Softness Overcomes Hardness: Tai Chi teaches that connecting and yielding to an incoming force is more effective than meeting it head-on. By remaining relaxed and pliable, practitioners can neutralize aggression with minimal effort, turning an opponent’s strength against them.
This is one of the underlying principles of Tai Chi and is often misunderstood. People sometimes think that softness equals weakness, or that yielding means becoming a walkover. It is far from that. In life we are taught that to feel powerful we must exude physical strength and muscular power. We see this stereotype in movies, books and sometimes in music every day.
The Hero or Heroine, is usually ripped like Schwarzenneger, or Amazonian in their build. They then overpower everyone with Athleticism and using muscular force in confrontations. Now, I am not knocking these wonderful physical specimens. These are people who have dedicated enormous amounts of their life to look that way and they do look magnificent. I am saying though, that had they adopted a softer approach in their confrontations things would have been easier for them and less strenuous.
Yielding does not equal becoming a walkover either. Yielding is used alongside connection. OnceĀ you are in contact with another person, you can let them express their energy, while leading it to a place where it is neutralised. This is a real skill and very powerful, because by yielding you are not against the other person. If they feel the freedom to express their energy they will continue to give out their energy, without realising that you are leading them to a place that might be detrimental to them, or to a place where they can reconsider their actions.
The ultimate expression of Tai Chi is to actually engage with an opponent and bounce them to a place, without inflicting damage to them and allowing them that time to reconsider.
Softness does not mean weakness and yielding is not a shortcoming.