Articulation

I spent the majority of the past weekend in Bellingham for a water form (Liu He Ba Fa) workshop my main teacher put on. It was a great time, though I came away with a mix of emotions and thoughts, way too many of which were along the lines of "am I ever going to get this?". On Sunday morning I stopped in a coffee shop and a few of the other attendees were there. During our conversation the word articulation came up and it seemed a funny word to me because it has a few meanings that are applicable to Tai Chi (or internal martial arts in general).

The first meaning on Merriam-Webster's site: expressing oneself readily, clearly, and effectively. Good teachers can express the message they mean to convey. This can be done verbally or with a mix of action as well. Demonstrating how certain movements in a form can be applied is mixed with words to convey what's happening or why it's happening. Historically, at least from what I've been told from my teacher and others, martial art teachers would show something once and then it was up to the student to figure it out. Thankfully every teacher I've had has been willing to demonstrate, explain, and demonstrate again if needed (with me it's always needed).

The second definition of articulate is also meaningful to Tai Chi: consisting of segments united by joints. Where my mind connected this word to Tai Chi was due to a few places. The first thing it made me think of was a line from the Taijiquan Classics: "Whenever one moves, the entire body must be light and lively, and must above all be connected throughout." (The Taijiquan Classics, Barbara Davis, 2004).

During the workshop we worked a lot on articulation. Water form is different than Tai Chi (at least Yang style). It utilizes momentum and inertia whereas in Tai Chi movements are taken from a fairly firm foundation. Leading with the hands parts of the body need to articulate in a manner which backs up the hands, supporting them in whatever action they're taking at that particular point in the pattern.

Another quote is from Dr. Tao's book on push hands: "If we study the Taiji Classics, they say, 'You should move the qi as through the nine zigzags of a pearl, smoothly.'" That's really two quotes from the Classics technically I guess. Nevertheless this touches on the articulation of the energy, which Dr. Tao refers to as momentum. So we see the energy and alignment of the body is of great importance, which makes sense since this art is about using softness to overcome hardness.