A lot of people who begin taking up a martial art for the first time, such as Wing Chun, tend to be overly eager. Many just want to learn the "good stuff" and jump right into advanced training. Beginner martial artists try to take short cuts by spending as little time as possible on the basics, bypassing the "hard, boring, and mundane" aspects of training like developing a strong root.
What they fail to realize is that a strong root is essential to building a good foundation in preparation for advanced training. Simply put, without a strong root you have no gung fu. What does a strong root really mean? Without a solid root, one's techniques will simply not work against someone with a developed root, and ones attack and defense will lack the necessary force to deal with their opponent's attack. A person who has failed to develop a strong root is like a house of cards, apply modest pressure and it totally collapses .Also a person devoid of a root has no real structure and can be controlled easily by one who is rooted. Without structure, this type of person must rely solely on brute force or sectional power to generate force (such as the power of only the hand or foot.) Although this type of power can be great, it is unconnected from the whole body and lacks the power which comes from one's root.
When issuing force from the root, however, whole body power is used. This power originates from one's root and is connected from the ground-up and transmitted through one's structure. Not just the portion of the hand or leg is used, but the whole connected body. This power is unbroken like the chain on a bicycle. When released; the force feels like being hit by a tidal wave or a sudden shock wave. This type of power is what gives the smaller person the ability to generate a tremendous amount of power compared to someone who relays solely on his arms or legs. In the old days of the great masters, you often heard about persons of a small stature who were able to defeat larger foes with their ability to deliver power beyond the normal. I'm sure such great masters from the past, must have spent a lot of time on their foundations and had tremendous root in order to accomplish these great feats. Besides basic horse and stance training another very useful way to develop a strong and stable root is from regular Chi Sao practice.
(The practice of Chi Sao is unique to the Wing Chun system.) By regular practice, one feels what it is like to have their root and structure tested continuously. This is very useful in root training. The constant forward pressure from ones opponent during Chi Sao is a great way to test the root. One must learn to channel this pressure from the structure into the ground, and issue power from the ground though ones structure. If your root is weak one will simply fall over or lose balance. This is the basic and most invaluable skill one should develop in order to advance to higher levels of training in Chi Sao.
In my opinion, one should not concentrate to much on fancy or complicated techniques in the beginning. The focus should be on learning how to root. Fancy hand techniques or combinations may seem impressive to the beginner, but without a solid root all those techniques go out the window. Without a firm foundation, one will not be able to issue any stopping power to one's opponent, or have the ability to use his structure. One will simply have to rely on external factors like speed and brute force to overcome their opponent. In conclusion, without a root, hands have no meaning and are neutralized and nullified. Without root, there is no gung fu.
Interesting post SC69 (BTW is McIlwrath you? Interesting name - Scots Irish?)
Glad someone linked to the other recent thread too.
My tuppence:
Root is important. Rooting in YGKYM is important, possible and useful. However, more important than over-emphasis on root, is emphasis on footwork and when to root and when not to (rooting should be a fleeting instant, as turn-off-and-onable as a punch).
Moving in YGKYM or at least applying its principles to your movement is more important than standing there and thinking you’re both the immovable object AND the unstoppable force. You can’t be an unstoppable force if you don’t start in the first place!
As Hendrik pointed out in the other thread, there is no word analogous to ‘root’ in the kuen kuit. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in wing chun, just that its over-emphasis is wrong.
I was always taught turning and stepping drills as soon as I started on SLT: how to apply SLT in fighting. Of course I was taught root too.
I was also taught things like, ‘Kick with three legs, not with one’: I was taught to force my opponent to root and use him to provide me with a good connection to the earth! My kobujutsu teacher seems to be able to develop an internal root somewhere around his hips/the arch created by his thighs. I’m pretty sure, looking at Biu Jee, that this is one of the ‘missing’ components of a lot of wing chun. Nobody has taught me that, but I am learning to apply it, and I’m sure it’s out there somewhere in the world of wing chun.
And further from that point about using your opponent’s balance: my contact point could be my shoulder, my elbow, my hand, my wrist - I should be able to root using him wherever I make my bridge.
[QUOTE=AdrianK;932029]You can’t root when suspended in mid-air.
[/QUOTE]A straw man will always blow away without a firm root too! Can you find me anyone who said anything like this in that thread?
“Root” is another of the old chinese terms that is silly. Attached to the ground? Duh. How are you going to fight if not on the ground?
Boxers, kickboxers, savate fighters, muay thai fighters, etc. all have great punching and kicking power, but when do they talk about “root” or needing to develop a “strong root”? And if that sort of concept is so useful, where are all the great, powerful TCMAists that have used it so successfully?
