Martial Root

Saturday, September 18th, 2010
Walther Chen is a Level 3 (Orange) Student at Wu Dao Kung Fu and Tai Chi

Martial arts practitioners often talk about root. In particular, root is one of the foundations of internal martial arts like tai chi. At Wu Dao, I practice both tai chi and kung fu. During tai chi, we often participate in partner exercises in order to find our root while being pushed. (Imagine a less intense version of a dozen men trying to topple a single rooted tai chi master). So, I thought that I had a decent idea of what root was, and how to use it. For example, in push hands practice, I tried to make sure that my opponent's push would be redirected back into my root.

However, recently I had an experience which caused me to revise my theory/practice of root. During the tai chi movement "part the wild horse's mane," Shifu pushed against my shoulder right as I was beginning the movement. I was somewhat perplexed as I was unable to move forward at all, even though I had started out balanced and fairly structured. Shifu showed me that with more intent forward, and something of an expansion during the movement, he was able to defeat the resistance. When I tried to imitate Shifu, I realized that what I was trying to do was root from my shoulder to my back foot. Even though I had been balanced during tai chi, I was not rooted, and I would not have been able to execute a technique against resistance. During the rest of my tai chi practice, I tried to stay rooted during every moment, and as a result, I felt more connected and smoother. This was a lot more difficult than maintaining the static root that I try to keep during push hands.

I was pretty happy with the improvement in my tai chi, but I forgot about rooting until my next class, kung fu, when Shifu did the same resistance to me during my short xiao hong quan form. Somehow, I had never applied the concept of root to my kung fu, but it made complete sense. Any technique that transmits force through the body to the ground would be much more effective when completely rooted, whether receiving a push or giving a punch.

And, it's not just an issue of being rooted at the completion of technique so the impact can be routed to the earth. The root is used to generate force from the very beginning of the technique. Starting and maintaining a root is also much more efficient, since otherwise the body wastes energy and force bringing its structure from unrooted to rooted. While trying to keep always rooted, I could feel much more clearly the power being transmitted from my feet all the way up my body and into my fists. I think that before, I was only partially rooted, and so I couldn't put full force from my body into the ground.

Anyways, I feel like I made some small breakthrough in my tai chi and kung fu, and hopefully some of my ideas may be interesting to you too.