Video: Steel wrapped in cotton
Sound is muffled, please read the following as well: Note the crinkling of Master Hwa's shirt, indicative of core strength and internal movement of muscles. Have you ever videotaped yourself doing the Form from the back, viewing your entire back as you moved? Ever heard the expression “outside cotton, inside steel? If you have a hard time learning “internal movement” from the core, did you ever think how much the pulling of the body by the legs has to do with the movement of both side to side and UP and DOWN in the upper body? We explain here how you can see this in action. One of the fundamental aspects of Tai Chi is the image of a needle wrapped in cotton. The movement is soft and easy like a ball of cotton but with hard steel on the inside. In the west, we would call the needle “core strength.” The "arm swing up move" of cloud hands shown in this brief video is an upper quarter body movement tightly coupled with the core. This move together with the heel pulls the body back move creates intense internal movements and energy flow up and down that side of the body, which is more easily visible from the back These intensive movements center around the spine, strengthening the muscle and connective tissue and blood flow around the spine. It is a very beneficial move for the spine. When Master Hwa demonstrates this sequence, everyone is surprised at the contrast between the front view, very relaxed and seemingly effortless, and the back view, intense muscle undulating motion in the torso. When Master Hwa along with the classes from Buffalo and Rochester NY demonstrated it at World Tai Chi Day he pointed out the contrasts to a large crowd of onlookers. What he also pointed out was how even the softest of “arm swinging up” movement could show the up and down flux of paraspinal muscles. He made the point in explanation that even relatively novice students were able to generate this internal movement. Ironically, this also came as a surprise to many students in the group. They did not seem to realize how well they were progressing...after all, how many of us actually watch our backs as we do Classical Tai Chi? Tai Chi is sometimes described as "outside cotton, inside steel". This is a good example of it.
