Taiji offers a good amount of relaxation-talk. Depending on who you talk to it can be the end or it can be the means. Physically, relaxation is the means towards efficient movement. Efficient movement is movement that uses only the necessary amount of tension required. The idea of relaxation is simple, but the execution takes ongoing awareness and care.

An interesting thing happens when we try too hard to relax—we create tension. We get the exact opposite of what we wanted. I touched on this phenomenon in my article Pistol Qigong is a Blast. Here, mental tensions create excess physical tensions. In general, the more we try to get our bodies to do something, the more tension is created. And that, in turn, negatively impacts performance.

In terms of relaxation, The Loop goes: mentally strain to relax–>create physical tensions–>poor performance–>mentally strain more to relax–>more tensions–>poorer performance–>…etc.  This is what I refer to as the Negative Relaxation Loop. We’ve all be there and hopefully through experience we found ways out.

The following 6 methods interrupt The Loop in my practice.

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[From 31 July 2008]

“No pistol shooter, no matter how expert, can hold a pistol in firing positions without some motion.  This is called the arc of movement.  The very best that any shooter can do is to keep the arc of movement at a minimum—it cannot be eliminated” The N.R.A.’s Basics of Pistol Shooting (57).

Minimizing the Arc of Movement With Qigong

For humans, perfect stillness does not exist in the living. Our bodies constantly make adjustments, large and small, to maintain even simple postures. In marksmanship, constant adjustments add up to what is called the arc of movement. The arc of movement is the amount that the firearm moves as a result of a body’s natural inability to maintain perfect stillness. The greater the arc of movement, the more difficult it is to maintain proper site alignment which leads to inconsistent marksmanship.

At first we might think that to minimize the arc of movement we need to force our arm into stillness. This severe willing of stillness inevitably leads to muscles contracting, causing tension as well as motion. Anyone who has tried showing off their bicep could tell you that intense muscle contractions cause trembling in surrounding muscles. We can conclude that forcing our arms into stillness leads to a greater arc of movement, the exact opposite of what we want.

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[From 05 August 2008]

Need balance? Need grounding? You got it! Or had it? Oh…it’s back again. Think of balance in terms of degrees as opposed to absolutes. Balance requires movement and adjustments. At first the movements and adjustments tend to be large, and, over time, they become smaller and smaller. The adjustments never cease. Balance gets better and your body develops efficiency at maintaining it. The same with grounding. They never quite seem effortless. They’re both dynamic. Sorry, I’m not talking metaphorically here.

The kicks in the Yang Chen Fu Form give my balance a run for its money. In the beginning, my balance was all over the place. I’d fall out of all of the kicks, or, at least, I would make big, awkward adjustments, fighting to not fall out. My balance issues exasperated the slower I did my form.

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