The Hip Joint

Lau Chee Chiong

Kuching, Sarawak

One of the basic and important and difficult step in Taichi is the adjustment of the Hip Joint.

To understand and visualize the movement of the Hip Joint, we need to look at it from the inside, that is the anatomy of the Pelvis and Hip Joint. One can get it from anatomy textbooks. It is a Bolt & Socket joint which is quite common in mechanical parts. It is easy to understand the Screw & Nut. One can fix either one and let the other lock in, but in the Bolt & Socket Hip Joint both are MOVING simultaneously. When we are translating from one leg to the other, so do we need an opposing force from the other direction to lock the Hip Joint. This is one obstacle in Taichi. The hip usually goes out of line on the substantial leg.

To illustrate when moving to the left we need a right force to balance it beside the force from the Back and Front. So it is a balancing skill to get the Hip Joint lock in before we can relax all the muscle.

All the above is the same as taught in regular Taichi like translating---one Hip Joint GIVES and the other RECEIVED except a different way of reasoning.

I hope it will give a different view which might help.