Brush Knee Twist Step
Taken from 'Illustration of five tai chi movements. (A) Brush Knee and Twist Steps…' in Effects of tai chi program on neuromuscular function for patients with knee osteoarthritis: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial - Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Illustration-of-five-tai-chi-movements-A-Brush-Knee-and-Twist-Steps-B-Playing-the_fig2_258334971 [accessed 30 Aug 2024]. Image Creative Commons.
In our school we call this one ‘brush knee push’.
I stumbled across Master Gu’s video below after falling down my usual YouTube rabbit hole.
We also tend to drill this regularly, but I can’t say I am anywhere up to a 1000 times a day!
Key points
His bow stance is long and low
The rear stepping foot does come into the front foot, but not in an overly pronounced way
He makes a point of coordinating the hand, eye and body - particularly in the latter part - where you can see him looking at, and watching his rear hand as it moves forward
There is a distinctive turn of the body - left, centre, right etc. - it’s not just the arms and hands moving
He does not make a big deal of ‘holding a ball’
Inhale to prepare, exhale when stepping
—
Footnotes
Master Gu is a ‘Wudang’ Tai Chi practioner. Wudang refers to the mountain range in China where many traditional Chinese martial arts are practised. From a philosophical perspective he uses the term ‘Taoist’ Tai Chi. He describes his Tai Chi as being physically closer to Yang style than Chen. See this video for more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPc6p1xS5KY
When I started researching for this article, I immediately found Graham Barlow’s 2019 post, and want to credit it here as I know he is experiencing a lot of plagiarism and wholesale theft of content from his site - https://thetaichinotebook.com/2019/03/25/brush-knee-twist-step-tai-chi-application-and-style-comparison/
I guess there is nothing ‘new’ to write about in Tai Chi? 😄
