4 ways to build the Beak Hand ( 钩手 Gōu Shǒu)
I assume you know the Taijiquan position “Single Whip”. And you are be familiar with that strange position your back hand gets into: the Beak Hand or Hook Hand. In Chinese, it is called Gōu Shǒu (钩手).
The meaning of Grasp the Bird’s Tail (揽雀尾 Lǎn Qùe Wěi)
One of the most important movements in Taijiquan is to Grasp the Bird’s Tail. Actually it is a series of very basic moves: Peng, Lü, Ji and An.
White Crane Spreads its Wings: how does a crane fight?
As far as I know, the move “White Crane Spreads its Wings” is part of many different Taijiquan forms, e.g. Yang style long form (108). And it truly is a nice movement. I like the openness of it:
The significance of 108 – a magical number
Do you have a favorite number? Mine has been 13 for a long time and recently I added 108. As you may know, the long Yang form is also called 108 form as it is supposed to have 108 movements. So I had a closer look at the significance of 108.
What is a Pipa?
You probably know the movement “play the pipa”. Some call it “strum the lute” or “play guitar”. And I asked myself, what does this music instrument actually look like? What is a pipa? Well, here it is (you could actually buy a Pipa on Amazon*):