Pathological reasons aside I ask myself as a teacher why it is so hard for students to develop internal discipline? Facing the facts, "Aging" is one reason. Speaking for myself I'm not the oldest in the Classical Tai Chi of California group, I'm in the forefront, yet I can do the following instructions and I'd like you to try. Aging is associated with a progressive reduction in neuromuscular control, but it can be headed off. "A healthy nervous system is prized in China", Stephen Hwa Ph.D.
Try an easy movement to test yourself: Raise your whole arm out to the front...easy? Now, again, raise to the front and stop, note with vision, exactly where your elbow is in relation to your body, hold it completely still, and raise just the forearm. Now, again, but this time close your eyes, raise your arm to the front, and stop, Now you are depending on "sensation", and "neuromuscular control" note exactly where your elbow is in relation to your body, hold it completely still and raise just the forearm...harder?
Now, again, close your eyes, raise your arm to the front, and this time, keep your shoulder down, stretch your arm till you feel a stretch in your back, hold that stretch, stop, Now raise just the forearm, don't move anything else, keep the stretch in your back. Now you are really depending on "sensation", and "neuromuscular control" and on the road to developing "internal discipline" if you follow the path in Classical Tai Chi.
No comments:
Post a Comment