Tai Chi's Single Whip - Silk-Reeling and Connected Internal Strength

chen style taiji chens style tai chi chin-na tai chi silk-reeling Apr 22, 2014

Single Whip is a common movement in all styles of Tai Chi (Taijiquan) and, like all Taiji movements, it depends on some key internal body mechanics that give you relaxed strength. The body mechanics include:

-- Establishing and maintaining the ground path through all movement, including stepping.

-- Establishing and maintaining peng jin, an expansive force that is a physical skill (not mystical).

-- Whole-body movement -- when one part moves, all parts move, and they are connected through the body from the ground.

-- Silk-Reeling energy -- not actual "energy," but a spiraling movement that is another physical skill.

-- Dan T'ien rotation that is the center of all movement.

-- Opening and closing the kua.

There are many other skills and principles, but if you don't have these basic concepts, you aren't going to get very far in Taiji.

I'll show you a self-defense technique that you can practice with a partner using the opening part of the Single Whip movement, when you spiral the palm outward and form a "beak" with the fingers.

Single Whip contains many self-defense applications.

In the top photo, my friend and student Chris Miller grabs my fingers to do a finger lock. In Chen push hands, finger chin-na is popular. I asked Chris to grab my fingers and "don't let go."

Next, I spiraled inward, downward, and finally, in the third photo, I spiral outward. By connecting from the ground through the hand, the spiraling got my fingers out of his grip every time.

This is just a simple defense technique, nothing fancy, but it is not limited to finger grabs. Try grabbing the fingers at different angles and different grips. Try a wrist grab, too. There are many applications for Single Whip demonstrated on my website and my Tai Chi Fighting Applications DVDs. And the principles are taught on my Silk-Reeling DVDs.

I am always fascinated by the way the use of internal body mechanics give you the ability to defend yourself without the shouting and muscular tension that was part of my training in other arts.

Always use caution when practicing joint locks. It is easy to apply too much pressure or torque your partner too far, and it is never fun to take time off and heal a sprained or broken finger, but you can still make it realistic and practice this to help you understand how the connected, spiraling body mechanics turn even a simple-looking part of one movement into self-defense.

--by Ken Gullette

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Tai Chi's Single Whip - Silk-Reeling and Connected Internal Strength

Try Two Weeks Free and Get Step-by-Step Training in Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua from Basic to Advanced Skills with No Mystical Mumbo-Jumbo

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