Stance Rooting

[alpha03]

Does anyone have any information or pointers on the theory of "rooting" in stance training? I've seen in Wing Chun and Hung Gar, creating immovable stances. How can one practice that? Please help......

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-A fighter with no foundation is an inefficient fighter

[Paul Skrypichayko]

I cannot perform rooting myself, but I have a vague idea of what is envolved.

The muscle power is almost no factor at all in this. The main thing is that the channels of your body are open, and you can absorb the "earth" energy and the "cosmic" energy, while rooting your energy into the ground. For this you must increase the electric capacity of your body's meridians and channels. You must be able to generate good internal energy, and you must learn how to send it all over your body, and finally oustide of your body, into the ground.

Good luck learning this through the internet. I would recommend finding a master who can do at least some basic rooting, and learn from him.

This might enhance your interest, but the best rooting I have ever heard about was from one master who practiced publicly in a park in Xian, China. The main training he did was qi cultivation through stance training. (the stance is not like horse stance, but more like a relaxed stance with your feet shoulder width apart, also called, Yee Ji stance). When he displayed his skill, 20 people could not move him.

[Sihing73]

I would agree that learning on your own is not the best route to travel. However, rooting has more to do with proper body alignment and structure than anything else. Think of you body as a chain and you must link all of the pieces together to form on piece. However, this is not doen on a completely straight line. There is some infor out there on some Neija sites and you can also check on the Internal thread for greater detail.

I think you may missunderstand some of the Wing Chun concepts. You may develope a strong stance and root but the object of Wing Chun is never to resist force. If my opponenet gives me too much energy I owuld rather move out of the way. Root is important but not with the goal of being "immovable".

You may want to check out the following links for some more info relavent to Wing Chun. The auther is Robert Chu and he has a reputation for developing good root with his students. Click on columns and choose Wandering Knights
http://www.wingchunkuen.com

Peace,

Dave

[Paul Skrypichayko]

Sihing, I think you are talking more about foundation, as opposed to the art of rooting, or immobility.

A good foundation is more important, and much more realistic than aquiring a qigong skill like rooting.

[Sihing73]

Hi Paaul,

Well some Wing Chun people would refer to a strong foundation as their root. The goal being to be able to pass force down to the ground through the use of proper body alignment/structure. Sifu Chu has written an article wherein he describes some structure tests to measure your ability to "root". The goal being able to transmit force from a solid grounding and to be able to absorb an opponets energy without losing your own structure. This is how I am viewing the object of "rooting" as it applies to Wing Chun. Of course others may term it differently.

I agree that it is better to have a firm foundation and I rather like mobility as opposed to rootedness. I used to do everything from a "rooted stance" but found my root was not all it was cracked up to be. Now I am concentrating on the mobility aspects and find that the two together are quite nice. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Peace,

Dave

[bean curd]

as stated above the principle is internal and not with external intent.

when cultivating chi you must sink the energy(jing) and to do this, it must go to the dantien.
when you sink your energy, you must open the hips and ensure that they are relaxed, but must have intent. this is one of the most important and critical points of chi development.

most people, when they sink the jing only go to two levels and they are:
1. the dantien, 2. the ground.
however too fully get the effect of correct chi cultivation you must root your self into the ground.

when using methods or body, the energy must be sunk and all activity must be from the inside, and the outside must look calm, this is why it is said to be like water, from the surface there is no emotion, but underneath there is movement.

when this is performed correctly, all energy will be transmitted when required to the appropriate movements, in any movement in body or method.

the main sequence must be
1. relax the body
2. sink the energy into the dantien
3. the whole body must be relaxed and calm
4. the whole body must be involved in the sinking and the body should be pushing the mountain.
5. there must be zhong ding (equilibrium), this comes from the center of the head (bai hue) travels through the spine, leaves the zhong ming and becomes rooted into the ground at a center point between the feet.


from this, internal energy will be cultivated. when you then have to use methods, the energy level will be higher and the outcome will be in you're favour.

rooting is a cultivation of jing and when used with methods, is regarded as cultivated and not raw, which usually involves li jing.

rooting is in concept, very different from foundation, as stated above, however if the chi and jing is cultivated, it makes the players ability more advanced, than just using foundation methods

the main differance between foundation and rooting is that foundation is external and focuses on pi(flesh), gu (bones), and jin (muscles), where rooting develops jing (internal essance), shen (spirit/mind)and chi(energy).

when combined together the outcome is in favour of the cultured player.

hope this has helped

regards

[This message has been edited by bean curd (edited 04-17-2000).]