Up & Down Stroke for Tai Chi

Series Summary

Tai Chi is a Chinese martial art that has been practiced and adapted throughout the years to encompass many different styles. Though not as "hard" a martial art as say, Taekwondo in that it does not overtly foster sparring and contact fighting, Tai Chi is nevertheless made up of forms which mimic blocks and strike of "harder" martial arts. It is now primarily used as a form of spiritual and mystic exercise that incorporates body and mind through meditation and movement.

In this free video series, our expert Jack C. Huang will teach you how to do Tai Chi Chuan. He will teach you the basic in & out and up & down strokes, the swinging motion, several hand exercises, the single whip move, and the brushing knee block. He will also tell you how to do cloud hand blocks, the Pon, Ji, Liu, and Ang techniques, and how to several kicks like the side, front, and crossback kicks.

Video Transcript

"Hello, everyone, welcome to my show and the topic is Tai Chi. When we hear the word Tai Chi, most people think it's an exercise but actually, it's not. First of all, I would like to let you know, Tai Chi's creator, he create this one because he was ancient, a long, long time ago, in the ancient time of China. Tai Chi, remember, everything is coming from Shaolin. He just turn it in a soft side. And not only that, think about the word Tai Chi, what we call Tai. Tai means what? Extreme. Chi means what? Side. Extreme side. Let's say it, extreme side. Open, close, high and low, in and out. And what else? You can name it close, open, high, and out and whatsoever, any way as long as they have two extreme sides clicking together as one. Or male, female, day and night, black and white. Therefore, take a look. This is the basic training of Tai Chi. See my feet? And then after that, the hands. And I'm going to show you the side view. Now, look at my legs. I have to make sure that I got pair of rocking feet down there. Well, the major practice of Tai Chi is finding your balance when you are moving. Now our hands go up, coming back, down. Again, and up, poke, and this exercise will relax your whole arm. For example, most of fighters, that the way they pick up their fists. But, if you can pick up your fists gracefully, without any tension, your fist will go a lot faster. So now, one more time. And what am I doing right here? It's a poke. Imagine two arms right here, poke, close. That's the opening form called brushing up, brushing down."