Two-Stroke Tai Chi: Advanced Work

I have written and posted many times about ‘Single Leg Operations’ in Tai Chi. For example, this older video on my YouTube channel: ZMQ Tai Chi ‘SLO’ Kicks. I demonstrate and describe advantages of these for your training. But never until now (maybe not even now?) would it have been meaningful for me to present the real reason for my hyping these up so much.

I’m prodded in this direction partly because I have now laid down the essential preparatory training (more on that below), but also because time to time I get inquiries like this recent mail:

Q: I love all your stuff, most especially the recent Bare Metal and 2-stroke. Quick question: I recall you’ve often talked about the tai chi kicks which you call Single leg operations. I clock the benefits for stability training etc. As you often cheekily say, ‘balance for seniors’ Tai chi. But you are the internal man. I don’t get what is so extremely special about these kicks from that internal point of view? What is the extra alpha they are meant to contribute beyond the physical? Also, I consider myself sportive and fit but I still find these challenging, any performance tips appreciated.

You don’t specify, but the two most typical performance issues with the kicks, especially the Heel Kick (which I emphasize most of all), are stamina and balance. For stamina, you just need to practice it more. But I understand that dedicating time to practice requires deep motivation. Once you read to the end of this post, you’ll absolutely max out on motivation. But for now, there’s one simple physical principle: identify and eliminate all unnecessary tension in your upper body. That will help your endurance in your legs.

As for balance, the trick to starting solid and remaining so as you stand for multi-minutes, is the following:

As you begin the kick, by taking the kicking foot off the floor and raising it, think only of your hands and the crown of your head.

I know it sounds kind of counter-intuitive, but it works like a charm. If you are putting your mind/attention on your legs or even thinking of keeping your balance, you’ll wobble. If you do as above, the pose will settle itself perfectly.

But let’s move to the real heart of the matter, the practice that dared not speak its name until now… I’ve now introduced the Two-Stroke Tai Chi protocol, in a long series of recent posts here. Please go back and read these if you have not, as this post about advanced work is entirely dependent on these pre-requisites:

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Engine of Mastery: Two-Stroke Tai Chi
Engine of Mastery: Two-Stroke Tai Chi (Part 2)
Engine of Mastery: Two-Stroke Tai Chi (Part 3 -CHAINSAW)
Engine of Mastery: Two-Stroke Tai Chi (Part 4 -DEEP RELEASE)
Engine of Mastery: Two-Stroke Tai Chi (Part 5 - ‘Attentional Debt’)
Two-Stroke Tai Chi: The Simplest Revolution
Two-Stroke Tai Chi: The Apex Accelerator

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In all the posts above, I keep hammering the theme of “managing your yin leg”. The yin leg is just the leg that is supporting less body weight in any pose. I’ve gone over the central importance of that in all the posts above. But as we know, Tai Chi is composed of the Two Powers: yin and yang (陰陽). So it begs the question: what about the ‘yang’ leg? That’s the leg actually supporting the majority, or all, of your body weight.

I could not talk about this before introducing the Two-Stroke protocol as yin leg management, because the yin leg literally creates the yang leg. Generating the yin leg ‘Release’ per the 2STC protocol, is not only important, it is definitional. Not to mention philosophically and biologically correct: the female generates the male.

Even in yoga, the female energy of Shakti is considered the primordial creative force. “Shiva without Shakti is shava” (a corpse). Shiva represents pure consciousness or being, but remains inert and unable to act without Shakti, the dynamic creative energy. Shakti is the power that brings the universe into manifestation.

In the same way, you can’t experience awesomeness of the yang effect in Tai Chi until/unless you put in some serious work on the 2STC yin leg thing. By emptying the yin leg on every transition (Release via the knee, see posts above) you’ve now created the essential condition for the yang leg protocol.

However, this is advanced work. It’s not so easy to understand or to do. That’s why I haven’t gone into it before. Without actual experience of the Release-Catch energy amp, there’s zero chance you’ll get anything out of hearing about the yang leg protocol. Especially since it’s a bit tricky and counter-intuitive to get into it. You would just try it quickly and casually, without the essential prerequisite, you’d get nothing from it and dismiss it. Hoping to avoid that outcome, I haven’t gone into it. But now there’s a least a chance readers can experience it, so I might as well go whole hog at last.