The Power Of Tai Chi

One of the biggest challenges people face in learning Tai Chi is letting go of their notion of strength. 

They think power is the product of exertion. The poster child for this kind of power is the bodybuilder straining to make his or her muscles bulge. The message is clear: power results from tightening the muscles and sinews to lock the bones into a rigid structure. 

In Tai Chi, that’s called brute force. It’s good for lifting boulders but not very helpful in a fight, when you need speed, agility and explosive power. You want to train to be a tiger, not an ox.

The so-called internal power of Tai Chi functions more like a whip than a rigid structure.  Energy, or qi, is cultivated and stored in middle dantian, an area near the navel. Movement begins from there and spirals outward, down the legs to the feet and up through the back to the arms and hands.

Yi, or mind-intent, moves the qi, the qi moves the body and the body performs the technique. When all of those components have been properly trained and function in unison, the result is an overwhelming, explosive power. But wherever the body is tense, the flow of energy is impeded and power of the movement diminished.

So the essential pre-condition for powerful movement is relaxation. And the deeper you relax, the greater your potential power.

This kind of relaxation is not the mindless sloth of sprawling on the couch after a hard day’s work. Rather, it’s relaxation with structural integrity and an intense awareness at its core.

The state of being you seek can be described as “soft” because it’s supple, not rigid, and allows movement in whatever way is appropriate. But soft should not be confused with weak. The Tai Chi classics say you should feel to your opponent like cotton wrapped around steel.