Ward-Off

Cheng Man-Ching's Yang (pronounced Yeung or Young, never with a short a) Style Tai Chi is famous for its relaxation and softness. Unfortunately this often borders on weakness, indicating a misunderstanding of these two basic qualities. A weak form is usually expressed in a lack of sinking and an absence of ward-off. The idea in Tai Chi is that relaxed sinking beckons the energy of the ground up into your ward-off which swells into a contained roundness, chest hollowing and shoulders rounding and sinking into the arms which apply an outward isotropic pressure.

billow & extend - homothetically

The advice in the Tai Chi Classics is that ward-off should be round but should want to straighten. This indicates a dynamic equilibrium between containment and expansion (explosion). Ward-off is physically contained but should feel expansive. As you do your Form you should feel as though your energy is getting to all corners of the room - energetically, at least, you should bristle and crackle as your Form takes you through its motions, each new posture expanding into a ward-off which embraces and contains more and more of the world around you. Ward-off doesn't just contain you, it contains everything you are connected to, especially the imaginary (in the Form) or real (in Pushing-hands) opponent. The large generous quality of your ward-off should be a reflection of your large heart, not an indication of an imagined invulnerability. The better your ward-off and Tai Chi become the more vulnerable you become because you are more open and more connected. What enables you to flourish in this state of vulnerability is your faith in your own natural energy and your growing connexion with what my teacher calls the Natural Process. As this connexion develops, so much of your energy is ahead of you, preparing the ground, that you really are a master of your own destiny, and your actions, and the things that happen to you (is there a difference?), take on real power.

In pushing hands this expansive embracing quality is practised as you round into ward-off after your push. Imagine the elbow swelling around or over your partner to contain them before you turn to yield. This means turning a little more to the left (if yielding with the right arm) before you turn to the right to give way. Remember that the important parts in pushing hands are the two junctures between yield and attack. These are the two points where spirit floods in - as you change the direction of your turning. The change from attack to yield should start with a burst of entering (attack) and the change from yield to attack should start with a sudden give-way (yield - almost to the point of becoming unstuck). When put to martial use the yields and attacks in Tai Chi are very short so that the yield-attack and attack-yield junctures become more frequent and prominent. In fact, so much so that your whole being vibrates with them and with the spirit they accompany.