How to relax the waist and buttocks in Tai Ji Chuan

Mr. Lin Chuanbao, a master of Tai Ji Chuan, told an interesting story in the article "Wudang Tai Ji Chuan's Understanding of Meritorious Service": Once upon a time, a group of robbers robbed the property of a passenger ship in a river, tied all the people on board and threw them into the river. Many people on board could swim, but they were all drowned because their hands and feet were trapped. Only one person was born by a dolphin swimming. Usually we are used to breaststroke, freestyle, backstroke and butterfly. These postures are swimming with both hands and feet, while dolphins swim by twisting their bodies, but never by body movements. Although there is no direct connection between swimming and Tai Ji Chuan, this story is instructive for us to practice Tai Ji Chuan's emphasis on "hand lead" and lead Tai Ji Chuan to rub his hands with his posture. All Tai Ji Chuan's movements are led by hand at the beginning, that is, the whole Tai Ji Chuan movement is commanded by hand; Then hold hands with your body, that is, posture dominates the movement of the whole body. Every movement is a style, and the owner of all movements is commanded by the hip joint. Tai Ji Chuan famous Mr. Zheng Wuqing once had such a metaphor to illustrate the important position of buttocks in Tai Ji Chuan. He simply said: Puppet show is a traditional art in China. When puppets perform various actions on the stage, they are all commanded by the hands of the actors under the stage. The better the actor's hands, the more wonderful the puppet will be. The same is true of Tai Ji Chuan's hip movements. The vagaries of all movements depend entirely on the movements of the hips. Take the hip root as the leading factor, and participate in launching the whole body movement. Generally speaking, the convergence, opening and rotation of the crotch are integrated by means of intentional non-exertion, which drives the whole body bones to attack together, and the joints are separated and closed. This is how to rely on crotch movement to exert strength and transmit strength. For example, the right hand hits the crotch (crotch refers to the perineum and the inner thigh) instead of the right hand. If you want to take back your right hand, it's also your crotch. Take it back. It's all about the crotch. Another example is pushing hands. The other person sealed my left hand with his hand and pressed hard in my center. Although I was blocked by the other party, my crotch has changed, and my left is heavy and my right is heavy. If you don't advance, you will retreat, because the posture has changed, the center of gravity has changed, and the camera has gained momentum, trying to make the other party lose its center of gravity and fall out.

Mr. Zhang Zhijun, a famous teacher in Tai Ji Chuan, said when talking about the waist and buttocks in the article "Tai Ji Chuan Wushu's Requirements for Various Parts of the Body": "It's now or never, and Tai Ji Chuan must seek for it." . I think there is a word missing here, which should be' between waist and legs'. The hip is between the waist and legs, and the position is particularly important. Feet transmit the reaction of the ground to hips through knees, and loose hips can instantly transmit strength to the waist. If you can't loosen your hips, you will lose your strength in an instant and fall short. Loosening the crotch can unload a part or even a large part of the opponent's strength, lower its center of gravity, stabilize the footwall and create conditions for the crotch arc; Can increase the amplitude of waist rotation, and then coordinate the whole body; Loosening buttocks is a necessary condition to form the power of hun yuan; Relaxation of hips is beneficial to adjust posture and footwork, and get the opportunity to make lower limbs run lightly. "I basically agree with Mr. Zhang Zhijun's view on loose hips.

Pine is the soul of Tai Ji Chuan, and the most difficult part of the whole relaxation kungfu should be the middle and lower footwall of the footwall, that is, the hip, knee and ankle. Especially the hip, because the hip is the place where most people are used to carrying strength, which may be due to the large pelvis. Most people use their hips to absorb the weight of the upper body, coupled with various posture problems, so some people practice backache and spinal injury. Usually the power released by the hips will run to the knees. If the knee does not release the power transmitted by the hip, it will easily damage the knee (that is, the knee joint, which is a huge and complicated joint of the human body, consisting of the lower femur, the upper tibia and the patella), thus hindering the in-depth practice. Because the knee joint injury will affect the walking action, you need to see a doctor for treatment. It's hard to really relax and concentrate on practicing boxing. If the strength of the knee joint is further released and transferred to the ankle joint (also known as ankle joint, which consists of the lower end of tibia and fibula and talus pulley), it will enter the rooting stage. Mr. Song, a well-known Tai Ji Chuan expert who has studied martial arts, said: Tai Ji Chuan pushes hands and fights. First, he borrows people's strength; The second is the right to borrow land. It is necessary to practice to loosen the hips, so that the strength of the knees can be put into the earth through the ankle joint and Yongquan point.

