Move with grace, style, power and presence.
A worthy intention. A study of the internal martial arts offers a clue as to how to achieve this. A Tai Chi practitioner may say something along the lines of:
When one part of the body is still, the whole body is still. When one part of the body moves, the whole body moves.
I have seen people train in the internal martial arts – Tai Chi included – for years and never achieve this or even look like achieving it. This is because they reach a stage where they are using their existing capacity or pattern for movement to perform their techniques. When someone is locked into this they can’t find their way beyond it. That takes a special kind of awareness that most of us don’t have.
This is where the Feldenkrais Method comes in. The right exercises can improve your capacity for movement beyond your capacity to be aware. Eventually even this will improve also but it is a never ending process. It doesn’t take much, then you too can look to continual improvement with your chosen discipline – even Tai Chi.
