MCC - 065 The Three Points of Rooting

The three points of rooting.

DISCLAIMER:
These clips are for entertainment and general informational purposes only. We are not instructing you, or encouraging you to do or to believe anything, except to view, enjoy, and think. Never forget that martial arts, like any rigorous course of physical activity, presents the risk of injury, sometimes serious, disabling, or even fatal. Actual techniques should only be practiced in a controlled environment emphasizing safety, under the direct supervision of a Black Belt instructor (in whom you have trust and confidence), and only after you have been cleared by your personal physician.

ROOTING

How to think of it?

Anchored, glued to the ground, heavy, stable, immovable, deep set, embedded, grounded, established, settled, fast, firm.

What about tense, tight, solid, unyielding, fixed?

No...think relaxed. Not relaxed like you're falling asleep, or turning into a couch potato. Relaxed like you've woken up at 2 a.m. and you feel like someone is in the house. You can feel your breathing, hear your heart beating, every sound in the house registers, when you move, there is silence.

Relaxed goes with listening, not tuning out. The more relaxed you are, the more awake you will be. When truly relaxed, you are tuned in and alive!

It will take practice, best to start now.

We recommend to take a moment to review Essential Balance Concepts (http://www.ironcrane.com/html/essentialbal.htm).

Here we will look at the other side of the coin. Let's not focus on what your opponent is doing, but rather on what you're doing.

You can off balance your opponent by using one of the off balancing strategies. So long as there is a differential between your balance, and your opponent's, you will succeed to the extent you are better balanced, or less off balanced than your opponent.

In "Essential Balance" we are talking about offbalancing. Somewhere in every move, there should be an attempt to off balance.

In rooting, we're looking at the Yin side of the equation.

THE IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE:

1. Identify all characteristics of your physical motion which adversely impact your balance.

2. Create habits which are clean, your movement has no imbalance, and there is no place for your opponent to enter or attack.

At first you will remove the large imperfections.

Later you will cultivate the subtle.

NEXT...RELAXATION:

Coincident to excising the imperfections in your movement, you practice relaxing. Again, not relaxing like falling asleep...relaxing like you're belted in and ready to zoom across the galaxy. Think completely empty, completely aware, wide awake, tuned in, nothing gets by your gaze, even though your eyes are still, all of your senses are registering, you feel your astral body melting into the ground, then you feel your physical roots adhering to the earth below.

ROOTING:

Remember...with clean technique, an ounce should be able to move 1000 pounds. If "A" is balanced and weighs 1 ounce, and "B" is imbalanced, and weighs 1000 pounds, the addition of "A" to "B" will send "B" to the ground.

From this point, your goal is to become "A", with the exception you weigh a bit more than 1 ounce. That's an inherent advantage! You can put elements of your weight where they will do the most good.

Becoming "A" alludes to getting rooted. Getting rooted doesn't mean anything tangible in its own right. Saying someone is rooted, is like saying someone is an enlightened person. You can see they're on to something important, but you don't know exactly what it is, or how in tarnation they got there.

That's because it's a "Yin" science. Yin is about emptiness. Lau Tzu professed emptiness is what gave shape and function to the cup. He leaves it to you to determine how to put the emptiness in.

In the case of rooting, just like a potter, you will identify the non-essential and begin to remove it. The non-essential in you is anything which weakens or impairs your balance. At the end of the day, that's what arts like Tai Chi and Ai Ki Do are all about.

For more on this topic, click here: http://www.ironcrane.com/html/rooting.htm

Used with Permission. Copyright 2000-2009, Mc Cabe and Associates, Tacoma, WA. All rights reserved.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• gun fu
• animal fighting styles
• self defense
• tai chi

[wenwu]

i think what he says is ok, but why the belt, i can understand the use of belt on a gi or dobok, but using belt with sweat pants and a t-shirt...... surely there si a better way

[Moontagu]

But what's his name? I rather like this. He is not demonstrating "fighting" but rather how to use his own energy and body, so it is irrelevant as to whether he uses a larger "partner" or not. He actually has a good energy about him, whoever he is?

[chiman1000]

It would be a better demo if the instructor did with a male larger and stronger than himself. Not a little woman that he out weighs by 100 pounds.