For beginners in Tai Ji Chuan, if you want to relax your hips, you must first know the position of your hips. Physiologically, the so-called hip refers to the folding depression of the upper femur and thigh. In other words, we usually call the part between waist and leg hip joint, which consists of sacroiliac joint, hip joint, ligament joint between hip bone and spine, pubic joint, pelvis and so on. One of the key points of hip loosening practice is to shake and swing the hips. The so-called hip shaking is a rotation with one hip joint as the center and pelvis as the radius. Hip swing refers to the action of arc hip lift and arc hip drop. Relaxation of sacroiliac joint plays an important role in accelerating waist relaxation. When boxing, relax from the thigh root and pay attention to the flexibility and flexibility of the hip joint to achieve the function of moving the two hips. If you really loosen your crotch when practicing boxing, your tail is like a clock hammer. When you lean to the left, your left hip drops and at the same time, your right hip swings up. When your right hip falls, your tail has leaned over, and your hip drives your whole body until your fingers and feet bounce. Relaxing the groin and Yin Hui points, relaxing the waist, and gathering the buttocks (also known as collapsing the waist) also play an important role in relaxing the crotch. In addition, pay attention to relax the hip joint, relax the muscles of the hip and waist, don't die on the pelvis, pinch the crotch. Loose hips should achieve at least two purposes: first, lightness, reasonable contraction and relaxation of the muscle ligaments of the hip joint, flexible rotation of each joint of the hip joint, and no negative work of assisting the muscle ligaments. Second, relax your waist and be calm. Through hip relaxation, we can better relax the waist, guide the internal and external movements of the limbs, make the spirit and strength properly integrated, and make the body coordinated and complete, loose and unremitting, heavy but not stiff.

For the body; Sticking to scientific and systematic exercise and long-term activities can thicken articular cartilage, tendon and ligament, enlarge the diameter of bone attachment and increase the amount of collagen fiber in hip joint, thus improving the tensile strength and stability of hip joint. Through relaxation and stretching exercises, the strength of the prime mover participating in joint movements can be enhanced and the extensibility of the antagonistic muscles can be improved. At the same time, the joint capsule, ligament and other soft tissues are stretched under the action of force, which increases the flexibility and amplitude of joint movement. The shift of Tai Ji Chuan's center of gravity cannot be separated from the effective activity of hip joint.

For the cultivation of Tai Ji Chuan's internal strength, it is to practice boxing with the crotch as the leading factor, so as to take the lead. The taiji rotation of the abdomen dominates the natural reverse abdominal breathing, and a series of ups and downs, internal and external integration and continuity are all formed from this. Yin and yang, deficiency and excess, and abdominal breathing all depend on the operation of the crotch. Outside is the practice of rubbing hands (also called pushing hands), and inside is the operation of abdomen. Finally, the mind is integrated, and the abdomen directs the movement of the whole body. The foundation of strength is at the foot, and the source of starting energy is at the waist and buttocks. The hip root is the axis, which drives all joints to move. Hip strength from the outside to the inside, from the inside to the outside, one integrated mass.

These two sentences seem easy to understand: round hip support (intermediate) and loose hip live hip (advanced), but how to practice it in place is not easy to practice it well. In order to help Tai Chi enthusiasts understand hip relaxation, I want to borrow a magazine garden to attract jade, and roughly sort out my years of practice and experience for peer reference. This paper refers to Yang's "1 15 Taiji Biography" and illustrates it with examples, briefly as follows:

First, shrink your hips.

