Tai Chi Form: 5 - Lifting Hands, Shoulder Stroke, White Crane Spreads Wings

Angus Clark: These are the next three postures in the form and they bring us three new stances. This completes the repertoire of stances for the Cheng Man-Ching short form.
Lifting Hands brings us the heel stance. In this posture aim to feel your vertical axis in the left side of your body clearly so that the right leg is free to move. Keep the right leg very relaxed and slightly bent at the knee and make sure that you don't try to hold the weight of your right leg away from the ground.
On the contrary, allow your heel to make a strong, wholesome, earthy contact. When you get this stance right you'll feel very well grounded and at the same time nimble and free to move. The overall feel for this move is 'open' followed by 'close'.
Shoulder Stroke brings us the T stance, which is a very strong stance making use of the natural, powerful alignment from your left foot to your right shoulder. Feel the connection from the earth, through your left, rear foot, connecting through your body and all the way to your right shoulder.
White Crane Spreads Wings brings us the cat stance, which is very similar to the heel stance but instead of the heel making the good connection with the ground, it's the ball of your foot in the free leg (left leg in this case). Again feel the connection from the ball of your left foot up through to the fingertips of your right hand, making a spiraling link between the sky and the earth. Enjoy this vertical connection in your body-mind."
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Write to Angus at [e-mail]

[@shujiling213]

Awesome move thank you

[@angelzz1862]

i found these vids of yours, im so grateful! so easy to learn, making my new journey of learning tai chi possible!! thank you so much!

[@8CIC8]

Thank you

[@i1865]

Love these vids.

[@LivingMovementTaiChi]

Thank you. Please visit our website www.livingmovement.com for more details!

[@ER6258]

These are wonderful teaching videos Angus. I learn this form many years ago and wanted to relearn it and your teaching videos are by far the best ones I've found. Did you do some till the end of the form? I'm happy to buy them if necessary.

[@elizabethboyd3446]

great teaching...i haven't 'got it' yet :-) Your Way of showing / teaching is very clear, good and slow; view from front and behind helps too.. a bit easier to figure it out, I hope.

[@LivingMovementTaiChi]

Thank you. Please visit our website www.livingmovement.com for more details!

[@markdonovan1540]

A few months ago I started learning from a new teacher who has modified the way I do these movements.
The first change to the way I used to do this was the yield after lifting hands, which I now practise without turning the body so much. There is a yield, fold in the kua, to withdraw arms but my face and upper body stay facing north.
The second change was to do the shoulder stroke forward facing, rather than on the side of the shoulder. I am yet to fully understand this, I will need to wait until I can meet up to practise with him a separate mini form on shoulder stroke. However, in the meantime I'm training myself to do it this different way.
The third change was in the white crane movement. I was told to not change height, that this causes a break in flow of Chi when we do this. The open and closing of the posture is employing "split energy" that comes from the waist turn driving apart the arms (the spreading of the "wings of the white crane").
None of what I am commenting here is to say that you are doing it wrong, because it's the internal aspect which really matters. It is to share something that I've learned recently which is changing slightly how I do the form externally, but the biggest change is how it feels internally. It took a few months to get out of my previous way of doing this, which I'd originally learned in 1989. The subtle, yet significant changes that I've been taught recently are having a marked effect on the internal aspect of my form practice. There is much more practice needed of course and I hope to have the opportunity for personal training once there is a relaxation in the Covid-19 restrictions.

[@zorko6938]

Do you my have leraning video for form 7 and 8?