Rotational rooting partner drill

 Rotational rooting partner drill - Aug 1, 2025

Friday Aug 1 2025 evening in-person class:

Good turnout for tonight's class and lively participation by all. We went over the solo drills, then did the tai chi walk meditation (emphasizing finding our center before taking the step out and pausing briefly, staying 100% on the back leg, before shifting the energy to the front leg). 

We worked on 8 partner drills to focus on:

- ting jin listening skills,

- receiving and releasing the incoming force, 

- keeping the tension out of the arms/shoulders, opening the chest and kua to let the energy through,

- establishing good structure to provide stability and a channel for the energy to flow through, 

- using expansion (peng jin) to become more rooted, 

- developing the back leg and letting it do all the work while keeping the hip down (luo kua position), 

- connecting to the partner to become as one unit,

- having the body lead the arms and the whole body moves as one unit, 

- gathering and rebounding the internal energy to return it to our partner, and 

- try to not think too hard to remember all of these elements - what a practice!

Partners not only take turns gently pushing each other, we also give helpful feedback and continued encouragement so we can have a fun and productive learning environment. 

Thanks, Everyone! See you next time. 

Mary 8.1.2025