Hip contraction refers to the inward contraction of hip bones and muscle ligaments from the front foot to the back foot, which is integrated with the waist and legs, rather than bending the hips and protruding the hips. Hip contraction is widely used in defensive action (the first half is defensive and the second half is offensive). Under normal circumstances, the hip contraction in the first half can not only form the overall degeneration, but also make the footwall stable in Mount Tai, providing enough strength for the attack in the second half. Squat is used to push the sparrow's tail backwards according to the situation, such as gathering it like a seal, driving the monkey away, putting the submarine needle backwards, or other actions that turn the lunge into a half-horse stance.

Second, put down your hips.

Hip drooping refers to the downward drooping of hip bones and muscle ligaments when the groin is relaxed. The front foot should be buckled when the hip falls, and the abdomen sinks when the hip joint is relaxed. Falling hips is also called sinking hips. Sun, a famous teacher in Tai Ji Chuan, said in the book "The True Skill of Yang Tai Ji Chuan": "The hip sinking method is to draw the hip first, and the method is to draw the left hip slightly backward and the right hip slightly forward. Or conversely, going to the audience in Dallas can not only make the steps the same size, but also make it very easy to fall after pulling your hips. Pay attention to your shoulders and crotch when you do it. Relaxing the spine, relaxing the waist and sinking the buttocks can become a whole, that is, a family, starting from the heel, mainly at the waist, shaping at the fingers, and sending it to the spine, you can connect your arms up and down and follow your legs. " The limbs below the hip are loose and sink to Yongquan point, and the limbs above the hip are lifted (that is, weak spirit and strong strength). Only when the crotch is stable and coordinated with the ankle and waist hair can enough rebound force be formed, and the strength will be used for the target under the support of the stable footwall to produce the expected distribution effect. Hip lowering should be a relaxing level, not a superficial posture skill. Because no matter how high the technology is, once the crotch is out, it is still customary to instinctively push it up. But when entering the loose crotch, the external force did not swallow into the body, or relaxed. Mr. Lin, a famous Taijiquan teacher, was invited to give a lecture at Qinzhou Taijituishou Counseling Station in Guangxi, saying: Power is to drop your hips, and you should drop your hips neatly. The crotch is used to pull the sparrow's tail, plant a hammer and hit the crotch.

Third, sit on your hips.

Sitting on the hip means that the hip is a little lower on the basis of the lower hip. When you fall, be careful that your hips are still landing and you can't stand out. When sitting on the hip, stand upright, and the hip muscles and hip bones naturally droop. Knees should be pushed slightly in the direction of toes, and the real toes refer to recoil. To understand the traction of lower limbs in a relaxed state, it needs to be done correctly. Toes, calves, leg arches and crotch roots will all feel bloated. Professor Chen Weiming, a famous professor in Tai Ji Chuan, pointed out that the first thing to do is to sit on your hips and loosen your waist, mainly by loosening your waist and rotating. Sitting on the hip is used to pull the bird's tail, hug the knee and step on the palm.

Fourth, hip collapse.

Hip collapse and head hanging are important rules of Tai Ji Chuan's posture, which are closely related to sinking strength, turning strength and pushing strength. Mr. Zhang Yijing, a famous teacher in Tai Ji Chuan, said when talking about hip collapse in the book "Tai Ji Chuan Boxing Fax": "Tai Ji Chuan often uses lunges and lunges. When he first practiced hip collapse, the hip joint of his hind legs was bound to be tense and unnatural, which is precisely the reason why it is not loose." After lunge, the stress on the knee joint of the foot is slightly bent, but if it is bent too much, the hip joint will not achieve the purpose of exercise. But stiff knees are also wrong. This is really easier said than done, and it is really difficult for beginners to understand the right and wrong. At first glance, the hind foot seems to be straight, but in fact, the hip root is open and loose, and the hind foot seems to be slightly bent. The purpose of relaxing the waist and collapsing the buttocks is to seek the flexibility of the hip joint, especially the flexibility under the body when standing upright. The lower abdomen is the center of gravity. The so-called sinking abdomen, loosening the waist, collapsing the crotch, opening the crotch, sinking the gas and so on. Just emphasize lowering the center of gravity and maintaining flexibility and stability. After the hip joint is flexible, and then the waist rotates freely, it is possible to resolve the opponent's momentum and be stable and unbeaten. Generally, people who are not good at kung fu have not undergone strict hip collapse training and have not relaxed their hip joints. "When you use lunges, your hips are in front and your hips are behind. When the buttocks collapse, the muscles of the back and buttocks relax, the hip bones naturally sag, and the hip bones and the Yongquan point on the sole of the foot form a slingshot. Mr. Lin, a famous teacher in Tai Ji Chuan, said in the tuishou coaching class in Tai Ji Chuan, Sichuan Province: When you are full of energy, your hips will collapse and your opponent will fall out. Hip collapse is used to push the tail forward according to the situation, tuck your knees and bend your palms, and pat your body.

