Just bend your knees

I’ve been thinking about this entry for some time. I begin with one of the standard tai chi instructions to beginners—“bend your knees.”

After 13 years of tai chi, I cannot say that I fully know what this instruction entails. There are different ways to move, all of which result in knees being bent.

Presently, I practice bending my knees by opening my hips, checking to feel some weight in my heels, allowing my center of gravity to drop, waiting for the heads of my femurs to move in the direction of the floor, lengthening whatever muscles, ligaments, and tendons resist the downward motion.

As my practice progresses, I look for the knees to bend by flexing like a hinge, shins vertical, with a subtle upward tugging of the knee caps, and absence of feeling that the ligaments and tendons of the knee are supporting my weight. Any twinge means stop and try an adjustment.

It seems to me, that tai chi progresses from gross to subtle movements. Slowing movements increases awareness of the sequence of micro-movements necessary to move with the least effort, most strength, and greatest balance.

So I catch myself when I ask a student to just bend your knees or just fill-in the blank. The clarity of movement, which may come easily to the athlete, the dancer, or the person who moves with fluid grace, does not come easily to me and is only complicated by MS and aging.

With MS, I look for new ways to move as old ways are taken from me. I look to my years of instruction, books, the internet,for hints as to what I can try. I have not as yet found the book or person who can speak his language of micro-movements in a way that I translate into my practice.