Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 236

Qínná 擒拿, Die 跌, Dǎ 打, Zhì 擲 – Part 6

In fighting, the most direct way to attack someone it to hit and Tàijíquán 太極拳 is the same. Dǎ 打 is hitting. In the Tàijíquán form we always punch with the right hand, which is what we will do more often. However, we must also practise punching with the left hand. In the form, when we do Yǎn Shǒu Gōng Chuí 掩手肱捶 – Conceal and Strike, there is a lot of movement before we punch. The reason for this is so that we move and exercise the whole body, so we shift the weight from one side to the other. This makes us use to changing our weight and so we can balance our body when our weight is different, we can also yield our weight if someone pushed us. It also teaches us to be able to Fā Jìn 發勁 – Release Power with our weight in any position. We also need to learn how to relax and sink before we punch then we can Fā Jìn 發勁 using the whole body, from the legs to the waist, to the body and out to the hand. It takes a lot of training to be able to punch using the whole body. Many people can have a strong punch, but not many know how to use the whole body and Fā Jìn from the inside to the outside. In the end, they will cause a lot of internal injury. So, Tàijíquán teaches us to use the whole body when we Dǎ, from internal to external, and this is a healthy and powerful way to strike!