Five, open the crotch

It doesn't mean hip opening in a broad sense, but it means hip opening in a narrow sense, which means that the left and right hips are loose and the knees are abduction. The relative traction and relaxation of hips is to drive the body with emotion, which is the uniform tension of muscle ligaments around the hip joint, rather than the relaxed mechanical traction. After opening the crotch, its potential produces a calm and flexible elasticity, which forms an overall strength with the mind. When opening the crotch, it should be instantaneous, and it should not be delayed or stagnant. Hip opening is used for single whip palm, fan arm and other actions.

Six, hip joint

Hip joint refers to the convergence of various parts of the hip joint from Mingmen point to Yinhui point, forming an organic whole with the waist and legs. Doing a good job of hip joint can stabilize the whole body. If it is reasonably coordinated with will, spirit and strength, it will inevitably make the foundation as solid as Taiyue. The hip joint is from the outside to the inside, not the contraction and stiffness of the hip joint itself. When the hips are strong, it should be instantaneous, not delayed or stagnant; When the hips are strong, slow down the camera until the other person is strong. Bending is used to shoot tigers, bow and shoot tigers.

Seven, turn your hips

Hip rotation refers to the state that the hip joint and muscle ligament of the forefoot rotate horizontally from inside to outside or from outside to inside. Often used to lift feet in the middle of the back step, or from straight strength to horizontal strength or from horizontal strength to straight strength. If you twist your hips when you walk, you will take a step by lifting your imaginary feet with your hips. The range of the front solid foot turning to the hip is based on the time when the heel, sole and toe are lifted off the ground one after another. If you turn too much, your body will be distorted and your center of gravity will be affected. If you turn too little, it will be unnatural to lift your feet, so you should coordinate your whole body. Real feet are calm, but empty feet are light. As the saying goes, "the waist and hips turn slightly, and birds can't fly", which not only emphasizes the importance of the waist and hips in the development of martial arts, but also shows that the ultimate strength of some movements is from one side of the body to the target. In order to coordinate the whole movement, the hip joint must make corresponding hip rotation movements.

Eight, hip rotation

Hip rotation refers to the state that the hip joint and muscle ligament of the virtual foot rotate from bottom to top along the vertical circumferential direction, which is used to lift and retract the foot during the middle transition of lateral walking. Such as cloud hand and cross hand. Hip-turning means that the virtual foot is lifted from the hip and moved sideways to approach or step out. When the heel, sole and toe are lifted off the ground one after another, the range of virtual foot hip-turning is better. Too much rotation will deform the body and affect the stability of the center of gravity, and too little rotation will make the feet uncomfortable. It is necessary to coordinate the whole body, with solid feet and light feet.

Nine, take off your crotch

Hip joint detachment refers to the feeling that the acetabulum and femoral head seem to be detached, so there is a saying that the hip joint is loose and wants to detach, which is often used for actions such as separation of left and right feet and kicking. Tai Ji Chuan's kicking is mainly done by the hip joint composed of acetabulum and femoral head, and also by the ligaments around the hip joint, iliofemoral ligament, pubic bursa ligament, ischial bursa ligament, psoas muscle, abdominal muscle, pelvic girdle muscle and thigh muscle. Different kicking movements are a complicated coordination work. When kicking or kicking, focus part of your attention on your toes or heels, with your feet leading. This can reduce the dominant consciousness of the hip joint and inadvertently relax the hip joint. We should also do a good job of turning the whole body into reality. If we can cooperate with the distribution of Qi in Dantian, the effect will be better.

