pitisukha

Body mechanics

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Hello everyone,

 

can someone suggest in depth books or vids with in depth study of body mechanics in martial movments and qigong?

 

Thanks

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1. Videos

# Asian Squat

1.

2.

 

# He Jinghan (foundation work, enough for a lifetime of practice)

 

1. YT channel

2. Blog (vids 1 & 2 are the essential stuff)

 

# Five Stances training

 

1. Pu Bu (rest on YT)

 

# Lower basin, kua and hip joint (please, go soft as a cotton-ball and slow if your flexibility is not that good since that teacher had 30-year-practice under his belt when the vids were made)

 

1.

2.

 

2. Theory

 

# Distinguishing the hip and waist

# Function and usage of the kua

# More on kua work (a lot gentler than Martello's approach)

# If you are a Chen Tai Chi student (or planning to study this art) this site is the best I have come across. Run by one of the students of Chen Xiaowang's oldest son.

 

Hope you find it all useful.

 

Best!

Edited by Gerard
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Thank you VERY much Gerard!

 

A lot of good info there!

 

Do you also have link to videos where are showed very good rooting and high speed leg movments at the same time? Or does one contradict the other?

 

Is my impression that with rooting exercises legs feel heavy, so how can one move with fast legs while being rooted?

 

Thanks again

Edited by pitisukha

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When your body is completely stretched out and in equilibrium then good body mechanics will come naturally. 

 

1. Sun Salutations

2. Hip Stretches 

3. Hamstring Stretches 

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Thank you VERY much Gerard!

 

A lot of good info there!

 

Do you also have link to videos where are showed very good rooting and high speed leg movments at the same time? Or does one contradict the other?

 

Is my impression that with rooting exercises legs feel heavy, so how can one move with fast legs while being rooted?

 

Thanks again

 

Rooting happens when we are suspended from the crown point. If you send your mind and energy in the same direction, you will end up double-weighting yourself...

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Thanks dwai, can u elaborate more your statement?

 

Relative to each other, the mind is substantial while the energy is insubstantial. So when energy and mind are in the same direction (or at the same point), we are double-weighted. Double-weighting happens (aka Double-heavy) happens when the substantial and insubstantial energies are not balanced (in opposite directions).  

 

That's why the Taiji classics state - "When you go left, you also go right; when you go up, also know the down"...and so on...

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But doesn't "yong yi ling qi" ?

Yi is not the mind. Yi is the direction of Xin or the spiritual/heart mind. Yi is feeling, mind is thoughts.

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Is my impression that with rooting exercises legs feel heavy, so how can one move with fast legs while being rooted?

I spent 3 years learning rooting in Shotokan Karate then 10 years unlearning it in Aikido.  Or rather for years my Aikido sensei would tell me stop planting.   Stability came from relaxation, my center, keeping my body as unit.  Not from wide stances or tightening anything other then natural relaxed extension.

 

An exercise that gives the feeling was from any ready stance dropping down low, a few feet.  Letting my knees bend and torso collapse down, yet keeping balance.  Then rising back up lightly.  That feeling just at the top, is what you want.  That sense of lightness, yet also keep hold of the effortless down you just did.  If you get the feeling right you'll find you're much harder to push over. 

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3 years learning, rooting, 10 years learning the difference between rooting and grounding :D   and likely, how sung interplays too

 

reminds me of getting taught how to do that  in that xing shen zhuang class, teacher literally had to stand behind us and press on the anterior aspect of the hips out from the lesser trochanter of the femur and we'd adjust until it was relaxed, then you went ohhhhhh, thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat  :D

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Thank you VERY much Gerard!

 

Do you also have link to videos where are showed very good rooting and high speed leg movments at the same time? Or does one contradict the other?

 

Welcome! :)

 

High speed? What for? Are ou planning to become a bodyguard? If not, spend time building the root. Taijiquan use pole standing for this (video); Xingyi uses Santi Shi (video); there is a faction of the Cheng Bagua school called South District Beijing's Strongly Rooted Style. Here's one practitioner of such a school:

 

Bai Yucai

 

He Jinghan (Gong Baozhai Bagua) also follows that approach.

 

Low and slow, mindfully connected to everything. Let me recommend practicing Bagua like that. :)

Edited by Gerard
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3 years learning, rooting, 10 years learning the difference between rooting and grounding :D   and likely, how sung interplays too

 

reminds me of getting taught how to do that  in that xing shen zhuang class, teacher literally had to stand behind us and press on the anterior aspect of the hips out from the lesser trochanter of the femur and we'd adjust until it was relaxed, then you went ohhhhhh, thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat  :D

Hmm, could you explain & elaborate on that difference?

 

And what the proper position of the femur's lesser trochanter is then?

lesser_trochanter_of_femur1329277806351.

F2.large.jpg

slide_8.jpg

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