Swimming Dragon Tai Chi Form

Swimming Dragon is a flowing Tai Chi form designed to open and mobilize the shoulders while awakening greater awareness of the space around your body. Through continuous, circular movements, the practice explores shoulder mobility, coordination, and the relationship between your body and the space it moves through. It is a gentle yet dynamic practice that helps cultivate fluidity, spaciousness, and embodied awareness.

Transcript

Just feel your body land on your feet. Put your awareness on your feet. Starting to feel your weight and starting to soften your knees, Just getting into a Wuji stand. Land your presence here. Feel, Start from the bottom of the feet, Feel the weight, Feel gravity. How does gravity feel? And little shaking, Just arriving, Arriving. Good. Shake open your arms. Emily, You can have even softer knee. That's it. That's it. Yes. Good. That's it. Good. Shake. Yeah, Doesn't have to be too fast just yet, Just arriving. Deep inhale to the belly. UGH! Sigh. Open your throat, I wanna hear it! Ah, Yes! All friends here, Open your throat, Make noise, Inhale. A little louder that means. Inhale. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh last one Oh, Good job, Good job, Forward. Dangle your arms. We're going to work on the arms today. Let your shaking from your lower dantian. And chop your neck Good, And slowly come back. Saroda. A little bigger Uji, Really sinking into your seat a little bit. Yeah, Continue arriving. Good job. Just a round of tapping. Just wake it up. You can be more fluent you've all done this Yeah, Show me what feels right, Right? You are not the first time here. So you can play, Right? Listen to your own body. That's it. Yeah. What's the key point? Hips. Always get the hips. Lower back. Always get lower back, Right? What's the other key point? Armpit. The order doesn't matter. Especially if you just do it for yourself. And maybe you do the ribcage. And you lean away. And then you come in, Right? You just switch sides. Nice. Whatever you like. Right? Explore what does my body feel like today? What does it want? Right, Yeah, Maybe the belly, Huh? Yeah, When I do my belly, I really relax. I stick it out. Relax. Good. Okay, I do the back of the neck. And then if I want to step, I go a little stepping. I start to be slightly more mobile. Starting warming up the top of the head. I'm mapping out the space I wanted to move around today. I'm ready to move. Little bit of a hugging. Yeah, Tap the back. Open up that shoulder. We're going to work on the shoulders today. Brace, Huh! Yeah, And as much as you can. Really hugging, Knock the back of the spine if you can. Good, Good, Good, Good. Play with your shoulders. Swing them around. Yeah, Loosen them up. Huh, Good. Good. Reverse. So yeah, We're swinging them around. Good. Yes, If it feels right to do this, Let's do it. Good job. Nice. Good. Very nice. Okay. So these are the things that Qigong is starting to become Tai Chi. But you've been around so we can get there sooner. So we're going to build it up. So the first thing arms up yeah and you're mirroring me so when I move my right it's your left Okay, I go this direction. That's it. Yes. Yes. Good. You are my mirror. Okay, So You're going to pick up this hand, Whatever left and right you are. You're gonna scoop across the body, Scoop. . . And at the bottom, Open up, Come back. Okay? So I come down like a scoop, And then I open up at the bottom. Yeah. Good. And we keep going. You can put this hand to the back if it's too much. We don't use it just yet. So just do this. Yeah. Wuji stance. Very good. Round, Round. Think round. So my arms are a little bent, Right? Round. Everything round. Bottom. Slow down, Slow down, Slow down. Catch where is not smooth. Chances are is this. Make the bottom switch nice and smooth. Slow down, Slow down, Slow down at the bottom. Yeah, Make that smooth. The bottom hand. So you play with energy. You feel that? You play with energy. You're moving energy in a different pattern. So easy. That's it! Smooth it out. There's a little kink there in the consciousness. Smooth it out. So easy. We'll do the other hand. Open up. Cross body, Coming down, Scooping, And open. It's all right. Take your time. Take your time. Take your time. Slow down. Slow down. Don't rush. Scoop. Scoop even speed, Glide open Good job! Settle down. That's it. That's it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. This speed has a different feeling. You feel that? You're sinking in. Okay, Now we do two hands. Play with me? Okay, So we're just one at a time whoo this side And. . . Good. It's going to be a different direction of the movement after this. Good job. Now, What am I going to do is I'm going to exaggerate the size. So I'm going to do this. I'm going to lean back. I'm going to create this circle bigger. So my scoop, My scoop is changing. I'm not scooping this way. I'm scooping this far. And I come back. Yeah, Voila, Good job. I demonstrate this direction. I scoop as far as I can. And then I lean back this way to create this circle. And the center opens. Voila! Okay, So I make it dynamic by shifting this direction. Yeah, Sinking down. Beautiful. Okay. Good job. Good job. The center- show me one more time, Something that's funny. OK, It's not bad. So you're almost a little too much. So you wanted to find a little bit of straightness in this. Does it make sense? Okay, Good job. Now we're going to transition these two directions in a different way. Okay, So I start with here. I scoop, I come out. And then this hand, The opposite hand, I switch my attention to this hand, The opposite hand, My right, Your left. And then I use my right, I take my left, My attention shifts And this hand. . . I do this direction. Make sense? Now