What is Good Kung Fu?

Rooting:

With the plethora of different styles and teachers it can be sometimes difficult to judge the standards of what is good traditional kung fu. Especially since there is a tendency in Chinese martial arts for practitioners to proclaim they have the best style, best teacher and the most esoteric secret. Nevertheless, there are three fundamental characteristics of good kung fu: rooting, feeling hand and target practice. In this blog I will talk about the root and in subsequent blogs I will expand upon feeling hand and target practice.

To develop a good root is not easy, taking both time and effort, but it is an attribute worth striving for. A strong root may not be seen, but it will be felt hand to hand, when in contact with a partner or opponent. There are two aspects of good rooting: first the technical requirements of foot positioning etc. and there is the intuitive development of a root where mind and body come together to find the optimum stability.

The basic technical requirements of the horse are the toes of the back foot in line with the heels of the front foot and slightly wider than the shoulders. The front leg supports most of the weight and the rear leg acts as a support. The weight division is 70 percent on the front leg and 30 percent on the back leg. It is said that the feet are like a ding but not a ding, like the Chinese character for 8 ‘Ba’ but not a ‘Ba’. In practice, this means that the stance is somewhat midway between the T stance of karate and the double weighted riding stance of southern styles.

The Mantis song of body posture is a useful aid to remember the key points:

‘Legs are bent like a frog

Heel to toe shoulder width apart

Hands held like a beggar (asking)

Feet look like ding but not ding

Feet look like ba but not ba………’

When training the horse there are some common faults to try to avoid:

l  stance too long or wide

l  centre of gravity held high in the chest

l  leaning backwards

l  too much tension

The kind of movement of bouncing on the toes as seen in boxing and modern karate styles should be avoided as it can lead to non committal in attack: the rationale is that once the Mantis player closes the exchange should be decisive. As in the Mantis maxim:

‘You don’t come I won’t start.

You start and I will hit you first,

Continuously until you see red (blood)’

Once the basic requirements of feet positioning have been met, the centre should be developed, in which the centre of gravity is lowered. Here is where each individual makes micro adjustments to make the horse stance. This can be achieved with relaxation, breathing and correct body structure. A good visualization exercise to facilitate relaxation is to imagine all your muscles dripping off the bones through total relaxation like melted wax, as you stand in the horse in Hat Yi Sao (Beggars hand).

Mobility is developed by the various stepping patterns: basic stepping such as chop step, advance step and circle step and additional advanced patterns such as diagonal step and four corner steps.

Stepping can be practiced in two ways:

l  Monkey stepping- soft and light with no sound

l  Elephant stepping- hard and heavy

Elephant steps result in a ‘bing bong’ sound from the feet hitting the floor. The bing bong sound is an audible representation of energy being drawn up from the ground. Once walking the horse is stable, then running the horse can be practiced where the steps are practiced in a brisk fashion without losing the connection with the ground.

Note:

The material presented in this blog is part of the authentic transmission here in China, using my lesson notes and material by Sifu Roger D Hagood (RDH) Further information on MANTIS FOOTWORK see Volume 9 in the Jook Lum Temple Mantis Instruction Series by RDH.