Lead with the Hilt!

I had an epiphany practicing in the park this morning. One of the keys to making the sword form work is leading with the hilt. As soon as I got the feel of that, my form improved immensely. At taiji camp, I finally figured out what it really feels like to sink the sacrum (bottom part of the spine). Today I realized that really getting the sacrum sunk throughout the bare-hand form gives me much the same feeling as leading with the hilt in the sword form. And a lot of moves I can now cross correlate between the forms, with the sacrum/waist as the hilt. The blade is sometimes the hands, sometimes the feet, and sometimes the whole body, but the feeling is much the same. I think if I can work with that in mind, I can take both forms up a notch or two! *grins*

That's one of many things that I love about taiji. There's no end. There will always be room for improvement and work. Some people reach a point where they decide "That's it. That's good enough for me." I doubt that I'll ever be satisfied. I will continue to want to make it even better. Even the acknowledged masters of the art continue to work to make it better and better. Maggie Newman, one of Cheng man ching's six American "pillars," said that she was so grateful to him for giving her something that was impossible to do. Something that she could keep working on for her whole life. I agree.