The Three Swings from Opening the Energy Gates Qigong are some of the most challenging exercises to coordinate physically and energetically, but they are an important bridge between standing qigong and more complex moving practices.

I put this page together as a resource for practicing the Swings. Learn more about why I think they're so interesting here. I also think that Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body by Bruce Frantzis is the most important book to have in your qigong library.

If you're looking for some hands-on advice on your swings, check out the Energy Arts Instructor Directory to find a certified Energy Gates instructor, or shoot me an email to discuss your training options.

Introduction to the Three Swings

This clip is from a presentation I gave introducing a new Swings course at Brookline Tai Chi for winter 2012. You're welcome to watch all 51 minutes, but even if you only watch the first couple minutes, you'll get a sense for how to approach the practice. The clips that follow on the rest of this page are included in the long version here, where I go into more detail about them.

The video cuts in as I'm explaining how to look at the Swings as part of a "Restorative Movement Practice" as opposed to purely physical exercise.

The Three Swings

Here's a brief overview of the each of the swings.

Finding Your Center

Try this exercises to line up your center. Notice that once you work into a wider stance, you have to blend turning around the center with moving the center line left and right. The challenge is to maintain rotation as you shift from side to side.

Stabilizing the Legs

For the second and third swings, you need to have solid leg alignments and a clear sense of rotation coming from the hip joint, not the knee, on the weighted leg. The swings only work if the body moves as a unit and the arms remain loose.

Pumping the Kwa

The biggest difference between the second and third swings is that the kwa pump adds a strong vertical flow. You can tell from how the arms are moved in a more vertical pattern that there is a different kind of movement happening in the body (that sentence is awkwardly phrased for a reason!).

Dropping into Position

Test the timing of your arms and your body with these exercises. Holding the positions while the arms come to rest will also make you more stable when you try to integrate everything.

Putting the Third Swing Together

Once you've trained the pieces, it's time to bring everything together. Good luck!