My husband showed us this week how our perception of strength was in fact tension. Postures that we deem strong are actually stiff or resistant.
This was startling; and easily demonstrated by Sifu.
Low, sunk, deep stances felt very strong, however it was impossible to ripple the spine or shift the weight rapidly and smoothly. The only power these stances had was in the legs. Although it could be manifested through waist turns, this felt more akin to karate rather than taijiquan.
Standing almost upright, with relaxed knees, adhering to the 70/30 stance criteria meant that we were agile, mobile, nimble. The power channelled through to our fingertips.
Sifu pitched us all spontaneously and powerfully across the room. Our bodies crumpled and time seem speeded up. It was suddenly over. No one could quite reproduce the level of effect expressed by Sifu but we had some sense of his teaching.
