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An Introduction to Tai Chi Pole Shaking
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Oct 28, 2021
When we talk about getting stronger issuing force from a martial arts standpoint, there's basically two categories of strength. We have an external strength which uses the muscles and we've internal strength, which lies on the posture on our fascia on alignment and on issuing energy from the core. Muscular strength is pretty easy to understand from a Western perspective, such as lifting weights. For internal strength, oftentimes we hear about people being wiry or having good posture. There are plenty of ways to build external muscle, but how can we separate out strengthening the tendons and the ligaments and the fascia from muscular strength better yet, if we're able to do both, how strong will we be? If we have internal and external strength that we can use together. So Tai Chi has drills called pole shaking drills which enable us to do this and that is what we are going to show you in this video.
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When we talk about getting stronger, issuing force, from a martial art standpoint
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there's basically two categories of strength. We have external strength, which uses the muscles, and we have internal strength
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which relies on the posture, on our fascia, on alignment, and on issuing energy from
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the core. Muscular strength is pretty easy to understand from a Western perspective, such as lifting weights
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Internal strength, oftentimes we hear about people being wiry or having good posture
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are plenty of ways to build external muscle. But how can we separate out strengthening the tendons
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and the ligaments and the fascia from muscular strength? Better yet, if we're able to do both
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how strong will we be if we have internal and external strength that we can use together
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So Tai Chi has drills called pole shaking drills, which enable us to do this, practice this
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and test them out, and then put them back in the form. We benefit from this because not only does it make our
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better and do we develop internal strength and get feedback off the poles and spears
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But it also makes our external strength when we're lifting weights or doing it out what else we want to do
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a lot more safe and we ended up being a lot more strong
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So in this video, I'm going to show you how to do pole shaking exercises
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and with a trick that allows us in the beginning to get the hang of it and ramp up
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And that's by using spears instead of poles when we begin. when we begin to generate the power
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So before I begin, I want to make something clear. External strength, muscles and internal strength
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relying on fascia, relaxing, and posture, these don't happen in a vacuum
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When you're lifting weights, you are strengthening your ligaments and tendons. And when you're doing internal strength
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and using your muscles. However, developing both separately means we can move from a relaxed
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alignment through to muscular force, creating a net increase in speed and power
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It also means that we're less susceptible to injury when we're becoming stronger
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Okay, so let's have a look. So I've got long poles here
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This one is about the right size for me and this is another pole
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And these are generally used for pole shaking exercises and specifically in Chen Tai Chi in the
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long pole form. I've also got some spears here, which I removed the red horse hair so that we can see the shaking for today And this is a way in which we can learn pole shaking in a much better fashion
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So pole shaking is basically an activity where we're going to extend this out and retract it in different fashions
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And we're looking for the pole to shake. If you're using internal strength correctly, the pulse shakes
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If you're using it well, it shakes a lot. If not, the pole just kind of sits there and laughs at you
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So just from a basic physics standpoint, right, we've got a thinner pole here made out of waxwood and we've got a weight on the end
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So if we're to shake this, it's going to shake more, right
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If you begin your pole shaking activities with the long pole, in order to generate energy into this
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it takes quite a bit of force and it's exhaustive. So a way around this is that we can start with a spear, and then we can generate force into the spear in order to see the momentum and get feedback
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So I'm going to show you bad and then better, and then we're going to talk through the different components of it to get you started
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So in essence, when people begin pull shaking, they use their muscles, they use external strength, because that's what we're training
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And if I use my external strength, just my muscles, and shaking this, you can see that there's movement
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And maybe you can hear the tip. But in essence, it's not the whip-like motion that happens
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As we get better, as we incorporate more of our body, we get some movement
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And then as we're using our entire body and correct breathing and posture, we have greater movement on that
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You can see I'm not even really issuing into it, which is one of the tricks I'm going to show you today on how to get this going
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So, for starters, in essence, what I'm doing is I'm ringing this out