Hip lift

Hip-lifting means that the hip joint, muscles and ligaments of the full foot are relaxed downward, while the hip joint, muscles and ligaments of the empty foot are lifted upward, forming a hip-loosening state that competes up and down. Used for lifting gestures, golden rooster independence and other actions. Hip lifting can use the power of folding up and down to better transmit the ground recoil, so as to achieve the purpose of borrowing the ground and attacking the other side with the help of others.

Eleven, send crotch

Hip-sending, also known as heel-buttock, means that the corresponding crotch in front of the knee joint of the forefoot protrudes forward. Send your hips forward according to the idea of Mingmen point, or think of the sacrum to lift your hip joint and push it forward, as Mr. Ye Dami, a famous Tai Ji Chuan, said: "The tail is like the rudder of a ship". At this time, pay attention to relax Yin Hui point, groin and knee joint, and make the muscles and ligaments of waist, buttocks and legs just right. Sending buttock front foot is the usage of virtual foot and virtual foot, and it is also the usage of real foot. The purpose is basically the same, but the intermediate transition action is different. Hips transmit strength to the waist, and attack and release opponents with the burst of inner strength. If the hip is contracted during hip delivery (except hip contraction), the hip joint itself and some muscles and ligaments attached to the hip joint will produce negative work, and some forces from the foot will be offset or changed at the hip joint, which will miss the opportunity and potential energy and greatly affect the impact and release effect. Proper hip delivery is a sign of opportunity. Hip sending is used for oblique flying, white snake spitting letters, hair changing and so on.

Twelve, pumping crotch

Hip pulling refers to the loose hip state in which the left or right hip is intentionally pushed forward (but not forcibly pushed forward) and the hip joint is upturned. It's like a pump pumping water up. Hip pulling can naturally lift the virtual foot off the ground from the heel, sole and toe, and can be used for the virtual-real conversion of forward and backward.

Thirteen, buckle hip

Foot adduction of crotch root, commonly known as crotch buckle. When you buckle your right hip, if you put your right thumb in the groin of your right leg, your thumb will feel bitten by your hip. Therefore, some teachers call "buttock buckling" "buttock biting". The crotch button of the solid foot can drive the virtual sole and toe off the ground (the virtual heel is driven off the ground by the rotation of the solid foot to the crotch), such as the transition from the palm to the bird's tail and the transition from the palm to the palm with a single whip. The common problem of novice buttock buckle is buttock protrusion. The key to buckle their hips is to relax the groin, relax the muscles of the buttocks and back, pull out the back with the chest, the buttocks droop, relax the Dazhui point, and relax the waist, back and buttocks. When you buckle your hips, your feet are steady and light.

Thirteen kinds of loose hips are introduced above, which is convenient for boxing practitioners to check their position on the boxing frame and push their hands. Will this action loosen your hips? Does it feel good to live a loose life in Tai Chi Chuan? Tai Chi, which rises and falls like a cat, includes descending, collapsing, turning, buckling, pulling and sending. It's very helpful to practice Tai Chi more and practice it better. Among the thirteen kinds of loose crotch states, falling crotch, collapsing crotch, turning crotch and buckling crotch are more important.

Tai Ji Chuan is a family-run boxing method, in which the body movements are visible, but the internal strength is not easy to observe. Waist and buttock play an important role in Tai Ji Chuan. The specific operation is difficult to describe and express with words and expressions, so there is a saying that "it can only be understood, but it can't be expressed". Due to my limited knowledge of Tai Ji Chuan's techniques and limited level of text arrangement, some details are not satisfactory. I'm sorry. Therefore, after listening to the teacher's explanation and explanation, practitioners should touch the changes of bone, meat and skin when the teacher demonstrates hip loosening with their hands with the teacher's consent, so as to learn fairly well and better understand the law. If you want to live your hips, you must start with looseness. Adults learn to practice Tai Ji Chuan. Because of the calcification and hardening of hip bones, muscles and ligaments, middle-aged people and middle-aged people loosen their hips faster, and it takes two or three years to loosen their hips. In addition to boxing and pushing hands, under the guidance of the master, we should practice some auxiliary techniques (be careful not to practice the basic dance skills of hip-twisting by mistake) to improve our awareness and ability to control the flexible movements of the crotch. But the real hips are still in the intention, and there is no effort.