how does the tiger walk work

[Anonymous]

thank you for the clear videos and inspiring and interesting course

i have practiced cheng man ching 37 posture tai chi form for a few years. The first leg movements of this form involve relaxing into the R hip and dropping the dantian. This results in the L knee moving upwards ( yin and yang balance i think) my question is … is this the same mechanism at work in the tiger walking movements. i.e. what is happening in the hips to bring about the gentle padding walking movements. hope question is clear?

Also am I right in thinking weight should be at front of the ball of the foot. We are encouraged to allow this in tai chi as its i think an important acupuncture point (babbling brook)?

I enrolled in this course because of health issues. i am recovering from surgery for prostate ca and still have catheter in and have compression stockings on… this makes for some challenges with patting of the legs and feeling the toes separate from each other

thank you
best wishes

[Anonymous]

Since I’ve never studied the Chen Man Ching forms, I can’t really say whether we use a similar mechanism in the “tiger walks” exercise as the first leg movements there.

I can say that there is no intent in the “tiger walks” to drop the lower dantian. You just shift your weight to one side so the weight of your torso is on that leg. And you let the knee of your other leg move forward to raise the heel of that leg’s foot.

Just be sure that as you shift weight, you do not drop or lower your hips physically in any way. Don’t let your hips or legs collapse downward.

Yes, the weight of the moving leg should come to rest on the ball of its foot, putting pressure on the “bubbling well” or “bubbling brook” point there.

And as always, experiment with various ways of playing with this and find out what works best for you.

Have fun.

[Author]

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