So, the tai chi posture -- as I used to describe to my students -- is:
First envision a 'skyhook' -- there is an eyebolt screwed into the top of your skull -- NOT the center top but above the top of your spine. And that eyebolt depends from a chain running up into the sky (thus: SKY hook!) -- it's over your spine, so you're like a marionette hanging -- from above your spine -- NOT the center-top of your head, which tilts your head back and raises your chin!)
That makes all your bones and body parts 'dangle' from the point at the top(-back) of your head over your spine. (Have I written that enough ways? Sorry... caffeine!) (Well, and I ALSO used to tell my students: "yes-of-COURSE I say 'shoulders down' 100,000 times! You can't even HEAR it until the 21st time -- and if I have not said it 20 times before then, when you couldn't even 'hear' it, I will never reach 21 times; when you "suddenly" go: "O.M.G.! Shoulders DOWN!?!?!? Who knew? Why didn't you ever TELL us?!"
)
So, the marionette stretches up from above the spine... makes your head weightless, your collarbones stretch out and provide a stable 'bar' from which hang your arms -- don't need to HOLD them in any position, they just dangle there... RIGHT where they should be! Then your spine also stretches out (yah get a smidge or more taller!), and the spaces between the disks gets bigger and less crushed... Your hips -- like your collarbone just hang effortlessly from your spine and so on down to your feet!
NOW your entire structure is in its most natural posture -- FREEING UP the muscles, ligaments, and tendons to DO their designed jobs! So, instead of having a fight amongst your body parts, each is free to move as you direct it! Here's my article from long ago in
Tai Chi Magazine:
Elenor Snow: A Fresh Look at the Value of Relaxation from which:
Master George Xu, a Chen stylist and Lan Shou practitioner, says that practicing slow tai chi moves alone is not enough. He stresses the need to become totally relaxed so that natural reaction (reflex action) can do the work. If someone sticks you with a sharp needle, your reflexes draw your arm back very fast, faster than you can move by conscious intent. You never lose your reflexes.
and
Xu demonstrated one of the difficulties in learning to be relaxed. Holding his arms out in front at about waist height, Xu had a seminar participant lay his wrists on Xu's arms. "Relax your arms. Let them relax so your muscles are totally relaxed. Don't hold up your arms, let them relax onto my arms. Are your arm muscles all relaxed?"
"Yes."
Xu dropped his arms out from under the student's, and the student's arms hung in the air. "You're not relaxed! Many students think they are relaxed - they think they are not holding tension in their muscles, but they haven't achieved the looseness, the relaxation needed for good tai chi."
Tai chi teaches the relaxation, flexibility and looseness you need to allow your muscles to work in harmony, to allow your whole body to work together, instead of fighting against tension you may not even be aware of in your muscles. Until you achieve that relaxation, your muscles must fight not only your opponent but also your other muscles. Recognize, however, that this relaxation does not mean limp. Relaxed means having no tension in muscles that are ready to work instantly. The muscles are filled with chi and so are not dangling there bored, but are poised and ready to move.
So, raising your shoulders up as high and tight as you can, and tightening and 'scrunching' down your neck (what I call: turtling) means ANY movement you wish to make requires you to RELEASE the muscles you've tightened and return to 'natural' positioning; only THEN can you move as you need to to defend yourself. (Even discounting the call for a chiropractor, the time needed to make these extra motions and the lack of 'reflex action' to move as fast as you can, slows you down.)
(Take a sec, let that skyhook straighten you up, right at your computer... opposite of slouching, ain't it? Your shoulders relax, your neck relaxes, your whole BODY relaxes because your (what that article I linked in a comment above) called stabilizing muscles get to do their jobs!)
Now, it may be that NOT having done tai chi -- the 'relaxed' unlocked joints may make you feel a bit loosey-goosey and not in a strong position to fire a gun. Back to shock absorbers again: I always wince when I see bikers (good morning Chico!!) sitting on their butts on the seat... NO shock absorbers there except the disks between the vertebrae!! (Owee!)
