Graham, if i take a shot at you....will you automatically think im just screwing with you even though i make sense?
The whole thing on "top and bottom moving together"....instead of everything starting and stopping together....couldnt it be a reference on how the external harmonies (feet/hands, knees/elbows, hip/shoulders) should always be coordinated (you have high parts of the body coordinating at the same time with lower parts), and that when talking about force generation, what you said about taichi "starts from the feet, up the legs, thru the waist....shoots out the fingers" is perfectly adaptable to Xingyiquan?
This makes sense to me. Does it make sense to anybody else?