Engine of Mastery: Two-Stroke Tai Chi (Part 4 -DEEP RELEASE)

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

— William Blake

[This post continues the series on Two Stroke Tai Chi. Previous posts have explained the core protocol as the most operational and accelerating distillation of the Ben Lo Principles, and instructed exactly how it can be applied in a variety of different drills. In this post, I go deeper into (one small piece of) how it’s integrated with its original native habitat, the Zheng Manqing 37 Tai Chi form as taught by Master Benjamin Lo. So in one sense, this post is only for Tai Chi super geeks, elite level IP nerds. But some others may find it worthwhile to scan or browse. This post along with the others on this topic will be the nucleus of my forthcoming book on internal training via this protocol.]

Previous parts in this book development series:

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Now it’s time for Part 4 - DEEP RELEASE

Let’s start with training guidelines of Daitouryu super-master Yukiyoshi Sagawa (as quoted in ‘Transparent Power’ by Tatsuo Kimura). Sagawa sensei was known for his super pure internal power combatives. He called that power “Aiki” (which he sharply distinguished from any connection with Ueshiba sensei’s teaching of Aikido).

Basically, power must emanate from your hips. When power radiates from the upper body, it’s easily diverted. Not so when it comes from the hips.

I’ve told you many times about the importance of the hips and legs. Honestly, no matter how much I’ve repeated myself, you fail to put it into practice so I’m not assuming any more responsibility for it.

You must really develop your hips and legs. You must also loosen your body. This is necessary.

A person with undeveloped hips and legs tends to rely on the strength of the shoulders.

The legs and hips are crucial, when you come right down to it. Your body should get to the point where it can naturally put power into the hips.

The word ‘hips’ as used in the Japanese language originals of the quotations above, would be closer to the Chinese concept of kua, which is the femoral joint or inguinal crease where thighs join pelvis, but also including the pelvis structure itself (腰 koshi). This is the key point I’ll address in this post, an extension of the Two-Stroke posts already issued (see above).

Now: Is Sagawa sensei talking about muscles? Physical connective tissues? Is this a mechanical directive? After much research, pondering and practice, I don’t think so. In fact, Sagawa himself emphasized that the Aiki power was non-physical, that it was an energy “technique” which manifested through the body, but was not the normal leveraging of muscle and bone to force down his opponents. He taught that one needs a strong and tempered body to manifest the power, but the power itself was not the normal mechanical engagement. (Otherwise, all the people doing leg days at Gold’s Gym would mini Sagawa sensei’s by now).

For purposes of this discussion, I’m going to assert that the Aiki power taught by Sagawa sensei is essentially the same as the neijing developed by energy-centric Tai Chi work. I’m not saying this equivalence is guaranteed ultimately correct. But I’m finding it to be an interesting and productive hypothesis. Naturally some readers will vehemently disagree. That’s fine, you know where the door is. For the rest of us, let’s see how far we can push this idea.

Here’s what Yang Chengfu called the first principle of Taiji:

太極拳術以分虚實為第一義，如全身皆坐在右腿，則右腿為實，左腿為虚；全身皆坐在左腿，則左腿為實，右腿為虚。

“The first principle of Taiji is separation of substantial and insubstantial. If the weight of the entire body is on the right leg, then the right leg is considered substantial and the left is insubstantial, while if the weight of the body is entirely on the left leg, then the left is substantial, and the right is insubstantial.”

Doesn’t that sound like the most typical boring Tai Chi truism? Philosophically, it sounds like more of the usual blather about the universe being a balance of opposites or whatever. Practically, it seems to just make a big hairy deal about a simple directive never to share weight 50/50 in your legs - for whatever vague, never-really-specified reason.

Make no mistake, my goal is one thing: total Internal Power (IP) infusion. I could give two shits about philosophy. But that quote just above is teaching a profound operational truth. We just need a couple more ingredients on the table to understand that as deeply and crucially functional. The Two-Stroke training method brings this to life.

But let’s back up for just a minute. It’s interesting that Ben Lo worked us constantly on leg power, lower body training. He was grinding on exactly what Sagawa Yukiyoshi always hammered: power comes from the legs and lower body. This simply reflected the core teaching of Wang Zongyue’s Tai Chi Classic:

其根在脚。發於腿。主宰於腰。形於手指。由脚而腿而腰。總須完整一氣。

[The internal energy] is rooted in your feet. It’s transmitted through your legs, and directed by the waist, and becomes operational at your fingers. From foot to waist, it’s all a single current of internal power.

But I now see that most of us totally missed the point at that early stage of exposure. We all thought it was about physical leg strength. So we mythologized Ben’s relentless lower body and leg training as: “no burn no earn”. That pointed to the characteristic quads on fire phenom that always happened at a Ben Lo form training session. Everybody obsessed about that physical experience, thus totally missing the real point.

Difference Between Cat-Stepping vs. Releasing