ima-imo

[ima-imo]

Michel Pereira vs Kim Dae-Sung 😮

#wayofmartialarts

[ima-imo]

the application of “Rooting” in internal arts

It’s pretty easy to be quizzical when looking at videos demonstrating “Root”. It’s very common to see Taiji instructors and “masters” demonstrating their ability to not be pushed over as a sign of their high level of skill.

There’s a lot of stuff to unpack there, but the simplest question is just “why should that matter?” After all, in neither striking nor wrestling is it super important to not be pushed over by multiple people standing in a row. If I can’t push you over, I’ll just punch you in the face or pick up your leg.

From what I’ve learned, this confusion arises from the fact that both this question and these demonstrations miss the main point of “rooting”. People talk about “developing a strong root” when rooting is not about strength. It isn’t about being so powerful that you’re immovable; rather, it’s about creating the illusion that you’re immovable. Rooting is a skill. 

As Xiang Kairan described it in 1936: 

I once saw a martial arts master who, with both feet standing or even with one foot raised, had five or six strong men push and pull at him, but they could not move him. The spectators were all surprised by how solid his stance was. The raised foot had nothing at all to do with it. It was entirely based on the alertness of his waist and thighs. He was able to lead the strength of those men into a state of emptiness. The Taiji Boxing classics [Playing Hands Song] calls this “guiding him in to land on nothing”, though the technical term is “neutralizing energy”.

This is the skill of rooting: “alertness of the waist and thighs.” Though conditioning is important, the main component is sensitivity, the ability to feel force as it comes in and adjust your positioning in order to neutralize it. 

This is why demonstrations like these 7-on-1 above misrepresent the rooting skill, though. 

In the video, the teacher instructs the student to put his hand on a particular spot and push in that direction, sets himself in a position that structurally nullifies that direction of force, and then shows that even a lot of people pushing on that direction can’t topple him easily. 

Well, cool, but we’ve known that strong shapes can bear a lot of weight for a long time; that’s pretty much what architecture is about. The real skill of rooting, the real test of “alertness” happens when that force suddenly changes direction. Would a person pushing on the teacher’s back still feel the same solidity? From a side angle?

That is an applicable skill, especially when you look at it less as “not being moved” and more as “controlling your movement.” If you can use this alertness to change your weight position in attentive response to the force being applied to you, then you can keep yourself from being yanked around in the clinch, or maintain your stability when someone tries a takedown. 

You’ll be able to control your positioning much better in a fight. And that’s what Rooting is actually about. 

[ima-imo]

On the Spirit

The symbol I use as the profile image for this blog is a guiding philosophy of organization that I use to train. I call it “The Three Aspects.” The symbol’s made of three parts: 

| O -

the vertical line is foundational, the circle deals with surroundings, and the horizontal line takes direct action, all as one whole. This manifests on several different levels, but I want to talk a bit about how I view one of them: Spirit.

The three aspects of the Spirit, for me, are composure, resilience, and resolve. 

Composure is the level of clarity and calm you have at the base of your emotions - not to be without emotions, but to keep them from hindering you.

Resilience is how well you maintain that composure under stress, in adversity, and under aggression.

Resolve is how well you project that composure when taking action.

In martial arts, spirit of this type needs training just as much as your body and mind do; no amount of technique or conditioning will be very useful if you fall apart under stress. Yet this is exactly what is neglected by traditional schools when they forgo sparring , or even when they promote sparring but forgo inter-style sparring. 

A martial artist needs the experience of dealing with someone trying to hit them. They also need the experience of someone trying to take them down and submit them. There’s no other way for them to be familiar enough to maintain focus during the real thing. This is why not only sport martial arts, but even just contact sports like football can prepare people better for fighting than martial arts schools that don’t spar realistically. A strong, trained body and a quick, strategic mind aren’t enough.  Fighting is dangerous, and danger is stressful; it’s important to be prepared for that stress, and train your Spirit. 

[ima-imo]

I learned today that (after a few tries) I can do the thing where you punch fast enough to blow a candle out.

I don’t know how significant that is to real fighting, but I thought it was cool.

[ima-imo]

No can defend

[ima-imo]

Smove wit it tho. Guy on the left begins entering with a line 1 cut, Nidar pops up a line 3 shot to the hand, taps in with the dagger to cover the arm again with the dagger while his stick chambers underarm, hits a low shot to the knee coming to the right side again, and finishes with an extended line 1 to the head, overextending a bit but lifting his rear leg as counterbalance. 

[ima-imo]

I’m so here for the Meyer dagger defense of “stab the opponent in the fucking wrist”. Then if you miss by shooting over, you wrench their hand down, elbow press, and continue stabbing them. If you miss by shooting under into a hanging cover position, hinge under to the outside, bring their hand down, and chin-chuck them with your pommel, then continue stabbing them. What an A-plus gambit.

And the language is great too. Stab into their wrist because “this hinders them greatly”. I sure hope it would, to have a long metal spike put through your wrist. It’s right up there with “I do this to cause him pain” for Fiore’s reasoning re: kicking a dude in the crotch.

[ima-imo]

Nice counter in Tai-otoshi to a Sasae-tsukurikomi-ashi

[ima-imo]

[ima-imo]

It’s been mine as well. It’s honestly revived my interest in it as a style rather than just a fun Jackie Chan movie.

At this point, I am convinced that Drunken Boxing is actually an internal Kung fu / Neijia style.

[ima-imo]

I feel like these distinctions are largely arbitrary, and where they can be distinguished is more in what you focus on with your practice. It seems like people don’t look at it as neijia because most of the time the demos are highly athletic, focusing more on acrobatics and performative drunkenness than anything, but when you look at it done like this

with a focus on movement quality and power methods, your is an understandable conclusion.

At this point, I am convinced that Drunken Boxing is actually an internal Kung fu / Neijia style.

[ima-imo]

This dude is a f*cking ninja!

Countering an O-soto-gari with a Waki-gatame… Legend! :D

[ima-imo]

the more powerful side of Taiji push hands,

[ima-imo]

I understand the sentiment. Historically speaking, though, the martial artists embodying the virtuous and calm nature we’ve come to associate with our practices were often outnumbered by those who were liable to act like this. Some are like that out of macho bravado, some a competitive spirit, and for some, exchanging techniques is just seen as a way two martial artists communicate with each other. This guy seems like the latter.

It’s not something I ascribe to - I’m not going to go around punching at people who haven’t assented to being punched at - but I can understand it.

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I blacked someone’s eye in my first semester at university?

[ima-imo]

The foot angles can indeed be a whole dissertation. A lot of my individual training lately has been about what I've been doing wrong with my feet (in training and day-to-day) and how to rectify it.

Training Note:

Don’t focus on making the adjustments needed to maintain your balance. Focus instead on being receptive to the changes in your situation, understanding the forces at work; then the adjustments will make themselves. This is the basis of Sensitivity.

[ima-imo]

Training Note:

Don’t focus on making the adjustments needed to maintain your balance. Focus instead on being receptive to the changes in your situation, understanding the forces at work; then the adjustments will make themselves. This is the basis of Sensitivity.

[ima-imo]

Meeting other martial artists... It Be Like That Sometimes

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I blacked someone’s eye in my first semester at university?