Rooting?

[Neijia]

The distinction between matter and energy is unraveling, can even be seen as fairly nonexistant. A bit that western science is slowly coming to grasp.

 

Which is one of many reasons why I love Chinese medicine.

Edited August 3, 2007 by Neijia

[althaur]

Having a little experience in Chinese arts, I can't form an opinion on rooting within them. In my current studies with a Japanese art though, we do something similar by relaxing the body and letting it "sink". Two of the ways we use it are to keep from being thrown (hip throws) or to keep from being picked up.

 

Both of these don't require the person to be any any stance or to resist with equal force. Most newcomers have a hard time with it simply because they can't fathom relaxing instead of tensing up for it.

 

I'll admit also, there isn't anything special about doing it. It basically comes down to relaxing so as to break the other person posture (both externally or internally).

[Neijia]

That rooting method that I was alluding to in an earlier post is part of Wei-Chung Lin's curriculum, and the development of "pre-heaven power".

 

Wei-Chung Lin

 

Believe it or not, the fajin in the bottom video is soft.

Edited August 15, 2007 by Neijia

[Spectrum]

Video is really changing the dialog available on forums. This is great. Sadly I hold my place in line till I reach a highspeed connection.

[Spectrum]

Purple Chi comes from the East

[Moonbar]

Ahem. Best not to say that to an Aussie. It means something quite different down under.

 

 

Ha ha ha!! same goes for us Kiwis

[gendao]

Dang, 3 years later and I still doubt I can root!

 

A few years ago, I met a small old Chinese lady who was able to effectively root after just 2 years of some Taijiquan training. I actually tested her and was not able to push her.

 

So, I should have asked her who she trained with or what the secret was, doh!! Still a !@#^&% mystery to me!

[Gerard]

Are your leg meridians completely open? When that happens your Qi will sink deep into the ground allowing you to root as solidly as an oak tree.

 

Maybe that's the answer you were seeking for.

[San Ti]

Vortex,

Do you stretch your neck, shoulders, chest, and especially your lower back, pelvic region, and legs? I'm not particularly good at rooting, but deep stretching of those areas helps. As does standing meditation and properly performed stance training. The tai chi style I am currently studying has some nei gong exercises that help with this by strengthening the legs and core muscles as well as dropping the center of gravity. You might also try some manipulation if you have injuries or muscles that you can not seem to relax. Several different manipulative modalities are really what did it for me. Cleared up some long standing imbalances that were preventing me from relaxing/achieving proper structure.

 

Good training.

[dwai]

Rooting is a foundational skill in the Chinese energy arts. The ability to stand there and become an "immovable" object when pushed on. This is a good litmus test for your structural alignment and ability to energetically connect with the earth.

 

I've now felt this with 2 Taijiquan and a Yiquan player. One of the Taijiquan players having been largely self-taught for only 2 years..

 

And yet, I still can't figure it out yet! Their ability to withstand extreme force just standing there almost seems to defy physics...or at least common sense.

 

- Is it biomechanics? Perhaps some, but most appeared to hold a pretty casual, neutral posture without any noticeable contortions.

 

- Is it tendon strength? Maybe some, but again they often seemed fairly relaxed and not twisted up. I mean, I could feel some force being expended when they were holding "unbendable arms," but sometimes I was only pushing on their shoulders, not forearms.

 

- Is it qi? How much of this rooting is "simply" qi and yi?

 

Can anyone here really root? And I mean, actually possess the skill...not just move hot air about it? If so, could anyone post a vid demoing this?

 

Hi

 

I would recommend checking out and trying to apply the three nails mechanism in your taiji prctice. It has helped me with rooting a lot.

Rooting is both biomechanical as well as energetic imho

 

If biomechanics are not corret the nergy wont flow well

If energy doesnt flow then rooting wont happen well

 

Look up master william cc chens notes on rooting and three nails...it really works

Also practising standing and releasing (pr bk frantzis' outer dissolving) will help move the energy down

I know this is not a "super high level" skill...but it is a significant and foundational one that I have nonetheless not seen very often and I am really trying to acquire. Help?!

[sifusufi]

Yes, I just ran across this "three nails" application this week.

 

 

 

William C. C. Chen cool!

Found out about William through a Robert Chuckrow book on Tai Chi.

