The Hips Don’t Lie

Hips and power

During one of the trainings, SiFu emphasized the importance of generating power from the hips.

This is a concept he’d talk about before, as he encouraged us to tuck our hips while doing the first form, Siu Nim Tao, and also as we do the neutral stance and the Yi Ji Kim Yeung Ma (Opening stance).

He’d talk about using the hips do generate power during punches, too.

But this time, it was different. We were all doing the second form, Chum Kiu (Seeking the Bridge) and SiFu asked us to use our hips during the first part of the form.

What struck me was that we can use the left and right hip separately, right after we do the double fook sao to the front, we turn them into tan sao and slap left, right and left (I don’t know the name of that slap yet, I’ll ask SiFu about it).

Anyway, as we slap the left tan sao with our right hand, we tuck just the left hip with it. Then as we change from left to right, we tuck the right hip at the same time. This is something completely new to me and I didn’t even know it was possible.

This hip tuck creates more stance strength and stability that transfers power from the base into the hands more efficiently. Despite doing it wrong, I feel the difference.

So from now on, in my head I have a different version of the famous lyric „the hips don’t lie“ by Shakira. It uses the second meaning of the word „lie“. The hips indeed don’t lie inactive. They contribute.

Lesson of the day: If you’re looking for power, use your hips.