How much root is enough?

Developing root is very important in all the internal arts.

…and it requires a lot of time and effort.

But you only have a limited amount of training time each day. So at what point have you built enough root that you can begin dedicating that training time to other things?

Well, you can always have more. So you should never stop building working root to some degree, here are the benchmarks

Our first level push hands instructors must be able to root a minimum of 18 – 20 feet.

(Details on becoming a Clear’s Internal Push Hands Instructor will be available in a couple weeks.)

If you’re serious about the internal arts in any way, getting to 18 – 20 feet down should be a top priority.

There are a whole lot of skills that you simply won’t be able to learn and many more that you can learn but that won’t be functional without at least this much rooting skill.

Don’t slow down once you hit 20 feet. This is just the bare minimum.

The next benchmark, and the minimum requirement for a Level 2 push hands instructor, is 250 feet.

I recommend designating a large portion of your training time to deepening your root until you hit this benchmark.

Next we’ll talk about how to measure your root depth:

Until then work on building your root with this exercise:
http://www.clearmartialarts.com/free-online-tai-chi-course/

…and watch for the Internal Push Hands Instructor Training Course Feb 18.

Comments

  1. MICHAEL DA SILVA says

    How do new students develop their root?

    Qigong, using low stances, practicing the Tai Chi form?

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