Tai Chi: The "secret" of the Open Gwa

The Gwa is basically the inguinal crease.

Although there is much talk about the Gwa in Taijiquan (the commandment to "open the Gwa"), I never really appreciated it until recently, like a couple of days ago. I have been experimenting with maintaining proper structural alignment and rooting. This is because, so I heard, Taijiquan masters develop powerful rooting, such that they can be struck full on, without being moved... Peter Ralston, for example, once stated that when opponents struck him, THEY felt like they were hitting a solid wall... And I've actually heard of some Taijiquan schools where part of the practice involves opponents hitting students harder and harder in the face/chest/wherever to train them to "disperse" force into the ground.

It's not enough to be "soft;" it's a matter of maintaining proper structural alignment. For a while I couldn't figure out what was wrong with MY alignment. I was, to all appearances, structurally sound, and relaxed in my frame. But whenever I had someone push on my arm in Ward off position, it wouldn't take long for me to buckle (usually my upper back would fall back). There were ways I could "cheat" to maintain position, like tensing my abdomen, but this went against the spirit of what I was trying to accomplish: RELAXED dispersal of incoming force into the ground.

My weak link, it turns out, was at my pelvis. The incoming force could not travel from my spine into the pelvis, because I was not maintaining proper "connection" between the spine and the pelvis. The secret to "connecting" the upper and lower parts of my body, it turns out, was to "open the gwa."

"Opening the gwa" is not a "positional" thing. That is, you can't just adopt a wide stance (as in, for example, Chen style Taijiquan) with your inguinal area wide open. This will "positionally" (sorry, not the best word) "open the gwa," but you will not involve the internal musculature, which is KEY. No matter what your stance may be, whether it is large frame or small frame, what you must do is "internally" open the gwa, i.e. subtly "twist" the thighs and knees and feet outwards via the core muscles (I believe the adductors on the thighs, for example). Again, this is a subtle internal thing, not a gross movement that actually changes the outward "positioning" of the limbs.

If you do this right, then it will feel as though 1) your feet are "screwing into" the ground; 2) your legs become a solid archway; 3) your abdomen sinks "into" the top of this archway, thus uniting the upper and lower parts of the body.

I experimented with this briefly, by having Lynn push against my arm in "wardoff" position. Although it was necessary for me to concentrate on "opening the gwa", I was surprised in that I was able to maintain my posture with relative ease. I didn't have to "fight" or "tense up" to keep standing upright. And Lynn couldn't push my arm against my body!

I will have to practice this, perfect it, so that it is effortless. But I'm excited that I seem to have acquired some key insight!

NOTE: This is my working hypothesis. It's by no means a description of proper orthodox Taijiquan. Follow this idea at your own risk!!!