A reader asks for some clarification on Professor Cheng's advice.

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This is in response to the article on Weightlifting and Tai Chi.

Joe from Long Island writes:

I just read that Professor Cheng suggested that beginners practice standing on one leg using the ring and middle fingers on a table top for support to improve balance and rooting. This I would like to try, and wonder if you have any advice on the best way to practice this, as well as are there any other axillary exercises that I might perform at this early stage to improve my Tai Chi.

As always, thank you for your time.

Joe

Thanks for writing again, Joe. I would suggest that you stand on one leg behind a chair or a table if you might have a balance problem, that is the reason for the fingers on the table top in the advice. As you improve, keep the fingers an inch or 2 away from the table and at the first sign of lost balance, brace on the table. You can also do standing postures, like Play Guitar, that keep the weight on one foot and the other foot down, to improve rooting and leg strength.

If you have good balance, you can do the kicks when you get up to them. Play Guitar will not improve balance, just strengthen the legs and improve the root, because the other foot on the floor, just with no weight. The kicks will strengthen balance as well, as you are standing on one leg.

In Tai Chi,
Bill

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William C. Phillips began his study of the martial arts in 1965. He currently holds a 7th degree black belt in Karate, and a 5th degree black belt in Ju Jitsu. He began his studies of Tai Chi in l967, studying with Prof. Cheng Man-Ch'ing from '70-'75. He became the most junior student ever to become a teacher in Cheng Man Ch'ing's New York school, the Shr Jung. Sifu Phillips became interested in the field of holistic health in the early 1970's, when a lifelong allergy problem was alleviated with Chinese herbal medicine. Since then, he has studied widely in that field as well. Sifu Phillips is available for seminars, lectures and demonstrations. He has produced two very successful Tai Chi DVDs, and is currently working on a book on Tai Chi form and a third DVD.For more information...

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