating this principle may be practiced.

Because of its emphasis on positioning and timing, saber/dao training can be viewed as being the foundation for all short weapons. Sword/jian (劍 double-edged straight sword) can be somewhat more complex since the weapon is not swung as powerfully or with as much momentum as the saber/dao, and is therefore better suited for techniques that attempt to control the opponent’s weapon through deflections and control through contact. Despite their differences, sword/jian employs skills acquired from learning saber/dao.

Single sword/jian sparring can be used to illustrate uniting yin and yang in a more complex situation, that of interacting with a single point of contact with the weapon of the opponent. In addition to saber/dao distance and timing skills, now the two participants should add the skill of uniting yin and yang at the point of contact between their swords. Practitioners should have yin and yang harmonized around the contact point of their own sword/jian, as well as harmonizing with the energy of the opponent’s sword/jian.

Harmonizing yin and yang at the contact point is often achieved by pivoting. If the root third of the sword/jian (the proximal, or third of the blade that is closer to the handle) is deflecting the opponent’s blade towards one’s side, then the tip third (distal, or third closest to the tip) is often pivoted to remain pointed towards the opponent. Likewise, if the tip is moving sideways, then the handle of the sword/jian often pivots towards the opponent.

Pivoting the sword/jian around the point of contact with an opponent’s blade means that there is yin on one side of the contact point, and yang on the other. One portion of the sword/jian is moving in one direction while the other side is moving the other direction. As long as there is a pivot at the point of contact, the sword/jian will have yin on one side and yang on the other, i.e. the pivot at the point of contact with the opponent’s blade will be the dividing line between yin and yang, and this is represented by the “s-curve” line dividing the two halves of the standard taiji diagram (taijitu 太極圖).

When defending while pivoting at the point of contact with the opponent’s weapon, one is more yin and would be on the s-curve in the bottom half of the accompanying illustration. When attacking while pivoting at the point of contact with the opponent’s weapon, one would be more yang and would be on the s-curve in the upper half of the diagram. By pivoting at the point of contact with the opponent’s blade, one can maintain the potential for both defense and attack simultaneously, even though either energy may dominate any particular interaction.

This pivoting can be practiced during “sticky” sword/jian free play, a type of practice that is fairly common in Taiji jian classes that use interactive drills and free play. Pivoting can be employed even when practice involves breaking contact with the opponent, such as when maneuvering while keeping the tip of one’s sword/jian aiming at the opponent.

If, instead of pivoting, a practitioner tries to block an opponent’s blade to the side by moving the entire sword/jian towards the side, then only one energy is being expressed and one becomes susceptible to changes that the opponent may make (like pivoting around the block in order to attack). Likewise, if one over commits to an attack without consideration of continuing into defense then, if the attack fails, they will be susceptible to the opponent’s counterattack. These vulnerabilities are due to separating yin from yang, doing one or the other rather than harmonizing both together.

Of course, practitioners should also harmonize with their opponent. When opponents emphasize attacking, practitioners should balance it with yielding and neutralization. When they retreat or leave gaps, practitioners should advance and flow into the spaces that the opponent collapses away from.

When we engage in weaponless interactions, all of the preceding qualities should be maintained in order to harmonize yin with yang. It is the spacing and timing, and interaction at the point(s) of contact, that allow us to use sticking and adhering, connecting and following (粘黏連隨 zhan nian lian sui), which are principle characteristics of Taijiquan interactions with opponents.

Maintaining harmony between yin and yang allows practitioners to maintain their six directions, i.e. balancing up and down, left and right, and forward and backward. A properly inflated ball, due to its inflated spherical structure, maintains harmony in all directions, but it is much more difficult for humans to do so. We want to harmonize the opposites so that we do not over commit to one or the other. We want to maintain yin plus yang rather than separating into yin or yang.

The harmony between yin and yang also allows us to avoid butting against (resisting, being excessive, having too much) and losing connection (running away or separating, being deficient, having too little). This is reflected in sayings like don’t separate or resist (不丢顶 bu diu ding) and don’t butt against or collapse, neither losing nor resisting (顶匾丢抗 ding bian diu kang).

The uniting of yin and yang is also reflected in the saying “stillness in motion, motion in stillness” (靜中有動 動中有靜 jing zhong you dong, dong zhong you jing). Yin is associated with stillness while yang is associated with movement, but neither is completely separated from the other. We want to use stillness when movement is not needed and the appropriate amount of movement when warranted. We want to maintain a calm (yin) mind even while moving (yang) quickly and with agility.

The relationship between stillness and motion can be illustrated with the ancient taiji diagram (below left) where the yin and yang energies cycle around a clear center. The “central equilibrium” (中定 zhong ding) of one’s body is analogous to the clear center and remains still when the yin and yang move around it. This unites yin with yang. It can also be likened to the functioning of a wheel, like the antique Chinese wheel pictured (below right). The wheel’s center, which attaches to the axel, stays relatively still while there is large movement at the rim of the wheel where it contacts the ground while turning forward or backward.

When referring to the practitioner, this relationship is illustrated by this center of one’s body and the periphery. It is also used in relation to an opponent. The Taijiquan practitioner can remain relatively stationary while the opponent is controlled in a manner that moves them around the periphery (like the periphery of a ball moves things around its center). Small movements can effect large changes.

It should be obvious from the diversity of the information presented above, that uniting yin and yang in Taiji is a broad philosophical concept that defines most of what we do in our art. A variety of practices (like weapons work) can aid in the understanding of these concepts. Different Taijiquan styles, as well as different schools, have varying emphases and interpretations of the basic rules of practice. Therefore it can be beneficial for students to be exposed to numerous viewpoints and concepts, in order to more fully incorporate the harmonization of yin and yang into their personal practice.

Check out our other training articles!