There is a difference between the waist and the hip. The waist refers to a higher part of the body than the hip. The waist usually refers to the narrowest part of the body or at or slightly above the navel, while the hip usually refers to a lower part of the body, around the buttock area and often is the widest part of the body (except for people with very big stomach). See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waist%E2%80%93hip_ratio.

Turning or rotating the waist refers to turning all the parts of the body around that part of the body at or slightly above the navel, including the muscles in the back of the body on both sides of the spinal cord. Since the spinal cord ends slightly above the buttock area (see http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.apparelyzed.com/_images/content/spine/spinenerves.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.apparelyzed.com/spinalcord.html&h=587&w=595&sz=63&tbnid=3O4lv-q8p5q1dM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=94&zoom=1&usg=__nQBKWkgKReScZ1sCia-jQeHEcxo=&docid=Ym9H4K-NFK-frM&sa=X&ei=ECupUt2XK-z_yQHh9oCABw&sqi=2&ved=0CDcQ9QEwAQ), when you turn or rotate your hips does not exercise the muscles around the spinal cord as much as turning or rotating around the waist.

Therefore, in Taijiquan it is better to say to rotate your waist, instead of to rotate your hips, because you also want to exercise and to strengthen the muscles around the spinal cord.

Also, in Taiji, when you punch with your hand, you want to add the momentum of the rotation of your body to the power of the punch from your hand. If you are standing up, when you rotate your body and also shift the weight from one foot to the other foot, both the waist and the hips are rotating. However, if you are sitting down and punch with your hand, you can rotate your waist with no or only little rotation of the hips. Therefore, if you are sitting down and you want to rotate your body, you should say rotate your waist, instead of to rotate your hip.

So rotating your waist involves exercising more muscles in your body than rotating your hips. That is why in Taijiquan, it is more correct to say rotate your waist, instead of rotate your hips.

I hope this helps.

Don Tow

My progress has been slow, at 70yo, but now researching turning hips/waist as in my form we are often told to “square the hips”. Many sites though talk about turning the waist not the hips (or controlling everything from the waist). My dilemma is that I can see how to turn the hips and shoulders, which can ‘twist’ the waist but I cant see how to actually turn the waist other than by it following the hips.

One site I contacted said that it was a translation error and that when in Chinese it says ‘waist’ it really meant ‘hips’. Another said no, it literally meant the waist and talked about all the muscles involved in the waist area (but not how to apply to Tai Chi turning).

So I am hoping you can throw some light on this for me please.
Thanks in advance.

Don Edwards

Thanks for your comments.

I just measured my shoulder width, it is about 17-18″, depending on how close to the tip I measure. For walking, I should have said that the distance from the left edge of the left foot to the right edge of the right foot is about one shoulder width, and the inside separation between the two feet is about one-half the shoulder width. However, in Taiji because it is extremely important to have a strong foundation for support, we want the inside separation between the two feet to be about one shoulder width or close to one shoulder width.

Regarding your 2nd point, yes, people don’t walk by stepping down on the toes first. However, some people do step down with the front part of their foot first, and many people, especially older people, do step down simultaneously with their toes and heel, i.e., stepping down flat foot. In my Taiji classes, I do see people stepping down in these two ways. I should have discussed first the case of people stepping down flat foot, and then discuss the case of people stepping down first with their toes or front part of their foot. Because the article that triggered my writing my website article compared stepping down on the toes versus stepping down on the heel, I wrote the original version of my article in the previous posted sequence and in a way that triggered your comments.

I have now made changes in my article on both of these points.

Thank you for helping me to clarify these two points.

Don