Tip for Opening the Legs and Hips

[Anonymous]

I’ve seen a lot of Bruce’s students that never figure out how to open the legs and hips. I could be completely wrong, but even some of his most senior students still don’t have their legs opened up properly and don’t know why. It took me a long time to figure this out so I hope this tip helps you to progress faster than I did.

How can you tell if you don’t have the legs open enough? I can tell just by watching someone walk or move. If you curl your toes or clinch your feet like you are clawing at the ground, if your knees wobble as you step or turn, if you feet can’t stay parallel to the ground when you circle walk, if your feet have any unneccessary tension, if the thigh muscles haven’t loosened up, if you have poor balance, if your lower back is tight, if you can’t tuck your tailbone, if your leg doesn’t lengthening out and in as you walk, “look to the waist and the legs”. These are all signs that the legs and hips aren’t open enough.

Some of the problem is genetic, and I believe that the taller you are the more difficult it is to get the legs and hips to open properly. More to the point, it is the ratio of how long your waist is in comparison to the legs that is the determining factor. Unfortunately, I have long legs compared to my torso so opening my legs and hips was particularly challenging. Bruce is just the opposite, he has a very long torso in comparison to the length of his legs.

I believe this is just about levers and how the muscles and tendons work. Basically the longer your legs are the longer the levers. The muscles and tendons in the hips have to contract significantly harder to create enough leverage to support the movement of long legs thus the hips and leg muscles tend to be more contracted and tighter on people with long legs.

You have to loosen the hips and legs so the twisting of tissue and spirals of energy can move up and down the body. One note: Bruce has always taught that you first open the upper body. Then you open the lower body, and then allow the opening of the lower body to complete the opening of the upper body. So, if you’re really new to Bruce’s system you should be focusing on the upper body for some time before worrying about these details; however, when you get to this stage, hopefully this will help.

First, read my post on “The Brilliance of Circle Walking”. If you do nothing else and just let the twist untwist of circle walking do its magic, you should be all set. The problem will get worse if you are jumping ahead and trying to turn to the center of your BaGua circle too soon or you twist so much that it locks you up. If you are doing this, you’ve missed the whole point.

The truth is that there are a bunch of important alignments and micromovements that all contribute to opening up the hips and legs properly. There almost impossible to describe in a post like this. But, I can give one one simple clue that has implications for every twist you’ll ever do in BaGua: the direction you twist is vital. This isn’t about out or in. It is about the angle of the circle you pick in relation to the tissue.

Look at picture on page 80 of Bruce’s “BaGua and Tai Chi” book, The Deep Muscles of the Kwa. The direction of your twist should be across the length of the muscles. The adductors aren’t perpendicular to the ground. So the cicle is tilted on an angle that runs across the adductor group. The circle goes along the “bikini” cut, the fold of the kwa. Play around with this and see if it improves your twisting in the legs. It should. The important lesson is that the angle of the circle is important and it is important everywhere you twist. If you don’t pick the correct angle, part of your twist is probably contributing to locking the joint and cutting off circulation, or it just isn’t as effective.

Go play.

[Anonymous]

Another valuable perspective for players of all levels. thanks

[Author]

Posts