Intentionally or voluntarily “Drawing up the testicles”

Discussion in 'Tai chi' started by Greetings!, Feb 15, 2019.

  1. Greetings!

    Greetings! Valued Member

    Greetings everyone,

    Although the subject title may appear somewhat dubious, this post of mine is a bona fide inquiry. …

    I should state up front that I only have a little Tai Chi experience. That being said, a mutual friend arranged for me last week to work with, only extremely briefly, a Tai Chi instructor. This Tai Chi instructor did not speak English. My friend, he not having any Tai Chi experience, speaks English. Therefore, my friend had to continually translate the Tai Chi instructor’s words for me during our very brief Tai Chi session together.

    At one point during my very brief session with this instructor, he mentioned “pulling up the testicles”. The instructor seeming to be on a roll, I therefore decided not to otherwise stop him to ask him to please further explain what he meant by this.

    In retrospect of this very brief Tai Chi session I had last week, I can’t recall if the instructor was referring to me to do this as some sort of visualization practice in order to be able to draw up Chi from the tandien (?), or if this was, instead, a way for the student (me, in this case) to effectively posture myself when proceeding to do the Tai Chi movements. (?)

    I did a YouTube search on “pulling up the testicles”, and “drawing up the testicles”. However, I found nothing related to what I am referring to in the above.

    Today, I attempted to figure this out on my own. Thus, I sat quietly with myself, and thought about, as best I could, those muscles of where the testicle sac attach to my groin (Are there in fact any muscles there? I don’t really know. (?)). However, this wasn’t productive for me. Thus, I am approaching you all for help on this. …

    1. Can anyone please share with me any info on this topic?
    2. What is this, I guess I’ll refer to it as, meditative or visualization practice (?) of “drawing up the testicles” used for?
    3. How can I learn how to do this for myself?


    This being a serious inquiry of mine, none-the-less, I thank you all very much for “hanging” in there with me.

    The best to all. Take good care,
    Greetings
     
  2. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Sounds like he is talking about tensing your perineal muscles, which I believe is a fairly common thing in Chinese MA stance training.

    Perineal Muscle Exercises for Men | Livestrong.com

    Either that, or he is talking about the technique, as performed by sumo wrestlers, of pulling and massaging the testicles into the body to avoid injury.

    I'm guessing it's the former though.
     
  3. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

    Dear diary, today I learnt something wierd.

    Thanks!
     
  4. Botta Dritta

    Botta Dritta Valued Member

    Bump! This actually rings a bell...years ago when I dabbled in yang style and I was reading around Tai Chi and I came across the phrase which had no explanation attached to it. Still have no idea what it relates to but Harrison's guess I think may be as good as any, It would be amusing if it was actually part of a form...

    "....Road Sweeper Clenches buttocks, then cat step at 45 degrees into Cock Rises at dawn and then Slowly settle into Dog draws up testicles. Be sure to open the Gwa and settle low"
     
    David Harrison likes this.
  5. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Yeah, my first instructor had a background in Tai Chi, Wing Chun and healing Tao stuff, which is where I first heard of it. Later, when I was working through the Mantak Chia Toaist exercises I came across it also.

    My understanding is that it is part and parcel of tilting the pelvis forward, as in the Wing Chun stance, or as a "chi pump" in meditative practice such as the microcosmic orbit.
     
  6. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Well, from googling that I learnt that the term for undescended testicles is cryptorchidism, and it is more common in dogs than cats. :D

    [​IMG]
     
    Botta Dritta and Dead_pool like this.
  7. Greetings!

    Greetings! Valued Member

    David, I greatly appreciate the link which provided a helpful description for perineum/Kegel exercises, as well as the other information you kindly provided.

    Botta Dritta, thank you for your input as well. Your comments remind me that, I think that I seem to maybe recall through my friend the translator, this particular Tai Chi teacher last week was presenting to me Yang style, and he also made references to the Tao as well. (?)

    For everyone being so generous to me, since this post has been taken in a direction of humor (which is quite fine with me), I’ll just make a few comedic references which you may seem to recall. …

    Do you remember the illustrious comedian George Carlin’s quip, I’m paraphrasing, words along the lines of, …

    “… after your wonderfully large satisfying holiday meal of turkey, and all the wonderful trimmings, you, your family, as well as the gracious host’s family, after you excuse yourselves from the table, have then resigned yourselves to sleepily lay back, lounging and relaxing in the living room afterward. As you all lazily lie around, chilling, enjoying one another’s company, you then observe the family dog, … lying down on the floor in front of everyone in the center of the room, … licking his balls. …”

    This takes me back to the old joke, “Why does he do that?” … “Because he can”.

    Again, thank you very much to everyone!

    Take good care,
    Greetings
     
    David Harrison likes this.

Share This Page