EVERY bump / shock is slammed into the bone. A horse rider, using stirrups, is actually STANDING on (over) the horse (balls of the feet on the stirrup, heels down, so the 'shock absorbers that ARE the foot, ankle, knee, and hip protect the SPINE -- as they're designed to! (Yes, Chico, I know, you need your toes free to shift and all -- STILL a bad design for the human body!!)
If your shooting posture is relaxed but ready, if your shoulders and neck as relaxed and free to instantly move in whatever direction you want, if your arms are both 'depending' naturally from your collarbone AND raised without rigid tension, your elbows (wrists, shoulders) are not 'gripped tight' so they lose their 'shock absorber' abilities -- then both firing and returning to your aim become easier (at least in my old-tai-chi-player view...).
And, rather than gripping tight, you relax and expand -- you make you arms *longer* -- I looked for a pic of Rudy in, essentially a gun-holding posture... didn't find one. But if you look at these pix, notice: he is NOT gripping tight with his shoulders or arms -- he is EXTENDED; esp. in the first three -- his shoulder joints are expanded OUT form his spine -- not tightly, but stretching... Even with his arm extended (and expanded) up above his head -- his shoulder are (relaxed!) down. In all of them -- his head, even when turned (and as in pix 2 and 3, tilted) -- you can "see" his skyhook screwed into the back-top of his head OVER his spine (and his whole body 'hanging' form it!). His chin is 'tall' above his chest, but his head is not 'tipped back'; his neck is extended, but not rigid or gripped (see how his neck muscles -- although big -- are relaxed)... (extended, longer, stretched, but relaxed, not rigid).
Take another sec and look at your arm -- now extennnnnnnd; feel your energy pushing out through your fingers, making your arm a 'hose' of energy; feel it curving around from your spine, through your should and down your arm and out your finger tips... There is huge strength in that, which does not require gripping muscles or locked joints... (Compare your arm to Rudy's arms in the pix -- even in the 4th pic -- you can see his elbows stretching out, and his forearms and hands stretching back in... And of course, shoulder down. Always shoulder down!)
So, thinking about the mechanics -- and as Arland and I said to Star -- if it WORKS for you; stick with it. But if you're learning -- or aren't entirely happy with your shooting posture, maybe try NOT gripping and tight, but relaxed and alert, extended and depending from a skyhook... (The skyhook thing is good everywhere and everything! No dowager's hump, no collapsed chest, not hunched shoulders... and we ALL need that!)
Anyway, you might try this:
1. Paying attention to your arm muscles, raise one arm out directly in front of you (normally, as if you're preparing to shoot one-handed). Tight elbow? Tight hand muscles? Shoulders going up? (Muscles under your arm on the side of your chest tight too?) (Neck going down?)
Relax for a sec and then try this:
2. Catch your skyhook and let your body relax and depend. Then raise that arm in front of you again - slowly and smoothly, leading with the wrist, and of course, shoulders down! That is, your arm is extended and relaxed, hand dangling from the wrist, all muscles as relaxed as you can manage... ONLY use the minimum muscle power you need. Do not lock your elbow or wrist, extend them (without turning your body sideways to make them go forward, eh? Move your arm independent of your body...)
Same position, ready to shoot -- but your back is relaxed, neck, arm shoulder, everything is relaxed! If you need to suddenly turn -- you're ALREADY relaxed and alert. If a threat is suddenly at your side, your body or arm can move freely cause it's not locked up; your whole body can pivot and move because you're not 'locked' into a position..
Here's a hint too: in tai chi, as your ARM goes up - your shoulder blade goes down! It's a unit, and instead of your should blade (and everything else) going up and tight, it's a pivot on a fulcrum. Pulling your arm up by only tightening your arm muscles *disconnects* your arm from your body -- so if you need quick coordinated movement... OOPS! But, if you've 'swung' your arm up (partly) by pulling your shoulder blade down, then you can get in 'ready-to-fire' without locking yourself up.
Anyway - just my observations and preferences... open to discussion, disagreement and questions... (Boy, give me cawfee and I just can't shut up, eh?!) El