(3) Step by Step for Beginners: Movement 2 | Yang Tai Chi 10 Form

This is Andrew Plitt with andrewplitt.com. In this video, I'm going to be teaching you move number two of the Tai Chi 10 form. I'm going to show it to you from several different angles, and I'm going to talk to you about some pitfalls to watch out for as you're practicing at home. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below. Let's go and get started. In this lesson, we are working on the second movement of this form, and this movement is called Repulse the Monkey. Typically in Yang style forms, you see this movement as Step Back and Repulse the Monkey, and as you have this forward pushing motion that we're going to be doing, you're also stepping back and shifting back. In this form, however, your feet stay stationary and we do a push with one hand, followed by a push with the other hand. I'm going to demonstrate as if I had started the form facing you, and I just finished the previous movement that we learned in the last lesson. From our last movement, we were here. Weight even between the legs, knees bent, structural alignment in place, and palms toward the floor, pressing down. We just sunk down from the first movement of the form. From here, you're going to let the left hand extend forward. So from down here, we're just going to focus on the left hand for a minute. It's going to come forward and turn palm up. So that's pretty straightforward. Left hand just turns palm up and extends forward in front of you. So it's extending to the south. What the right hand does is it also turns palm up and it's going to lift up back to the corner over here. So we know this is the west since we started facing south. Behind us is the north. So it's going to the northwest corner. So we have the left hand coming forward in front of us, turning palm up. We have the right hand going to the northwest corner, also turning palm up. So you want those two things to happen at the same time and you want them to reach shoulder height at about the same time also. And as you do this, you're going to look back toward the right hand. So let's try putting it together. Both hands are down in front. You're going to start to push the left hand forward, pull the right hand back. They're going to start to turn palm up and you're going to turn to look back at the right hand. When you finish, they're about shoulder height. Both hands are palm up. The right hand is to the northwest. The left hand is to the south. So from here, you're going to bend the right arm and bring the hand in toward your head. As you do that, nothing else changes. You're here. You just bend the right arm. Now you're going to turn your attention forward to the south. And as you do that, you're going to start to push forward with the right hand and pull back with the left. So now we're taking the palm of the right hand and we're going to push it forward and we're taking the left hand and we're going to draw it back next to the left hip. So let's get up to that point again from our last movement. The left hand goes forward, the right hand goes back. Hands turn palm up and stop at shoulder height. Bend the right arm. Start to drop the elbow of the right arm. And pull the left hand back. Turn to face forward or to the south. You're going to push with the right hand to the south. And you're going to draw the left hand back next to the left hip. And that's the first half of this movement. And we're going to repeat the same thing on the other side. But before we go to that, let's repeat that part one more time. For movement one, pull the right hand back, extend the left hand forward. So the left hand's to the south. The right hand's going to the northwest. Both hands come up to shoulder height, palm up. Bend the right arm. Drop the elbow of the right arm. Push forward or to the south with the right hand. Pull back next to the left hip with the left hand. One thing you want to be careful of is when you're doing this push, don't leave the elbow out here. So the elbow doesn't want to stay up at shoulder height. It was about shoulder height here. You're going to bend the arm and then drop the elbow down. And that allows you to push forward here without leaving the elbow wide. And that's important for having a good, powerful push as you move the hand forward. So we just finished the first half of the second movement. Let's go to the second half. What's going to happen here is your right hand's already up in front. So all it needs to do is turn palm up. Left hand's by the hip, so it needs to go back. Now it's going to the northeast corner. It's going to come up to shoulder height and also turn palm up. So from here, bring the left hand back, turning palm up here. So now it's to the northeast corner. The right hand is to the south. Both are palm up. We're going to go through the same thing. Bend the left arm. Turn to face south. Drop that elbow. Push forward with the left hand. Pull the right hand back next to the hip. So when you finish this part of the form, the left hand's extended forward, pushing to the south. The right hand is palm up next to the right hip. When you push out with this, you can either push with the palm forward. You can turn the palm in slightly and push more with the edge of the hand. And when you push with the edge of the hand, you're not pushing with the exact edge. You're pushing with the inside edge, so the palm edge of the hand here. Or you can lead with the fingertips and settle the wrist at the end. Those are all options for pushing forward for right now. Before we focus too much on how we're pushing with the hand, though, let's get the overall movement down. Let's go through it again and try to connect the first and second part of the second movement. So at the end of movement one, turn to the right. Left hand goes to the south. Right hand goes to the northwest. Bend the right arm. Drop the elbow. Pull the left hand back as you push to the south with the right hand. Continue with the left hand going back to the northeast. Both hands finish palm up. Bend the left arm. Drop the elbow. Pull the right hand back as you push forward with the left hand. And when you finish, the left hand is extended to the south. The right hand is palm up next to the right hip. Let's go through all of that again together, and then I'll show it to you from another angle. From movement one, turn to the right. Bring the arms up to shoulder height, palm up. Bend the right arm. Drop the elbow. Turn to face south. Push forward with the right hand, pulling back with the left. Turn to the left. Both hands turn palm up, shoulder height. Bend the left arm. Drop the elbow. Push forward with the left hand, pulling back with the right. Finishing with the left hand extended to the south and the right hand palm up next to the hip. Now I'm going to demonstrate as if I'd started the form facing this way. So this is south, directly toward you would be west, and away from you is east. We just finished the first movement of the form. We're going to turn to the right. Turn toward the west. Bring the hands up. The right hand goes back. The left hand goes to the south, palms up, shoulder height. Bend the right arm. Drop the elbow. And notice as I'm pushing forward with the right hand, I'm pulling back with the left hand. The left hand comes back next to the hip. The right hand extends to the south. Hands continue with the left hand going back. Both stopping at shoulder height. Bend the left arm. Drop the elbow. Push forward with the left hand, pulling back with the right hand. And finishing with the left hand extended to the south. The right hand palm up next to the hip. One more time from the first movement. Turn to the right. Hands turn palm up. And come up to shoulder height. Bend the right arm. Drop the elbow. Pull back with the left as you push forward with the right. Continue. Hands turn palm up again. Left hand comes up to shoulder height. Bend the left arm. Drop the elbow. Pulling back with the right hand. Pushing out with the left. Now I'm going to demonstrate as if I had started the form facing away from me. So this is now south. That's east. That's west. From the first movement of the form, we're going to turn toward the west. Bringing the right hand up back behind to the northwest. The left hand up to the south and front. Both hands palm up. Bend the right arm. Drop the elbow. Push forward. Pulling back with the left hand. Continue turning the hands up. To the northeast this time. Bend the left arm. Drop the elbow. And push forward with the left hand. Pulling back with the right hand. When you finish here, your weight is still even between the legs. The right hand is palm up next to the right hip. And the left hand is pushing forward to the south. Again from the first movement, turn to the right. Bringing the hands up to shoulder height. Palm up. Bend the right arm. Drop the elbow. Push forward. Pulling back with the left hand. Continue to the left side. Reaching back with the left hand. Palms up to shoulder height. Bend the left arm. Drop the elbow. Pull back with the right. And push with the left. Now I'm going to demonstrate as if I had started the form facing this way. So this is now south. Toward you is east and away from you is west. From the first movement of the form, we're going to turn to the west. Turn to the right. Hands are going to turn palm up. And come up to shoulder height. Bend the right arm. Drop the elbow of the right arm. And as you pull back with the left hand, push forward with the right hand. Continue to the left. Allow the left hand to come up to shoulder height. Back behind to the northeast. Palm up. Right hand turns palm up also. Bend the left arm. Drop the elbow. Pull back with the right as you push forward. With the left. And finish with the right hand palm up next to the hip. And the left hand extended to the south. Weight is still even between the legs. Once again, from our first movement of the form. Turn to the right. Or to the west. Bringing the arms up to shoulder height. Bend the right arm. Drop the elbow. Turn back to the south. Pushing out with the right hand. Pulling back with the left. Turn to the left or to the east. Bringing the left hand up. Bend the left arm. Drop the elbow. Pull back with the right hand. Push forward with the left. And finish with the left hand extended to the south. And the right hand palm up next to the right hip. That's the end of the second movement of this form. Repulse the monkey. Pushing with the right hand. Then pushing with the left hand. So it's a very straightforward movement. You don't have to worry about the feet going anywhere or doing anything special. You just maintain that stance with the weight even between the legs. Turn and push. There are some things to be careful of as you're doing this movement. And the first one is, when you're turning to the side, you don't want to twist through the legs. So you don't want any twisting happening at the knees. You want to turn the waist to face to one side. And then turn the waist to face to the other side. So don't twist too much. So that your knees and your feet and everything gets kind of wonky and out of alignment. Maintain your alignment and your structure down through your legs. And if you shift a little, that's not a terrible thing, but try to keep your weight even between the legs and just turn from the waist back to one side. Push, turn from the waist back to the other side. And push. And the hips can move a little bit, but you don't want it to be a huge movement one way and a huge movement the other way. The other thing to look out for, as I mentioned before, is when you bring the arm in for your push, don't leave the elbow out to the side. Drop the elbow down so that it slides close to the body as you extend the arm out. Lastly, I'm going to talk a little bit about what the hands are doing as you're pushing. So I gave you three options earlier. The first is pushing forward with the palm. And so this is more of a flat forward palm motion as you're going forward. There's no twist in the wrist this way. It's just forward and you're extending that way, pushing with the flat of the palm. The next way of doing it is to turn the hand just a little bit. So what I want to do is just change the profile of the hand a little. And what I'm doing is leading with this kind of inside edge. So it's not the exact edge along the outside of the hand. It's if I was to go on that edge and then come a little bit to the inside, it's in here. Kind of if you followed down the pinky on the palm side, right there, that's where you're focusing with this other option. So your hand turns in a little bit as you push and you're leading with that part of the hand. And then the next option is to lead with the fingertips. So it's as if the fingertips are coming out, you hit a wall, they stop, and then the palm settles and sinks and you push forward with the palm at that point. So what that would look like as you push forward is here you would have the fingertips forward, drop the elbow, keep the fingertips forward, come out, and then toward the end the fingertips are going to stop leading. They're going to stop and you're going to settle the wrist and it's going to push forward. So it's this motion at the end rather than just pushing out with the wrist already extended. Thank you for taking the time to learn move number 2 of the Tai Chi 10 form with me today. If you got something out of this video, please like the video, subscribe to my channel, and also consider becoming a supporting member of my channel. That will help ensure that videos like this will continue to be made available in the future. There's a link down in the video description for you to become a supporting member. I also want to say a really big thank you to everyone who's already become supporting members of this channel. I'm really grateful for you and for your support, so thank you. Stay safe and healthy out there everyone, and as always, thank you for watching.