Tai Chi Sword Fundamentals – The 8 Cuts – Taijijian

tai chi sword



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The eight fundamental cuts. Pay attention to turning the waist and relaxing the body. Warm up your wrist and forearm before practice.

It’s important to relax the shoulders, especially on the penultimate movement, as you thrust low and behind you; the elbow must be bent, and pass the body before the wrist does so. Often people automatically lock the arm out straight, and when you try to move a straight arm past your body while trying to extend the sword in this way, it gets clunky really quickly. So you should imagine that your elbow is soft, it bends to enable the thrust, and then straightens as the technique completes.

And in the last technique, “point”, do not dip the sword excessively. The grip may loosen, but the angle of the wrist does not need to be extreme, you should still maintain control of your sword.

A note on the grip, you will notice my index finger extends over the top of the guard. This gives me better control of the sword, though it does mean the guard cannot protect my finger. Anyway, it’s theoretical, so I don’t worry about that myself.

Beginning and closing: when you change the sword from one hand to the other, the back of the left hand must be towards the chest, or to put it another way, the palm must be facing out. If you are holding the guard with your left hand, then there will be room for the right hand to grasp the handle. Likewise, when you close the form, the left hand grasps the guard as the right hand releases the handle, that way you’re not getting your hands tangled up with each other as you pass the sword from one hand to the other.

The stance should be relaxed, the pelvis stable, the knees soft, and the waist should turn. If your intention is always to cut and the body is relaxed, as they say, your chi will naturally extend to the tip of your sword. It is hard to imagine your chi, but it is easy to control your intention. Imagine that you are cutting when you practice your cutting, and thrusting with accuracy, when you thrust. Even your blocks and parries should be cutting. If you remember this principle, the other details matter not so much.