PUSHING FROM THE SOLE OF THE FOOT? OR THE DANTIAN?
July 9, 2021
It's a quirk of mine to focus on sinking all forces to the sole of the foot, aka "sink the qi". In other words, "sink the qi to the sole of the foot". But the common saying is "sink the qi to the dantian", isn't it?
The reason I say to sink the qi to the sole of the foot is that most people don't have any dantian development so when they try to "move from the dantian", their source of forces is not the sole of the foot. Hence, they screw it up. It takes a while to develop movement from the dantian, so I always suggest that people focus on the force line straight between the sole of their foot and their hand(s). If they learn to push or absorb forces from the sole/ground, they will be far ahead of any wrong movements from the non-existent dantian.
All of that having been said, someone asked me what the next step is, so I'll offer a suggestion. You don't have to have silkreeling skills to be able to use jin and some degree of qi development, so the next step applies to everyone.
If you are going to push someone, the first thing you need to do is establish a jin path and a completed connection to your hands. So, if I reach out and put my hands on someone, the moment I touch there should be an established path from the point of contact straight to my foot. If I am experienced, there will simultaneously be a connection such that I could just as easily/instantaneously pull my opponent as push him. That sort of simultaneous push-pull situation depends upon how well-developed your qi-tissues are.
At the same time there is an immutable force line from the sole of foot to hands, there is also an unchanging, never collapsing, force line from dantian to hands. When you push, you push from the foot and you push from the dantian going forward in a non-collapsing (but expanding) like from the dantian to the hands. You "push from the dantian", to wit, but your basic power comes from the ground which, to a realistic extent, your opponent should be resting upon if you have a good jin path to the ground.
To oversimplify, let me say that the dantian comes forward as the back bow unbends and the back bow and 'pressure' to the foot push the hands from the soles of the feet. I.e., you don't really push with your arms: you push with a force spike to the foot and the dantian coming forward. There's more to the story, but I just wanted to paint a rough picture.
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