Editor’s Note
This article by Ralph Strauch originally appeared in The Feldenkrais Journal, Issue 2 (Fall 1986).
Strauch was both a long-time Tai Chi practitioner and a Feldenkrais® teacher, and in this piece he explores
the deep parallels between the two systems of learning and movement. Minor formatting edits have been made
for clarity and readability.

by Ralph Strauch

Tai Chi and the Feldenkrais Method

Different windows on a common vision.

When I met Moshe Feldenkrais in 1980, I had already been practicing Tai Chi for about ten years. During that time I had thought deeply about what Tai Chi teaches about how we move and function in the world. I sensed the possibilities it opened for human development, and exploring those possibilities had become a central focus in my life.

When I encountered Moshe Feldenkrais, I recognized someone exploring many of those same possibilities. My sense was that he understood them more clearly than anyone I had previously encountered. I decided to study with him, and that decision changed the course of my life.

The more I came to understand Feldenkrais’s work, the more clearly I saw parallels between his vision of human functioning and the vision embodied in Tai Chi. In this article I would like to explore some of those parallels and the common principles underlying the two approaches.

Obvious Differences Between the Methods

There are clear differences between Tai Chi and the Feldenkrais Method.

Tai Chi is typically practiced standing. Most Feldenkrais lessons, especially Awareness Through Movement® lessons, are done lying down.

Tai Chi involves learning and repeating a single complex form over many years. Feldenkrais work uses a wide variety of simpler lessons, often never repeated in exactly the same way.

These differences, however, are differences of form rather than substance. In many ways the similarities between the systems outweigh the differences.

Another difference lies in how the two traditions explain what they do.

Tai Chi is traditionally described using the Chinese concept of ch’i, an idea of life energy that does not have a direct equivalent in conventional Western scientific language.

Moshe Feldenkrais explained his work differently. His descriptions were grounded in neuromuscular learning and the functioning of the nervous system. He strongly resisted mystical explanations and preferred language drawn from science and engineering.

Yet different explanations do not necessarily describe different realities. The world is often more complex than the models we use to describe it.

In physics, for example, Newtonian and Einsteinian models describe mass and energy very differently, yet both produce accurate predictions within everyday experience. Different languages may describe the same underlying phenomena.

Natural Human Movement

Both Tai Chi and the Feldenkrais Method share a vision of natural human movement as smooth, balanced, and coordinated. In such movement the entire person participates in a unified way.

Feldenkrais called this kind of movement elegant.

Traditional Tai Chi descriptions speak of a body that is “so light that a feather will be felt, and so responsive that a fly cannot alight without setting it in motion.”

Feldenkrais described efficient movement as reversible movement. This means the person is never committed to continue along a trajectory and can stop, reverse, or change direction at any moment.

Someone sitting down reversibly would not fall if the chair were suddenly removed. A person walking down a hallway could stop instantly if someone stepped into their path.

In everyday life we rarely encounter this quality of movement. Instead, movement is often stiff, fragmented, and effortful. For many people movement itself seems to require strain.

Why We Move Less Efficiently Than We Could

Both Tai Chi and the Feldenkrais Method suggest a similar answer to this question.

We move inefficiently largely because we lack awareness of how we move.

When we are unaware of what we are doing, we cannot choose better options. Moshe Feldenkrais summarized this simply:

“If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can’t do what you want.”

Improvement therefore depends on learning—learning to sense what we do and discovering more efficient possibilities for action.

Slowness, Repetition, and Awareness

Both Tai Chi and Feldenkrais lessons rely heavily on slow, repeated movement.

To understand a painting, we can hold it still and examine it carefully. Movement is different. If we stop it completely, it disappears.

But if we repeat movement slowly, we begin to perceive details and patterns that were invisible at first.

Repetition alone is not enough, however.

Many people repeat movements mechanically during exercise without learning anything. Repetition without awareness brings little improvement and can even reinforce harmful patterns.

Slowness helps because it gives us time to notice what we are doing. It also weakens habitual patterns. When movement slows down, automatic habits lose their dominance and awareness becomes easier.

Movement as a Self-Correcting Process

Observation does not change a painting, but movement is different.

Movement is a self-correcting process. Simply becoming aware of how we move often begins to improve the movement.

In fact, improvement may happen more easily when we do not try to force it but allow the nervous system to reorganize itself.

Human beings are naturally organized for efficient movement. For millions of years our ancestors relied on their bodies for survival. Efficient coordination was essential.

The awkward movement patterns we now consider normal are often distortions created by modern habits and environments.

Movement and Gravity

We live within the field of gravity, and our response to gravity profoundly shapes how we move.

Two body systems help support our weight: the skeleton and the muscles.

If weight is balanced efficiently through the skeleton, muscles are free to move the body. Movement feels light and easy.

If balance is poor, muscles must work continuously just to support posture. This creates stiffness, heaviness, and fatigue.

The Feldenkrais Method and Tai Chi both address this relationship with gravity but in different ways.

Feldenkrais lessons are often done lying down to reduce the effects of gravity. When gravity’s demands are reduced, habitual tension can release and the nervous system can explore new possibilities.

Tai Chi works in the opposite direction. It magnifies the effects of gravity by moving slowly while standing. Loss of balance becomes obvious, and the practitioner learns to sense and correct it.

Walking with an “Empty Foot”

Tai Chi practitioners eventually develop what the Chinese call “walking with an empty foot.”

In normal walking, we fall from one foot to the other. We shift weight toward the foot that is still in the air, committing ourselves before it reaches the ground.

When walking with an empty foot, weight remains on the standing leg until the moving foot touches the ground. Only then does weight transfer.

This produces reversible movement. The person can stop or change direction at any moment.

This quality of movement is useful even outside martial arts. It reduces the risk of tripping or falling and places less cumulative stress on the body.

Sensitivity of Touch

With long practice, both Tai Chi and the Feldenkrais Method develop a refined sensitivity of touch.

This sensitivity allows the Tai Chi practitioner to sense subtle shifts in an opponent’s balance and respond appropriately.

In Functional Integration® lessons, Feldenkrais teachers use this same sensitivity to detect patterns of tension and guide the student toward easier organization.

Feldenkrais described this experience as “merging with another person’s nervous system.” Traditional Tai Chi language describes it as sensing another person’s ch’i.

Movement as a Metaphor for Life

Both Tai Chi and the Feldenkrais Method aim to improve balance, flexibility, and ease of movement.

Yet their implications go far beyond physical movement.

Movement reflects how we interact with the world. Learning to move with awareness, adaptability, and reversibility can influence how we think, decide, and respond to challenges.

Feldenkrais often spoke about developing flexible minds through the cultivation of flexible bodies.

Our limitations are often self-imposed. Methods like Tai Chi and the Feldenkrais Method help us understand how we create those limitations—and how we can learn to move beyond them.

Original article by Ralph Strauch, Ph.D., originally published in The Feldenkrais Journal, Issue 2 (Fall 1986). Lightly edited for formatting and web readability.

Continue Exploring

• What Is the Feldenkrais Method?
• How Awareness Through Movement Lessons Work
• About Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais