End of April 1980

The expansion of horse mane is a good stretch for the chest and stomach muscles. It is a very good cure for indigestion repeated, say, ten times, and allows the qi to sink down to the belly.

I am beginning to have a sense of kai-he as a forward closing versus back-to-normal of the shoulders: not a closing and opening of the arm-pit, but a forward and backward alternation of the shoulders in relation to the chest. For example in seven stars, in which I have not been closing my elbows and shoulders enough.

Always remember the four directions:
pushing up
down
neutralising (pulling back) or sideways
forward.
These are often very obviously part of a movement, as in pushing the large ball forward, or pulling on a rope but, even when they are not explicitly part of a movement, there always has to be a sense of power going in one of those four directions. Miss Li stressed the need for this also in low fist, going down but pushing the first actively forward rather than just passively downward. Then when being drawn back it is not just coming back up after have been down, but rather coming back up and around after having been down and forward.

Tai Ji is classified as a martial art, so it has to have this martial theme.