xian89 wrote:Bao: What do you mean by "activating the spine"? A variety of interpretations (they can overlap) of activating the spine I have heard people use are:
1) stretching the spine up-down and opening the joints
2) bowing the back
3) expanding the ming-meng area (maybe the same as bowing, maybe not - can be a cue to breathwork also)
4) expanding the backside as a counter pull to expanding forward as a part of creating a spherical body quality referred to as "peng" by some.
5) "sinking the qi"
You can bend the spine, stretch, compress, whatever. Bending the spine stores jin for raising jin. Stretching stores jin for compressing and sinking jin. Kai can be accomplished by stretching/raising. He can be accomplished by compressing. In my Tai Chi form practice I use spine movement all of the time, for raising, sinking, gathering, releasing, open/close, etc.
What do you see (or not see) in Sam? I am very curious (sincerely so) to hear what you see and think about it
I see nothing special except for maybe versatility and good sensitivity. He adapts to and guide movement in a quite basic manner with a quite neutral body method.