Niehoff has just thrown a round house kick to face of stonecrusher66 knocking him off his root. MrPunch is standing on side lines ready to chain punch away and he is like the big bad wolf he just blew down the straw man’s house. Who can stand against the fierce fighter Terrence with their immovable root. Who can use thier root to knock terrence off his feet?
[QUOTE=Yoshiyahu;932096]lets get ready to rumble folks…
Niehoff has just thrown a round house kick to face of stonecrusher66 knocking him off his root. MrPunch is standing on side lines ready to chain punch away and he is like the big bad wolf he just blew down the straw man’s house. Who can stand against the fierce fighter Terrence with their immovable root. Who can use thier root to knock terrence off his feet?[/QUOTE]
LOL, very good.
You can’t hit what you can’t see - float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!
[QUOTE=Mr Punch;932069]Interesting post SC69 (BTW is McIlwrath you? Interesting name - Scots Irish?)
Glad someone linked to the other recent thread too.
My tuppence:
Root is important. Rooting in YGKYM is important, possible and useful. However, more important than over-emphasis on root, is emphasis on footwork and when to root and when not to (rooting should be a fleeting instant, as turn-off-and-onable as a punch).
Moving in YGKYM or at least applying its principles to your movement is more important than standing there and thinking you’re both the immovable object AND the unstoppable force. You can’t be an unstoppable force if you don’t start in the first place!
As Hendrik pointed out in the other thread, there is no word analogous to ‘root’ in the kuen kuit. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in wing chun, just that its over-emphasis is wrong.
I was always taught turning and stepping drills as soon as I started on SLT: how to apply SLT in fighting. Of course I was taught root too.
I was also taught things like, ‘Kick with three legs, not with one’: I was taught to force my opponent to root and use him to provide me with a good connection to the earth! My kobujutsu teacher seems to be able to develop an internal root somewhere around his hips/the arch created by his thighs. I’m pretty sure, looking at Biu Jee, that this is one of the ‘missing’ components of a lot of wing chun. Nobody has taught me that, but I am learning to apply it, and I’m sure it’s out there somewhere in the world of wing chun.
And further from that point about using your opponent’s balance: my contact point could be my shoulder, my elbow, my hand, my wrist - I should be able to root using him wherever I make my bridge.[/QUOTE]
Hi Mr Punch..yes my last name is Mc Ilwrath.It’s Irish I’m also part Italian from my mothers side. Glad you liked my article. IMO I’ve found to many WC’er have a very poor root or not root at all.Which is why I wrote the article. The YJKYM IMO is a poor stance not for fighting only chi gong. I use the J stance sort of like the bik ma stance but one leg is turn in a bit and the square horse both low and high most of the time. To me foor work and root are the same.You most have root when you move and like you said be able to turn it off and one.Turn it one when you hit turn off when you get hit..
One way to look how a root is used is when you push a car. When you move the car where is the power base comming form? the arm? or the root? root and leg are the same thing.If the car started to roll back you would be able to hold the car with your root now replace the car with a live person.This is using root..
[QUOTE=stonecrusher69;932115]One way to look how a root is used is when you push a car. When you move the car where is the power base comming form? the arm? or the root? root and leg are the same thing.If the car started to roll back you would be able to hold the car with your root now replace the car with a live person.This is using root..[/QUOTE]
Another way to look at it is if you want to learn how to push a car, then get out and really push a car (or have someone who can push a car really well show you how to do it). You don’t need any silly concept of “root” or “rooting” to DO that. That’s why boxers, kickboxers, etc. who are really out there “pushing cars” find they don’t need to talk about “root”.
There are mechanically sound ways to do anything. “Root” doesn’t really help explain it, describe it, or do it.
[QUOTE=stonecrusher69;932112]Hi Mr Punch..yes my last name is Mc Ilwrath.It’s Irish I’m also part Italian from my mothers side. Glad you liked my article. IMO I’ve found to many WC’er have a very poor root or not root at all.Which is why I wrote the article. The YJKYM IMO is a poor stance not for fighting only chi gong. I use the J stance sort of like the bik ma stance but one leg is turn in a bit and the square horse both low and high most of the time. To me foor work and root are the same.You most have root when you move and like you said be able to turn it off and one.Turn it one when you hit turn off when you get hit..[/QUOTE]
Is there ever a time where YGKYM can be used in fighting?
In The YJKYM you can’t move,and in fighting you have to move. It could be used to cover-up the groin say from a kick.Used sort of as a last resort or caught by suprise other then that I don’t see any use for it as far as fighting.
[QUOTE=Yoshiyahu;932128]Is there ever a time where YGKYM can be used in fighting?[/QUOTE]
In The YJKYM you can’t move,and in fighting you have to move. It could be used to cover-up the groin say from a kick.Used sort of as a last resort or caught by suprise other then that I don’t see any use for it as far as fighting.
excellent!! not to long which i like, good info for beginners and vets alike.