 

This will be a nice contrast to the triangle pump taught by Master Lam Kam-Chuen and the nine points method

taught by Eric Yudelove.

 

Thanks for sharing this!

[Enishi]

In addition to some of the other factors mentioned, I have my own personal "pet theory" on rooting. When you push against someone using regular leverage and muscular strength, your nervous system will constantly switch muscle fibers on and off to avoid tears (thus tense muscles shake, and the force is not fully continuous).

 

With someone who is skilled at rooting, perhaps their connective tissues and stabilizer muscles transfer the force from the push down to the feet and back up in a continuous, wave like manner which is superior to that of tensed, trembling muscles which lack true continuous force. Such a skill could then even be applied in positions which don't look mechanically efficient at first glance.

 

I'm not sure though how this would apply to fajing in terms of issuing force when there is no initial push to redirect.

Edited January 30, 2011 by Enishi

[phore]

the practice of rooting in shamanism is primarily an energy phenomonon. The biomechanics in the body are made to facilitate qi flow and support it. By learning to use your body in harmony with your qi you will become a much more effective rooter. Tai chi exercises the different qi meridians in the body. Long term taichi practice will develop internal power like long term weightlifting develops muscle mass.

Certain qigongs are known to strengthen the tendons by feeding them with qi.

you have to remain relaxed to root effectively. then it is a matter of intent and qi.

Edited January 30, 2011 by phore

[z00se]

Rooting is purely biomechanics. Of course strong tendons, bones and muscles facilitate biomechanics and make rooting stronger/easier. Bones need to be strongest, next tendons then muscles, but this is all natural so really anyone can root well. Chi is just the connection between body and mind but it is only a tool and you could graduate beyond the need for chi, then it's not even needed. You could even root well with practice and never have even experienced or worked with "chi". You only need to know and feel where the force is comming from and resist it with your bones, tendons, and if need be - muscles.

 

I think something thats really important if you want to improve your rooting is to not only look at what is in front of you. See what is all around you. Where is your opponent pushing from, where are his legs placed, where does his strength come from, how is the wind blowing, whats the terrain like, where is his concentration on? all of this information gives immediate feedback to your body as to where it's best position could be.

 

It's not magic, it's really quiet simple..... just not easy to do

[Taomeow]

<bump>

 

Taomeow, it's 3 1/2 years later. How's your rooting today?

 

 

Thanks for putting me on the spot!

 

Still sucks, but better than it was back then. I recently tested it on a piece of furniture... the other side of rooting is uprooting -- the opponent -- in this case, a large solid wood cabinet with glass doors which spent 3 years in a spot no one liked because no one felt like moving it -- it's freakin' heavy and I keep nice dishes and wine glasses and other breakables there, so unloading it was always thought of as a hassle... then I decided to use my uprooting technique on it and moved it single-handedly and effortlessly -- without unloading it and without breaking anything. I just levitated it to a new and improved location. It weighs at least three times as much as I do. Rooting power!

[Vajrahridaya]

Rooting is a foundational skill in the Chinese energy arts. The ability to stand there and become an "immovable" object when pushed on. This is a good litmus test for your structural alignment and ability to energetically connect with the earth.

 

I've now felt this with 2 Taijiquan and a Yiquan player. One of the Taijiquan players having been largely self-taught for only 2 years..

 

And yet, I still can't figure it out yet! Their ability to withstand extreme force just standing there almost seems to defy physics...or at least common sense.

 

- Is it biomechanics? Perhaps some, but most appeared to hold a pretty casual, neutral posture without any noticeable contortions.

 

- Is it tendon strength? Maybe some, but again they often seemed fairly relaxed and not twisted up. I mean, I could feel some force being expended when they were holding "unbendable arms," but sometimes I was only pushing on their shoulders, not forearms.

 

- Is it qi? How much of this rooting is "simply" qi and yi?

 

Can anyone here really root? And I mean, actually possess the skill...not just move hot air about it? If so, could anyone post a vid demoing this?

I know this is not a "super high level" skill...but it is a significant and foundational one that I have nonetheless not seen very often and I am really trying to acquire. Help?!

 

I just put my mind below my feet, from here I'm able to do lots of things, both positive or selfish, like control people. I'm also able to hold my personal ground very well from here. I hope to respond with this power more positively as I empty my egoic personal response system.

 

I can do it from any position, and it has nothing to do with where my body is placed. I think this has everything to do with how much meditation and contemplation I have done. Ok... I've also been doing yoga since the womb... that helped. My first physical movements as a child were actually yoga postures... strange as that may seem. But, my mother did yoga the entire time I was in her womb... and before. So maybe that can be understood.

 

I wasn't very good at rooting during my youth though, I was more of a space cadet big picture type, having very few social skills. That has changed though... only through "cultivation."

[寒月 Hanyue]

Over the years I've been shown energetic rooting, shamanic rooting, and several types of martial rooting. Some mix them others do not.

 

Martial rooting.

 

The 'root' is hui yin. You need to relax the soft tissue, and develop elastic forces that cross and stabilise the joints of the body, ie some rising and some sinking to create support. Most try and use the soft tissue between the joints not across them. There needs to be a balancing of rising and sinking tissues to create a martially effective supportive structure (the old Chinese jinmai 'tendon' channels, or Myers more recent myofascial trains).

 

Receiving force can change significantly between say using the front or back of the spine. You want as much of the upper body and torso weight sitting in the pelvis, this creates a weighted counter arm. Think of this (

). The force of a push is transmitted to pushing against the counter weight of the pelvis, while the rising and supportive structure also meet that force. The legs allow this 'weight' to transfer to the ground but not all martial arts use them to do so in the same way, some use much more of a 'floating' root than others and this is where some of the biggest differences seem to appear from what I have felt.

 

There is also a big difference between someone aligning the skeletal structure so that when you push you push on the structure which pushes on the floor. Or when they align and allow your force to simply transmit through them so you push directly on the floor itself! I have had someone let me feel the difference and all I can say is it is a big difference.

 

These are bio-mechanical. Some will ADD energetic rooting to this as a cherry on the cake. But most who I have met that primarily do energetic rooting without training the structure are easily moved except by a neophyte. The different rooting skills are not mutually exclusive but they are not the same thing either. So it depends on what you are practicing for.

 

Shamanic rooting, well thats something entirely different again.

 

My two penneth worth

 

Best

Edited January 30, 2011 by snowmonki

[Horus]

Such a bewilderingly important aspect of practice this.

 

I was electrocuted about 3 years back, and was totally uprooted.

 

I could no longer feel the yin energy of the earth and nature (well, barely).

 

I became entrained/rooted to the electrical currents all around me.

 

Space cadet city, and every time I walked past a fridge, tv, light post, lamp, electrical cord, shaver - whatever - it would pull me toward it energetically and sometimes I would stumble in that direction physically.

 

I was very ill, throwing up - hardcore. I thought I would die and was almost dead.

 

I started rooting by taking colloidal silver, which worked very well.

 

Then I started doing Zhan zhuang embrace the tree, packing process breathing and rooting practice - getting my wife to push me with a fist at sacrum, mingmen, t11, back of skull and some iron shirt stances.

 

Most meditation uprooted me unless I countered with more rooting - so it all became a big lesson in rooting.

 

Now I realise that the more I develop my LDT the stronger I can root, and the more I develop my upper dantien the greater the need to root or its space cadet city again. And if I go and do very shen based star work, like big dipper practice, I'm gone...out there baby! :0

 

I also now realise that the more of my channels I clear (and also marrow cleansing), tendon strengthening, and structural alignment the more rooted I can become.

 

But the embrace tree, packing process breath, and pushing practice (twice daily) are my foundation, and the dantien, channels, and marrow cleansing (yet to begin), and earthgrid/sacred site work are additions to that.

 

But the reason people don't know what works and what does is lack of consistent practice.

 

Doing it twice daily develops the root over time.

 

If you were to stand like a tree and relax and ask the earth yin to ascend into you to take the push force - and did it every day - you will gain a root like a tree and will not be pushed over.

 

And that helps drastically in keeping you grounded and balanced with higher energetic work.

 

I came searching to find more answers and feel i'm pretty well on the road.

 

Sometimes my wife is powerfully pushed back when she pushes me (daily) - without any effort on my part - the earth when we are one unified piece (bones, jing, qi, shen, tendons, mind, emotions, body, earth) - the earth and you are one and she protects you.

 

But humble daily pushing is required - the results are from your growing connection to earth - it's her power.