The research is in!

 Link to video of Classical Tai Chi Walking

Here is some research as we learn and "...we learn to walk again..."  I'm going to use Tai Chi Master Stephen Hwa's "coined term," "Ordinary Force,"  and here is some real irony in light of how Tai Chi critics troll Classical Tai Chi Square Form as "ROBOTIC." Understanding how humans walk with my own term, "Ordinary Walk" (which uses "ordinary force"), could help engineers improve walking by developing better human exoskeletons and walking ROBOTS. This is according to research done at a movement lab c/o Ohio State University. 

On his 75th birthday, Master Hwa walked toward me down the school hallway. His walk was Classical Tai Chi extraordinary, not "Ordinary," and each step was accompanied by a corresponding "quarter body move" of the core. This Classical Tai Chi walking is not "ordinary force," and there is no "reaction force" coming back up the legs to "flounder" the body. The legs remain relaxed, with no tension to transfer "reaction force ."We are not Simone Biles floundering that missed step, but we have floundering experiences when we "ordinary walk" daily.   

Simone Biles is not perfect, nor are we. When we walk, our steps are all different. With "ordinary walking," a researcher's mathematical model and data suggest that each step is a tiny fall. There is random-looking variation in our footfalls,  in our steps. We unconsciously do this to get it right, 

  Surprisingly, Scientists have done the math and footsteps related to pelvic positions with "ordinary walk ."When researchers compared this pelvis movement to footfall variations, they found nothing random. It seems pelvic fluctuations can predict more than 80 percent of the side-to-side variation in foot placement. We talk about the "Torso method" in Classical Tai Chi. In everyday walking, however, the torso top tips left, and our effort goes more "leftish" to correct. Torso tips right and stepping further right occurs. How ironic! We diverge to left or right with each walking step, front or back. So these are FALLS, and we fix them with the torso, mainly the pelvis, to control them.

Data shows that following pelvic movement shows where your next step lands better than watching your feet. Your pelvis knows best. They also ruled out other possible influences, like where a person was on a  treadmill belt. The single best explanation for a person's pattern of footfalls was self-correction. 

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Whether aware of it or not, each human being is faced with a dilemma in the form of "controlled falling" every time we take a step. The center of gravity is NOT under control, we rely on our subconscious, and we delude ourselves if we think it is conscious walking. 

Some critics say the "square form is robotic," This may be shocking, but stability is not present in their everyday walking, nor is it in yours. Making robots, the scientists said, is about being stable. A robot stops, "it is stable if it does not fall," so it can go very slowly. One must think that the Classical Tai Chi-square form, disposed of as being "robotic," has a creative side. Our walking and controlled falling via momentum have their parallel in the animal kingdom. Ride a horse, however, and sometimes all four hooves are airborne. No slow motion for horses, and it is the same for humans. Our center of mass moves to its highest point in front of the lead foot. So, we begin to fall forward, but our other foot rushes forward to catch us. We then raise our center of mass and "reset" the system for the next step. 

So walking is momentum-based falling and catching (or "controlled falling"), and you are never in a permanent, stable state. Hence the stage is always set for a fall in everyone, both young and old.

Is it any wonder then that we are subject to falling when older? We lose strength in the legs, feeling in the feet, coordination, and more. One has to ask what has happened to the role of the rest of the body in this dilemma. Is the "rest of the body" not the core or torso? In essence, we rely on faulty mechanisms to carry us through an old age that may also be fraught with some disease. 

Master Stephen Hwa says that not every student who starts Tai Chi wishes to become proficient in the art. On the other hand, Classical Tai Chi walking training has many facets. "walking" also tunes the nervous system in the lower body and strengthens it. The essence of "walking" training is to teach the student to use "internal discipline" to direct the movements of the torso to move the legs. The walking training prepares the student how to maintain the correct body posture. Additional elements of the walking training teach the student how to integrate the principles of Tai Chi walking into everyday life.