Chi Gung: Bend the Bow: Introduction to Bend the Bow and Shoot the Arrow February 25-26 [Winter Session]

with Visiting Senior Instructor Robert Tangora

Saturday and Sunday, February 25 and 26
10:30-1:00pm and 3:00-5:00pm each day
$210 ($180 for members)

Pre-requisite: Bend the Bow requires precise alignment and the ability to control openings and closings in your body. Experience with the Marriage of Heaven and Earth Chi Gung or Level 3 Short Form material at BTC or equivalent is strongly recommended.

In Tai Chi, Bend the Bow and Shoot the Arrow is a metaphor for how the spine, legs and arms gather and project power and energy. The process is also referred to as the “five bows.”

When done properly, Bend the Bow and Shoot the Arrow will help you:

• balance and lengthen the tissue around your spine.
• release pressure on your disks.
• smoothly pulse your cerebral spinal fluid.

Bend the Bow also leads to separating yin and yang chi inside your spine, by removing constrictions in the fluid which impedes the nerve function in your spine.

In this workshop, Robert will introduce the basic timing of bending the bow and shooting the arrow. You will learn to coordinate the bending of your lower spine from the ming men down and forward with the bending of your upper spine from ming men up to the occiput. To Shoot the Arrow, you will learn how to simultaneously pull upward from your bai hui and downwards from the tip of your coccyx, so that the entire spine returns to straight at the same time.

Practicing this as a standalone exercise will prepare for the more advanced work of putting this technique into Tai Chi, where you have to coordinate the movement of the spine with the arms and legs.

In martial arts, this technique allows you to fully absorb and discharge your opponent's power, but Bend the Bow is also used to heal spinal injuries, increase energetic circulation and balance deeper flows within the body. Robert will be teaching the healing applications of Bend the Bow in Santa Fe, New Mexico in a weekend workshop over Memorial Day weekend, 2012.

Click here to download a video clip of Robert demonstrating and explaining how Bend the Bow is integrated into Tai Chi.