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So if you'll notice that this palm is facing up and this palm is facing kind of down or forward
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In essence, I'm going to push this through and notice that this palm is up, okay
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And my left hand, which is great to see on video, isn't doing anything
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The next thing I want you to notice is that this is about, I don't know, six, six
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inches away from my chest So this is too short This is too far apart How you know it the correct this is about the correct space for me which is about eight inches And how I know that is that it feels like I don have any wrinkles in my shirt And if someone were to come pull on the on the pole it wouldn go out My whole body would move It wouldn move forward anymore Okay
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The other thing that you want to see is my hands are together. So what I'm going to do just speaking
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about the hands is in essence I'm unrolling this and both my hands end up being palm down
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And as I'm curling up, like I'm going to ring out a towel, both my palms are facing up
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The next thing we want to talk about is the quah in the armpits
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So in essence, my quas, these two inguinal creases, stay open. Okay
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What I'm not going to do is in a Japanese style or a bounce gen style, I'm not going to close this down
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And my knee is not going to face to the ground, okay
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It's going to come in, but I'm not going to close that down. I'm going to keep it open
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The other thing that I'm not going to do is close my armpits down. The mental imagery is that you keep a racquetball or a ball of cotton in your armpits
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So as I'm here, my armpits are open. And as I'm here, my armpits are open
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I'm not totally cinch down and my arms aren't flat here. Okay
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The next thing that I'm doing is I'm moving my motion while there's a lot going on with my arms
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is actually from my heels through the top of the head. So I've got a good seating here
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and I'm concentrating on the posture. Okay? This will ruin your shake
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The next thing is the weight shift. There can be, and there is, in the initial drills, a weight shift
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where I'm in my rear leg, and I'm transferring forward to the front leg
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Okay? So that is basically one posture. And the last trick I'll give you is
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with the belly button. So in essence my belly button is facing you and I'm going to twist that so it's
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facing completely to the left. Okay? Did you see some nice shaking there and I'm not really
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issuing into it because my posture is correct. If that that's basically the drill onto itself
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for the first pool shaking routine. If you are correct and you're doing it slowly
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you can generate good weight just by the sinking of the body. Okay
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I find that women in our Tai Chi class actually accelerate out this faster than men because they able to access structural strength and they not using their muscles to try to to try to shake this Okay So the drills
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that you're going to do are just this starting out is that you're going to go up and down and you're
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going to go slow and easy with a high number of reps. When I say a high number of reps, we're talking
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25 because you want to get this ingrained without getting exhausted. Okay? At that point
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you can lift up your rear heel to try to aid in the weight shift. And my front foot
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in this case, my left, is not moving. Okay? So 25 there and then 25 on this side
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Okay, that's pull shaking. Now to bend your brain a little bit, the way this was taught to us is basically they show you how to make it different, to make it better
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And I'm showing you this basically so that you don't make the mistake many of us did starting off, thinking that the majority of this comes from the weight shift. Okay
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So in essence, I could shift into this. And it would make sense, right
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That if I go way up here and down, I'm going to get good shift and good shift
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and good energy transfer, right? Absolutely true. Or what if I just lift my heel up
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I get a lot there, but I don't need to lift the heel up either. And ultimately, the motion that
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you're developing comes from the core. So there doesn't have to be any weight shift at all
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It's basically coming up the one leg and going back down. And the postures remaining soft
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which allows it to transmit into the pole. Okay? So start, heel down for 25
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heel up for 25, both sides, and that will be starting of your generating internal strength
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In the next video, I'm gonna talk you through four of the basic pole shaking exercises
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and how we loop those together into a sequence to making a full pull shaking drill
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For more information, subscribe to this channel, Otherwise, check out TaichiBasix.com, especially TaichiBasix.com slash gear
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You'll see information about our poles and spears, not ours, the ones that we suggest
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and also articles on the pole forms and the spear form
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