There is a move right at the opening of the Wu style tai chi form. Both hands push downwards in the front of your body and the legs straighten slightly. The entire action is one of pushing energy downwards with your hands and pushing your body up with your legs. For a martial art I always thought this move was pointless, I even quizzed my teacher on it. Pushing both your hands simultaneously down while pushing your body up cancels itself out. What could be the point? My teacher replied that the benefits of Tai Chi were not all about its martial application. Ok so that is the answer. I have continued to practice the form on a more or less daily basis. I'm not so sure about this internal energy stuff - but I suspend my disbelief as I enjoy doing it and I can't completely rule out the possibility it might be true.
Yesterday I could have been killed. I was walking down a road on the pavement heading towards a junction. It was 9.30 at night and dark. I stepped on to the road and must have taken a few steps, when a car appeared at high speed from around the corner. I can only recall one realisation - I AM going to be hit. That split second though was the only mental activity I can recall. Apart from that my mind was absolutely silent "I Am going to be hit" the whole thing probably only took two seconds at the most. But I knew the car was going to hit me. From that point on I became a passive observer of what my body did - completely on its own. I took no active part in it I could only watch, but in that one split second as the car plowed in to me this is what I saw. Both my hands simultaneously slapped downwards with tremendous speed and force on to the top of the bonnet - I clearly saw them do it. Bang! both hands at once - full power. At that precise moment my body launched itself straight upwards - up and over the bonnet. My trajectory was diagonal and head first, the top of the bonnet barely touched me - I flew completely over it. My trajectory took me past the passengers side of the windscreen. I cleared the car and landed with a jarring thud on my right side on the pavement. The car continued for a yard or two before it came to a halt. My whole right side took the impact of the fall, but no serous injury was sustained. The car itself had barely touched me. I immediately got up and approached the almost hysterical woman in the car. I was moving my right arm to see if anything was broken - but all I could see in my mind was the vision of both my hands slapping down on the bonnet like a film. My right palm was throbbing a bit, I was trying to make sense of what had just happened.
"I'm so sorry I'm so sorry are you ok?" said the distraught driver. My hands slapping down on the bonnet is all I could think about, pushing me up... both my hands perfect timing - on their own.
"Did I just jump over your bonnet?" That was all I could think of to say to her.
She just looked at me "You are incredible" was her reply. I don't quite know what she meant by that - I wish I had asked her. I was not injured, bruised, yes, a skinned elbow yes, serious injury - no. So I let her apologise a bit more and said everything was ok. "Take it easy" was the last rather incongruous thing I said to her
In bed last night I felt very grateful to my body for what it had done for me. If I had taken the full impact of that car, if I had just stood there and not moved, I suspect broken legs would have been on the cards, or hips or I might have been killed. I was wondering today about how my 60 year old body automatically reacted to save me. If I had not spent 7 or more years practicing that move right near the beginning of the form, where you push both your hand down in unison and push you body up with your legs. If I had never in my life done that move, if I had never don Tai Chi, would my reaction have been one of slapping down both hands and launching myself upwards over the bonnet? Or would I have just frozen in the headlights rooted the spot, and consequently taken the full horrible impact.
It's quite possible my reaction may not have been completely natural, my body may have used one of the tools it had learned over the years to get out of the way of an unstoppable force. I really don't know, but that rather pointless looking move in Tai Ch were you push both your hands down and push your body up - might have just saved my life. So my teacher was right - the benefits of Tai Chi are not all about its martial application