This is a quick post to show how to do chi steps for beginners. I was digging through old tai chi videos on Youtube and found a good one of the great Wu style Master Wang Peisheng instructing a traditional outdoor tai chi class. In one part of the video he demonstrates Gong Bu step to his students very clearly.
I’m always trying to improve my tai chi stepping so I cut out that segment of the video and put it on a loop. I thought it might help others who may be working on the simple tai chi form so I uploaded the clip with awesome cgi edits.
Gong Bu – Mountain Climbing Stance
Gong Bu is a basic of tai chi step for beginners
Note that the transfer of weight from the full to empty leg is like the felling of a large tree, hence the style’s slight bowing posture. This is ever so slightly different from the weight transfer in our style. If you’ve ever watched Luo transfer weight in his tai chi it seems a bit complex at first. The Wu method is similar but has less moving parts so it’s a good first step.
The Chen Pan Ling posture is straighter so instead of leaning into the weight transfer you slide onto it more like you have a swing under you bum, on top of this many of the CPL steps also include what Ed calls “pushing up off the side of the pool” at the end. The Wu-ish generation methods were an ingredient in CPL tai chi and it’s public form was made to be accessible so it is a good starting point for many things.
I’m assuming this clip is basically public domain at this point.
Full video here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOCiaDfXsCk
