There is a move right at the opening of the Wu style tai chi. Both hands push downwards in the front of your body and the legs straighten slightly. The entire action is one of pushing energy downwards with your hands and pushing your body up with your legs. For a martial art I always thought this move was pointless, I even quizzed my teacher on it. Pushing both your hands simultaneously down while pushing your body up cancels itself out. What could be the point? My teacher replied that the benefits of Tai Chi were not all about its martial application. Ok so that is the answer. I have continued to practice the form on a daily basis.. I'm not so sure about this internal energy stuff - but I suspend my disbelief as I enjoy doing Tai Chi and I can't rule out the possibility it might be true.
Yesterday I could have been killed. I was walking down a road on the pavement heading towards a junction. It was 9.30 at night and dark. I stepped on to the road and must have taken a few steps, when a car appeared at high speed from around the corner. I can only recall one realisation - I AM going to be hit. That split second though was the only mental activity I can recall. Apart from that my mind was absolutely silent "I Am going to be hit" I can't remember feeling scared - I had no time to think, the whole thing probably only took two seconds at the most. But I knew the car was going to hit me and it was clearly travelling fast.
From that point on I became a passive observer of what my body did - completely on its own. I took no active part in it I could only watch, but in that one split second as the car plowed in to me this is what I saw. Both my hands simultaneously slapped downwards with tremendous speed and force on to the top of the bonnet - I clearly saw them do it. Bang! both hands at once - full power. At that precise moment my body launched itself straight upwards - up and over the bonnet. My trajectory was diagonal and head first, the top of the bonnet barely touched me - I flew completely over it. My diagonal trajectory took me past the passengers side of the windscreen and as I cleared the car I landed with a jarring thud on my right side on the pavement. The car continued for a yard or two before it came to a halt. My whole right side took the impact of the fall, but no serous injury was sustained. I immediately got up and approach the almost hysterical woman in the car. I was moving my right arm to see if anything was broken - but all I could see in my mind was the vision of both my hands slapping down on the bonnet. My right palm was throbbing a bit, I was trying to make sense of what had just happened.
"I'm so sorry I'm so sorry are you ok?" said the clearly distraught driver.
My hands slapping down on the bonnet is all I could think of, pushing me up... both my hands perfect timing - on their own. Perfect - like a stuntman.
"Did I just jump over your bonnet?" That was all I could think of to say to her.
She just looked at me "You are incredible" was her reply I don't quite know what she meant by that. I was not injured, bruised, yes, a skinned elbow yes, serious injury - no. So I let her go and went on my way. "Take it easy" was the last rather incongruous thing I said to her
In bed that night I felt very grateful to my body for what it did for me. If I had taken the full impact of that car, if I had just stood there and not moved, I shiver to think what could have happened. I suspect broken legs and a skull injury would have been on the cards, or my death. I am 60 years old, and I just found myself wondering today about how my body automatically reacted to save me. I was wondering - if I had not spent 7 or more years practicing Tai Chi. More specifically that move right near the beginning of the form, where you push both your hand dow in unison and push you body up with your legs. If I had never in my life done that move, if I had never don Tai Chi, would my reaction have been one of slapping down both hands and launching myself upwards over the bonnet? Or would I have just frozen in the headlights rooted the spot, and consequently taken the full horrible impact.
It's quite possible my reaction may not have been completely natural, its possible my body may have used one of tools it had learned to get out of the way of an unstoppable force. I really don't know, but that rather pointless looking move in Tai Ch were you push both your hands down and push your body up - might have just saved my life. My teacher was right - the benefits of Tai Chi are not all about its martial application
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33 minutes ago by wat-tiler (25)
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