What is Rooting in Tai Chi?

Dropping root is really a method of emitting energy. Tai Chi teaches many different ways of emitting and using energy, but root is easiest to learn because it involves sending energy downward. With rooting, gravity is completely on your side.

Rooting in Tai Chi is using mind intent to send your energy down into the ground. You might have learned rooting as a metaphysical skill where the rooting is just about being psychologically connected and centered but doesn’t have much impact in the physical world.

This is not that kind of rooting.

A deep, strong root can be tangibly felt. Imagine a 30 foot pole with 2 feet stuck in the ground. It wouldn’t be that difficult to push over, would it? It might even fall over all on it’s own.

Now image the same 30 foot pole with 25 feet stuck in the ground. This pole would be a lot more of a challenge to knock down.

This is what a solid root feels like.

A person who has solid Tai Chi structure and a strong and deep root will feel this way to someone who tries to push them over. A skilled Tai Chi student can sense how deep and how thick an opponents’ root is.

To someone who isn’t trained in Tai Chi sensitivity, pushing over a well-rooted person will just feel like trying to push over a solid wall.

I Have a Friend Who Says He Can Root, But He Doesn’t Feel Very Solid.

You or someone you know might be aware of the concept of root and be able to do it a little bit, but you might not have gotten very deep. Many people have roots that are between one inch and one foot into the ground. This is a good place to start. Some root is better than none at all.

But if you think about the example of the iron pole example, this kind of root is not going to help much with martial applications. Most of the person’s combined body and root are above the ground.

To really begin to see some root applications a person must have a root of at least their own body height. And you should work to get to about 20 feet or 3 times your height as quickly as possible.

You or your rooting friend also might be among those who have gotten that 6-to-20 foot root whose root is very thin.

To be effective, your root must be at least as wide as the widest part of your body. If you have a size 40 waist, then this is your first goal. Eventually you want to be able to expand your root to the size of a room or courtyard.

Why Dropping Root Comes First

Dropping root is really a method of emitting energy. Tai Chi teaches many different ways of emitting and using energy, but root is easiest to learn because it involves sending energy downward. With rooting, gravity is completely on your side.

Because of this, dropping root is the easiest form or energy emission to learn. The skills you learn while dropping root will be useful for emitting energy in other directions later on.

There are other uses for root beyond the iron-bar-in-the-ground martial application. But I’m going to save that for the next post.

Photo by: Nina Hale

Comments

  1. thank you for this site and this important and advanced information presented in a clear, easy to understand way
    do you think this can be tried on your own, without a teacher?
    and if so, what are the indications of progress… I mean I am feeling emotionally grounded and more secure just by reading it… but what are the other signs of progress… and what are the best ways to boost the energetic root growth?
    thank you again, Richard!

    • Thank you, I’m glad you are getting a lot out of the site.

      I assume by ‘without a teacher’ you mean long distance without a live teacher. Yes, there is a lot you can do without live instruction.

      Indications of progress depend on what skill you are working on. For root start with depth. Get to where it feels like you are about 12 – 25 feet down below the ground. (2 – 3 times your body height.) Then add width and start working on your ability to manipulate that root quickly and easily.

      Train with a partner using our Internal Push Hands method as much as possible. This will give you immediate feedback and speed up your progress considerably.

      For building root we focus on the exercises taught on our Internal Power page.

  2. great!

Trackbacks

  1. […] my last post, I mentioned that to be effective, a root has to be at least 6 to 20 feet down into the […]

  2. […] the past couple of posts we’ve talked about the concept of root in Tai Chi and how far you can take […]

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