Below is a nice video of Eddie Wu outlining the 9 joints of the body and their various usages within taiji. I was exposed to the “9 joint harmony” under the teachings of Wai Lun Choi, and the identifications are the same.

Arm: Shoulder, elbow, wrist

Back: Neck, Mid-back, Sacrum

Leg: Hip, Knee, Ankle

What I really like about Eddie Wu’s explanation is noting the difference in movement between the waist and the hips (kua). What’s the deal with the 9-Joint harmony? Well, as a teaser, try to think about this when doing the form and it’s relation to the 6 harmonies (wrist – ankle, elbow – knee, hip – shoulder)…

The ten word dictum while doing positive circles:

Elbow in, no hand in

Hand out, no elbow out

Source: Chentaichi.org – Jibengong Positive Circle

I am currently working on the positive circle exercise in the Hong Junsheng Chen Taiji Practical Method as taught by Chen Zhonghua. The first movement of the exercise is “elbow in”, however when doing this, the elbow must go in, not the hand.

What’s the difference? For me, I found out that when I did the ‘elbow in’, the movement originated from my hand. In other words, the intention was first placed on my hand and then I thought about pulling the elbow in.  While minor, I feel the placement of intention can have strong consequences when trying to perform the application.

So, in the initial posture, I would have to constantly remind myself, “think about the elbow, think about the elbow, think about the elbow not the hand” Doh! I just thought about the hand! LOL .. At first I felt a strong push back in my mind as I would naturally think about my hand, but over time, I felt the intention point slowly travel down to my elbow. For a while, I was stuck on the inner forearm because I was imagining someone trying to pull my arm as I pulled my elbow in. Eventually, the goal is to toss all that out the window and just think about the elbow. As the dictum states above, “elbow in, no hand in”.

After the elbow is brought in, I mean *really* in, at least to the point that the elbow touches the ribcage, the body turns via the up and down motions of the kua. For a right handed positive circle, the right kua goes down, the left kua goes up. One big distinction for me is the turn initiating by the kua, NOT the waist…

Finally, the hand goes out, but when doing this movement, remember the dictum, “hand out, no elbow out”. This means the hand leads the movement, think about the hand and not the elbow. 

Below is a clip that I am using for reference when practicing the positive and negative circles:

The Chen Zhonghua workshop is roughly 1 month away.  In preparation, I have mainly been doing positive circle training.  The Chen Taijiquan Practical Method positive circle is quite a bit different than the chen village silk reeling circles.  First off, there is no weight shifting in the Hong method, only turning. This is a really strange concept and one that I am still trying to resolve as the notion of weight shifting has been grinded into me since day 1 of my taiji exposure.

One of the first exercises in general taiji training is to practice ‘taiji walking’. This is basically walking up and down the room in bow stances. At a high level, this consists of shifting the weight from leg to leg while turning the body and stepping.  The emphasis on this exercise is placed on the weight shifting.

In the chen village silk reeling, the weight is shifted from leg to leg generally in 70-30 weight distributions in a side horse stance. However, in the Hong method, the weight is pretty much kept 50-50 or maybe 55-45, but there should be no evident weight shifting during the movement.  At first, this feels like the movement is just about moving the upper body, but in time and with practice, the coordination can be felt with the movements of the kua. That is, one kua moves up while the other kua moves down.  For a right handed positive circle, as the elbow moves in, the left kua goes up. As the hand goes out, the right kua goes up. During this whole motion, the weight does not shift forward nor backward. 

Mentally, this idea of no weight shifting, only turning, is going to be a huge hurdle for me to comprehend. I understand the goal is to be balanced and the most balanced position is weight equally distributed in both legs.  This is fine and dandy in a static posture, but what about when I want to move? Does my weight not shift to one leg or the other so I can take a step?  Hopefully all will be made clear with more practice.

For those interested, the workshop is near Milwaukee, Wisconsin and will take place March 13-15. For more details, check out the calendar entry.