Chen, silk reeling and the right hand.

Hi,

OK, a bit of a technical question which I hope I can explain and someone can advise on...

I was recently practising my silk-reeling and I ralised that the power in my Chen moves seems to channel almost completely through my right arm.

By this I mean that when I make a move with the hip action it seems to be the right arm which is the leading arm and has most power. Even if the left arm is the 'lead' arm in the move it seems the right channels more energy and creates the powr in a reaction motion, rather than the left does.

Does this make sense?

Questions:

Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

Is it because I'm right-handed

Is it that my left side is under-trained?

Any thoughts will be gratefully received (only remember that I don't know all the terminology )

I would guess that yes, it is because you are right handed. A lack of familiarity in your right hand.

Not sure what your goals are exactly with taiji, but I don't think that's a bad thing to favour one side. Some people believe in developing your body evenly though I believe in developing the strengths of different sides of your body for different things (as long as you have all areas covered).

For example, I prefer to lead/control/stick with my left side and strike with my right side. Not to say that I don't strike with my left, just preference and comfort.

However ... power shouldn't be delivered in your arm or hand, right?

I may be wrong here, but I believe that silk reeling is an excercise that tries to unify the body's mechanics so the whole body delivers power, not just the hand and is not and 'internal' excercise, so not sure why you're concentrating on feeling energies.

Thanks Northstar, that is quite helpful.



When I spoke of 'power' I wasn't actually referring to chi as such, rather that the right side felt stronger. When I trained TKD we used the waist twist, so I'm used to these kind of mechanics. I can feel if a punch, for instance, is weak or not by the feel of the body.

I suspect as well the TKD training may have over trained my right side. I don't mind if this is normal, I was just wondering if I should train more on the left to even things up (can't hurt, I suppose).

Thanks again.

You're welcome bro, fully glad I can help.

I am right handed but certain moves and methods I perform better with my left side. So many ways to strike you know, some of them are stronger with my left side even though my right side is the stronger side.

Personally, I say you don't have to make all your moves equal to both sides of your body (unless you are a performer, maybe), just develop a method or weapon that feels natural to that particular limb.

I think it's better to make different parts of your body be good at different things, rather than spend alot of time making them equally good at all the same things, as certain moves will be natural to different sides of your body.

it's because your right handed.

a little work on a heavy bag will help bring your left on-line.

Thanks, both of you.

Ashe, the bag is a good idea (might finally get around to buying one).

Northstar, yep, I agree about specialising. Wouldn't hurt to even up my left a bit anyway (I think my left's a bit weedy anyway).

Thanks again.

Not surprising to me Trevek, and not because you were left or right handed. If so, what then is meant by "whole body" then?

Sorry to keep harping on this, but this is what happens when you 'do' Tai Chi without first getting the 'chi'; like being given a gun without the bullets, the former will of course never fire, and you are, as it now happens, left wondering why.

Once you can get the 'chi' to circulate around your body at will, then and only then will you understand what I am saying. The internal arts' emphasis on the 'chi' was not meant for philosophical discussions; it was meant to be an integral / essential part of the training; otherwise what is the difference between the internal and external arts?

Ask Ashe Higgs to ask his Sifu why he (his Sifu) did the 21 Form the "why" his Sifu did it and perhaps you (and maybe Ashe) will understand the problem you are having.

The 21 Form was on YouTube a while back, but has since been taken off. Maybe Ashe can put it up again? -- for Trevek's sake?