The "feel" of press

[JuanMaldonado]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here and pretty new to taiji (been practicing for approximately one year). My question is with regards to the press posture and the feeling one should have when transitioning from roll back to press. Should my left hand feel like it is crashing into my right hand and the force just keeps driving forward? Or should my left hand just meet with my right hand and then the force is expressed forward?

Thanks,

Juan

[Crushing Fist]

more like the second choice.



think of unity of motion.


everything aligned and integrated


remember that hips/torso drive the motion of the arms through the shoulders.



what style are you doing? Yang?

[Ray Pina]

because I don't study the form of Taiji I have a hard time understand what people are talking about sometimes but I think you're ferreing to the Pong motion.

But generally, the two hands work together. If you smash your one hand into the other you're beating yourself... that's no good. Both hands together, using shoulder power (sometimes its better to pull when pushing, keeping good structure abd nechanics and using the foot.

You can train the same motion with the hands seperately as a hitting with relaxation drill.... drive off the leg, lead arm open power (like a frisbee) and the second hand, while not at the same time, a little staggered, but sort of together, training closing power (like a slider). They go together though, relaxed, but with a good structure, training each section (shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers).

All of these things are hard to explain .... that's why you need to find a good teacher and then ask them.

[JuanMaldonado]

I'm training in the Yang Style.

[Crushing Fist]

I thought Yang, the names were familiar.

what Ray said was right on the money.


when you finish roll back and enter press you create the upper body structure of the posture and use the whole body as a unit to do the "press"

"Press" is the third of the "4 essential actions" aka "grasp swallows tail" etc.

one arm is out in front of the chest with the back of the wrist facing outward (in this case the right) the other has the fingers against the inside of that wrist.

I think its one of the more common tai chi moves to see depicted in movies (the chick fight in the courtyard in "CTHD" comes to mind)

[Buddy]

"If you smash your one hand into the other you're beating yourself... that's no good."
This isn't quite true. Think of those hanging silver balls where one hits and the last one moves. BTW think of "ji" as squeeze more than press.