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The Even Distribution of Weight

What are Taijiquan teachers speaking of, when they refer to the, "even distribution of weight," as an error or reflects a fault in one's form? What do they mean when they say that, "double weighting" is fundamentally incorrect?

Contrary to common reasoning, habitually distributing one's weight so it falls evenly on both feet is a failing in Taijiquan training. This can be most clearly seen when one allows oneself to become "double weighted" during push hands drills or while participating in free-style sparring sessions.

Such students, usually beginners, find themselves incapable of making smooth, even transitions between move and counter-move, nor can they maintain their balance under pressure. It's almost as though they are wearing heavy lead boots. Their practice partners or opponents find them easy to push over, or otherwise uproot.

Paradoxically, in their efforts to overcome this deficiency, many practitioners (and even more so with beginners), consciously or unconsciously over-compensate, by shifting 80 to 90% of their weight onto a single leg during practice.

The problem with this "solution" is that, with so much weight on one leg, one would have to shift one's center of gravity to beyond the weight-bearing leg in order stay in balance, when shifting their body weight from one leg to another. When shifting in such an extreme manner, the center of gravity will need to travel a distance of the sum of the width of both feet AND the distance in between the feet in the stance - and traveling that much distance takes too much time when one's opponent is coming into one's space with a push, press or strike. Thus their practice partners or opponents find they are even easier to knock over, because their stance is unstable to begin with, and they cannot possibly compensate fast enough to avoid, much less neutralize the opponent's movement, when he or she attacks.

Let's look at the principle from another perspective. The phrase, "double weightedness," is actually a metaphor. The principle actually refers to the "timeliness" or "unseemliness", of shifting one's weight when one is "double weighted" (where the weight of the body is already evenly divided between the two legs), or when the one's body weight is too far over to one side or the other (where one is incapable of shifting the weight fast enough to compensate in response to a sudden push, press or strike). The solution then, is to divide the weight of one's body unevenly between the two legs at any given time, allowing for shifts of weight, but to do so within certain limits, so the student is able to shift his or her weight across the shortest distance necessary, and in the shortest time possible.

So, how do we do that??

This gives rise to two questions, "how do we do that?" and - what is the optimum distribution of body weight between the two legs at any given time?? One must be able to shift one's weight, and every shift needs to be carried out accurately and squarely.

Draw an imaginary line in-between the man's feet. Divide that line into three portions regardless of the width of the stance. And position (laterally) the center of gravity at approximately the one-third point of the imaginary line towards the side bearing the most weight. For example, when shifting weight from the left to the right, the center of gravity should be moving from the Left One-Third Point to the Right One-Third-Point and vise versa.

This kind of weight distribution, allows one enough space to move, allowing for counter moves, or evade a strike without losing one's balance. Also, when the center of gravity is only traveling one-third of the entire span of the distance between one's feet, one is able to respond in a timely manner to an attack. This is a big improvement when one is in an extreme 90-10% stance rather than the total distance between one foot in an extreme stance, and the true point of balance beyond the other foot.

Shifting between a roughly 60-40% to 70-30% distribution of weight, and moving within the limits of the "one-third rule" described above, and practicing one's forms and qigong postures with those rules in mind, will, over time, eliminate the failing of "double weightedness" or extremes of weight distribution.

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