Lessons along the way on the T’ai Chi Palm

I am far from an expert but I have experienced a few things about the formation of the t’ai chi palm. Remember there are likely thousands of different versions of t’ai chi forms over the years. But this came about from my journey.

  

I began my study of the Yang Long Fist T’ai Chi Chaun form starting in 1979. I had weekly lessons that lasted for two years. I learnt the form, a short version of his t’ai chi sword form, pushing hands and a bit more.

Then my lessons concluded but not my study or practiced. That continued for evermore.

 

These are a few screen shots of the form I studied with Ernest.

In time he moved to Pittsburgh and our time to train in t’ai chi grew less frequent.

 

 

One day were attending a clinic at a friends school and he and I did the first 3 sections of the form together, We had not practiced together for many years but our forms were very close, of course his was much better.

 

 

A few years later I even competed, for fun, with a short version of the form he and I crafted.

 

 

One day after 15 years, at a summer camp both he and I were doing presentations at, he took me out alone to a field and had me perform my form. He almost as I began stopped me, and gave dozens of corrections. I felt very inadequate. However he then explained what I was doing wrong, the core issue. And in turn explained why I needed better energy point alignment. Something his instructor also did to him also after 15 years of work.

 

That had a profound issue for me, for I saw why change occurred and more importantly a template to correct it. I realized it equally applied for any technique, t’ai chi, karate I was familiar with and karate I was not familiar with. What you neede to do is exactly what you were originally shown, but now you could show why that was necessary.

 

That became a whole other issue.

 

Around 1999 I began my own small tai chi class. Finding out so much more about my practice while I was teaching it.

 

Sometime later I ran across an article in Inside Tai Chi magazine where the instructor described a different hand formation for the palm than I had been shown. In it the outer two fingers were kept more straight and the inner two fingers were bent forming the palm.

 

I do not have the article but I have taken these two photos to try and describe it, Of course these photos to not do the idea justice.

 

 

This is another thing I worked on at times.

 

I discovered the palm felt different, perhaps more alive would be a more accurate description.

 

Many more years passed, at urging of his Eagle Claw instructor, Shum Leung, Ernie got into the Wu system and grew quite skilled.

 

The day came when on a visit to New Hampshire he decided I should learn the Wu Slow Form, the Teaching Form. In essence the form is more akin to the Yang Form. The difference to the Wu Fast Form where the movement are done smaller and more compressed (Just my opinion).

 

I am likely not describing it correctly as I am nothing like an expert.

 

So Ernie started to give me the 5 lessons, As I already knew the Yang version format and had a copy of Shum’s book on the form, he knowing how I remembered things, felt I could give it a go.

 

And that first lesson also proved painful. Holding the Play Guitar section one again meant one strand of muscle in my Quadriceps would be pulled.

 

Over the next few years he covered the rest of the form, and it was 5 lessons.

 

Never filmed the form, here is a photo of the form palm from the internet.

 

After so many years my T’ai Chi group moved on and again I was practicing Sundays on my driveway alone. I kept up the practice.

One discovery is that the Wu palm formation had an impact of my Yang Palm too. It made me feel it was more correct.  Words are inadequate to describe what I was feeling.

 

Eventually I set aside the Wu form .I began to realize I had no need of two forms. I had been doing the Yang form longer, and it was sufficient for my own practice.

 

Of course life throws you curve balls. My onset of my various disabilits left me weaker and far less balance. I literally could not do the stepping required by my Yang form.

 

It took me a year and I worked out a way to replace the stepping with a form of swaying.

 

And these days I still work at my form, or a piece of it.

 

I also work on my palm formations keeping finding my discoveries still hold water.

 

I only have what I have experienced, hoping one day to understand more.