We’re almost halfway through the form. Lesson four includes the leap.

Master Tsao in position for the leap.

20. Teng kong tiao ci: Leaping Thrust. Tiao is leap, kong is sky, and teng is soar. Leap to soar in the sky? Shift left from the xia ci, turning the right toe in and pulling the sword around with both hands. Then shift onto the right foot, pressing down with both hand, left xu bu, as shown above. Jump from the left foot, turning the right foot all the way in to land facing the back as shown below.   21. Ma bu cang jian: Hidden Sword in Horse Stance. Note that the left foot faces forward. Both hands are palm-down, the left covering the right and the sword. The sword is flat–and sure enough, you can’t see it! 22. Hui shen fan ci: Turn to Thrust Downward. From ma bu step around to the left, stabbing up and pivoting on the right toe. Then stab down behind you as shown above. 23. Xu bu beng jian: Flick Sword Up in Empty Stance. Shift back to right xu bu and collapse the sword.

24. Du li shang ci: Step around to the right, pivot the left heel, rock back to swivel the right heel in, then shift forward into du li shang ci. Long Feng sometimes makes these shifts into steps, right, left, right. In any case, the du li is on the right foot. 25. Che bu yun zhan: Che bu is a new one for me. It means to withdraw–step back with the left. I’m not sure how that’s different from tui bu, but you can see above how he is standing. Zhan is chop, or even behead. The turn of the sword inward is from the wrist; the arm hardly moves, and it stays flat. Then the cut is right to left. The left hand pulls down across the chest into a ward-off left, which gives some torque to the cut. 26. Yang shen jia jian: Face Up to Ward Off. From both hands together and the sword in front, circle the sword flat in front of the face as shown, then cut from right to left, level, hands together in front again.

For best results, I highly recommend Jesse Tsao’s instructional video, available from taichihealthways.com.