Stance of the week: kailìbù (parallel stance)

This week's stance is kailìbù, or parallel stance. As the name implies, you stand with feet parallel, toes pointing forward. Your weight is centered, as for feet-together stance. Legs are straight (but not locked). Kailìbù appears near the beginning of all the standard hand forms at the beginning of Qǐshì (Start the Form), before you bend your knees. It also appears in cross hands at the end of all the standard hand forms.

Stance of the week: bìngbù (feet-together stance)

With the next tai chi course at Lowton High School, I will be including a bit more theory as homework. To help with this I will be posting a stance of the week here. When I say stance, I am talking about the position of the lower body, the legs and feet. There are a number of standard tai chi stances which appear in different postures when combined with different hand positions.

This week's stance is bìngbù or feet together stance. This can be with either straight legs or bent legs. The feet together stance with straight legs is used in Yùbèishì, the ready position we stand in at the beginning and end of every form. In this stance, the feet should be together, both pointing forwards.Your weight should be centred, on both feet equally. It should also be centred between front and back so it is balanced equally between the heel and the ball of the foot. In the straight-leg version of the stance as used in the ready position, the legs should (obviously) be straight. They should, however, be relaxed and comfortable with the knees soft, not locked.

An example of  bìngbù with legs bent is in Dragonfly Skims over the Water in the 32-step sword form, but unfortunately I don't have a picture of this that I can use. If you have Li Deyin's "Tàijíquán" book, it is on page 344.