If you're reading this blog at all you probably have some kind of Tai Chi practice. In my long-form video The Hot Zone, I've taught a way to merge the two common modes of Tai Chi practice seamlessly and with maximum impact. The two common modes are:
- Flowing river mode, never stop
- Pine tree, mountain mode, standing post or whatever you want to call it (Ben Lo mode)
Both have benefits, but the standing mode is physical harder, takes more time, and people have trouble integrating it with flow mode which after all is our preconception of what Tai Chi should be. Anyway in my Hot Zone film I show how you can get the best of both, without needing any external timing device or a taskmaster teacher egging you on.
But that's just the background. Here today I want to focus on a particular part of the Hot Zone mode, one of the SLO practices in that style. SLO means 'Single Leg Operation' it's a hard road to walk physically sometimes, but it's a laser focus that really ups your charge and amps you to the max over time. Now to zero in even more, the belly of the SLO beast mode is definitely the Heel Kick of ZMQ37 Tai Chi. Ben loved this in his hardest-core period. Most people find it challenging to maintain this kick for more than a few seconds (there are exceptional beasts out there who have a native flair for it of course, but I'm speaking in general).
In various films on YouTube I've shown holding this for 30 seconds or a full minute, and I can actually hold it much longer. But length of hold is only one dimension. You can work on that over time. Equally important is shape of hold.
Prime Directive: Keep your kicking leg as straight as humanly possible, do your best, throughout your hold time.
Although yes, this is Tai Chi which in general is kinda floppy and yes, pics of the Prof doing this move show his leg somewhat bent, and yes, even my own leg isn't always 100% straight (see above), still this is the goal. The reason is simple: doing it this way, as best you can at least, totally massively amps your internal power gain from the move. Plain and simple. Sorry if that's not philosophical enough, but that's the fact.
It comes down to: you won't be able to actually 'lock' your knee straight for the most part, however you should have in your mind, as your goal, that yes you are "trying" to lock your knee straight. Don't worry if that's philosphically incorrect since you won't really be able to do it anyway, or at least not for long. But keeping that leg as straight as possible, always 'seeking straightness' with it, will hugely amp your gains from this.
The modality, the emphasis and attention affects the energy not only of your kicking leg itself, it also hugely mobilizes the power generation of your entire lower body. So TLDR, "try" to keep your leg even straighter than I show above, "try" to keep your leg even straighter than the Prof shows in his photos of this move.