Sep 27 The Alignment of the Head in Tai Chi

“According to research, every inch the head moves forward of the shoulders, weight is amplified by 10 pounds.” Erik Dalton Ph.D.

This is a quote that I throw around regularly but it wasn’t until a recent seminar with Steve I understood the implications those extra 10 pounds of weight has on the body.

Steve was teaching at my kwoon and was talking us through some standing nei gong postures explaining the importance of having the head aligned properly on top of the torso. He used the above quote and then looked over at my medicine balls on the shelves and said, “This medicine ball weighs 10 pounds meaning that every inch your head is out of alignment you’re adding another medicine ball!” and then passed the medicine ball around the group. It was the first time I’d really considered how much 10 pounds of extra strain actually weighed and it was shocking.

In this article the great bodywork teacher Erik Dalton explains how just 3 inches of movement in the head off of its central axis creates the equivalent of an extra 42lbs of strain on the body. That’s like carrying 4 medicine balls!

Although we have an intellectual awareness of these numbers we still don’t really understand the implications this has on posture, dynamic movement and power generation (the cornerstones of a martial artists skill). To most of us although these figures are interesting they are still meaningless and even when I mentioned it to my kickboxing class they all gave the same sense of “Wow, that’s interesting… can we train now!” The reason for this response and what makes us fail to appreciate the amount of dysfunction this causes is because the head doesn’t feel like 42 pounds to us. We understand weight of a medicine ball because we’re not used to carrying it around all the time, but we are very accustomed to the weight of our own head. So we build up a sort of ignorance towards it.

To really hammer home to my students how serious this problem is I made them practice footwork and kicking drills whilst holding a medicine ball. Just adding one 10-pound medicine ball made their footwork sluggish and completely messed up their balance during kicking. I then asked them to imagine how bad things would be if they were carrying a medicine ball that weighed four times as much. It was a very practical realization of the point.

It’s interesting when you watch someone who has balance issues trying to resolve them by flailing the arms as a counter balance. Once you understand the implications of the 42lb head condition you will immediately begin to address your balance issues by looking at the alignment of the head.

I really recommend trying to a move around whilst carrying a medicine ball or something similar. It’s illuminating to see the amount of strain dragging that extra weight around has on our muscles and joints. Many of the issues martial artists suffer from could be eliminated through correct head alignment – bad backs, screwed up necks, worn out knees and even poor technique!

Gavin King

Gavin King is a Shiatsu practitioner, writer and Martial Arts instructor from Essex in the United Kingdom. He runs a full time Martial Arts centre in Hockley, Essex teaching Tai Chi and Kung Fu. You can contact him via Facebook or Twitter!

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