my left comes to take my right. So your right comes to take your left. Take it to the halfway and the dominant hand my attention hand is going up Good job! I'm going to be facing away. So you can sync up with me from behind. We start from the top. Would you scoop? Open. Open. It was too high. More like here, Scoop. Open. Scoop. Open. Good. And then I go a little higher. I scoop into my body and I open up. I scoop into my body and I open up from the center. I scoop. And I lean my spine to exaggerate. The side roundness. The next level I scoop, I come here. The opposite hand comes to pick this hand up. Continue, Continue, Continue, Continue. This can continue moving. And open up. And the opposite hand The right hand pick up the left. But the right hand is the expression hand and my left hand comes to get ready and then I continue. It's like telling a story. At one point. . . Continue. At one point, So when I'm doing this, My attention is in my right. I am expressing through this arm. By this arm, You get it done. Your attention moves to your left arm. Your left becomes the main show. And you're right. Is helping it to get it done. But your focus is in the left. Understand? It's telling a story. That's the best way to get it done. Otherwise, At one point, You get really confused. Good. Let's take a break. We do it again. We're gonna top it out the shoulder just get a workout CHOP IT UP! So we go over the. . . The body, But this time with a hammer. And you want to feel what does it do that is different than a hand. It's a little harder. See if you can tap your bones. Just go towards the bones a little bit and stay soft as you go over the body. Left and right. And also this is longer. So you can do your sacrum, Which your arms probably cannot do. The back, Right? Sigh Again, This is not your first time in this class. So you can free-form it. There's really no routine. Follow. So just listen to your body. What feels right? Especially if you do this in between movements, You really wanted to listen to your body. Where did you just put a lot of work? That needs some extra actual love. Pay attention to it, Yeah. Yeah, Take your time. Good. All right. So we're going to do that movement again. It's one of the dragon moves. Movement that is associated with different animals. There's many dragon forms. This one is dragon swimming. But even with the same name, Sometimes the form is different in variation, But this is one of them. So it works with the spine and in space differently, And also associated with your body and your arms in a slightly different way. So you're almost working on different level of your body. You're not just physically working. You also have to adjust something, Balance something in your nervous system and in your sense of the space to get it done. So let's start one more time. From the top. Bujji style, Land here, Good. Good, Very good. Okay, So we start very easy. We're just going to pick. . . You you're Left hand, Sorry, My right, Your left. You're just going to scoop across the body and open to the side. And you want it to slow down even speed smooth transition, Always even speed, Smooth transition. Especially when it's easy, Can you chill out and still just Get it nicely done. I know it gets easy sometimes. And that's precisely the work, Right? That's what we hope for. Good job. What am I doing? I can't talk and do this. Okay, Good. Now we open up a little bit. We do the same thing. We just pick one up, This time bigger circle. Good, Yeah, Yeah. That's it. Nice and easy. Good job. Breathe through. Breathe. Open up. Open it up. Yeah, Nice and easy, Nice and easy. Good job. Beautiful. Meditate. Feel yourself swimming through space. Why would you rush? What a beautiful thing. Enjoy! You're a swimming dragon. That's it, Yeah. Enjoy yourself moving. Why would you want to rush this? Good. Now I make it exaggerating, Meaning I lean away from my head, I scoop to the side and I'm coming in. And then I open that. Yeah, Beautiful. I do it again, Just side to side. I engage my middle session, My waist. I feel my entire body. Now I am a little stronger Stronger swimming dragon. Yeah, You're still moving through space in an interesting way How fun is that? That's it. Just show your body. Really lean into the sensation. It's a very strange movement. My body does this. Just really lean into it. It's getting more programmed into you because you're gliding now. So really just let this move. Yeah beautiful good we add one more push to the next level if you like. Open up, Good. The second hand comes. Meet the one that just worked. Halfway through. I'm still expressing with my. . . My left. Now this one finished expressing. Now the other one, Come pick it up. And take it away to half side. And one comes to weight of me, The other one continues expressing the body. Ugh. Yeah, Take your time. And we're going to do this in silent for three. Repeat. And just let this movement. Express. Through you or let you be expressed through this movement. Meditate. If you lost track halfway Don't worry. Go find it back! Ahhhh! Good. Yeah. Pick it up. Now, See if you can do it without looking at your hands. Looking sort of forward a little bit. So really trusting, Look out a little bit. Engage with the space around you. Yeah. That's imagine yourself on the mountaintop. Are you swimming in the cloud? Okay, I think this is the last round. I lost track. So we'll do this direction. See I made a mistake. Yeah. There we go. Okay. Woo, It happens. Yes! Continue, Yeah, Expressing Voila! One more time. Because I did something wrong. Oof. Okay, Good, Coming up, Nice and easy. And settle down. Come back in. One hand over chest, One hand over body. Over Dantian. Do a check-in. Feel your body from inside out. Okay.