The knee is the hub between the thigh and the calf, and the yin and yang changes, and the requirements of Tai Chi for the knee are relaxed, natural, soft and powerful. If the knee can't be loosened, the fist movement will seep into the stiffness. If the knee joint is weak, the fist movement will be shaky. The ankle is the first joint where the ball of the foot is connected to the ground, and it is also the last joint where the whole body weight is lowered to the ground by the ball of the foot; Although it is a relatively strong joint in the human body, it is also the joint that is most easily ignored and neglected by many Tai Chi enthusiasts. The ankle joint is limited by physiological conditions, and it does not have as much range of motion as the knee and medullary joints. If you fail to improve its flexibility and fail to maintain the natural relaxation of the joints, it will affect the strength of the fist and the overall coordination of the action. From the practice of practicing and practicing boxing, it is known that Yang's Taijiquan's external kneeling and ankle sitting and internal knee loosening skills are helpful for beginners in Taijiquan to exercise their knees and ankles to meet the technical requirements of the exercise, and the practice method is as follows:
It is rumored to kneel and sit on the ankle
Kneeling and sitting on the ankle is one of the basic skills to exercise the flexibility of the knee and ankle by stretching the muscles and pulling the bones. Here's how to do it: Kneel on a soft mat with your legs bent and your knees. The shin of the calf and the straight foot are attached to the mat, the buttocks are sitting on the heels, and the palms of the shoulders are loose and the hands are attached to the sunny side of the thighs, and each exercise time is about two or three minutes. Rigid mats make the shin bones and foot bones uncomfortable, so it is advisable to choose soft mats, such as yoga mats. Kneeling with the knees bent can loosen and lengthen the knee muscles, and sitting on the hips and heels can also loosen and lengthen the ankle muscles. Although kneeling and sitting on the ankle is a basic warm-up skill with no gold content, it is also necessary to develop the habit of keeping the rules of boxing, which is good for loose body boxing.
Knee loosening is passed on
Many boxers regard the knee loosening gong as something to teach their apprentices in the door, and its characteristics reflect the practice of the leg yin behind the strength of the body, that is, the strength is loosened from the top to the bottom of the body to the soles of the feet, and the parts behind the body include the back, buttocks, inner and back of the thighs, behind the knee sockets, and the inner and back of the calves. The original meaning of yin and yang is very simple to express the sun's back, the sun is yang, and the back sun is yin. The connotation of the leg yin after walking vigorously comes from this, so that the practice can improve the level of kung fu of the knee transmission force, and can make the internal and external parts of the knee joint not be stressed and not weight-bearing, with obvious effects such as loosening the knee and transmitting strength, fixing the knee and stabilizing the lower plate, etc., it is indeed a basic skill with a bit of gold content. If you practice the knee loosening exercise correctly, there will be no knee pain.
The inner knee loosening technique is divided into single practice and sparring practice, and each practice of the gong is 36 to 60 times in a row. The knee-loosening exercise practiced alone is as follows: 1. Stand naturally with your feet slightly wider than your shoulders, and put your shoulders loose and your hands in front of your thighs. The weight of the whole body sinks to the soles of the feet through the waist and hips, the heels bear weight, and the spirit is channeled into the spring (located in the front depression of the front of the foot, the first third of the toe suture line between the head end and the heel line) to take root. 2. Relax the knee joints of the legs and go down about 20 to 30 cm and go up about 10 to 15 cm backwards, so that the repeated movements on the one side are carried out; This practice method contains the technical connotation of "oblique and correct". When the knees of the legs are relaxed, the chest, abdomen, and thighs fall diagonally in an approximate flat manner. It is worth noting that the heels of the soles of the feet are more strained than the soles of the feet due to the weight bearing, but it does not affect the power of the ground in the spring to summon the root strength. If the sole of the foot is stronger than the heel, it is easy to form a punch disease in front of the body. In order to make the soles of the feet strain and meet the technical requirements, first loosen the ankle joints in place.
The essentials of learning and training are: the chest, abdomen, front of the thighs, knees, front of the calves, front of the ankles and other parts of the body are as relaxed as possible and in a state of "virtuality"; The back, buttocks, back of the thighs, behind the knee sockets, behind the calves, and the inner side of the feet are loosened and sunk on the ground by the Zhaohai acupoint, which is in a state of "solid" when the strings are loosened and sunk. When beginners are practicing, find ways to loosen the crotch such as sucking the groin to make the knee and the knee socket feel naturally relaxed, and use consciousness to guide the energy from the knee socket, and the strength is about two-thirds of the way behind the knee. If you don't think the slumping of the knees and the straining areas are not clear enough, please refer to my tutorial diagram. Laymen watch this kind of knee loosening exercises, and see that the knee joint has fallen so low, thinking that the knee is very stressed and sore, but in fact, if you can loosen the waist and hips and loosen the knees, there is no abnormal problem with the knees.
The loose knee gong practiced by feeding the strength has the effect of loosening the knee and transmitting the strength, which is conducive to the improvement of the kung fu of defending the middle and stabilizing the pile, and also helps to release the loose elastic strength. Here's how to practice: I listen to the initial strength of the opponent's hands with my chest, and catch the opponent's strength with the soles of my feet. If the other person continues to push me back, I will release my knee and go down, and if the other person pushes me back 3 cm, I will release my knee and go down 3 cm; The other party pushed me back 4 cm, I loosened my knees and went down 4 cm, of course, the upper body followed diagonally; The other party pushes me back 5 cm, I loosen my knees and go down 5 cm, of course, the upper body follows diagonally, and so on. After the opponent's strength is loosened and unloaded into the ground on the soles of the feet through the waist and hips, if the return is unimpeded, the knees will naturally follow the transmission force that sinks to the soles of the feet and produce elastic strength with the help of the ground recoil force, commonly known as rebound force or loose elastic strength, and push the opponent back with the technique of borrowing force to return the force. If the other party feeds a little strength and is weightless and unstable, it means that he has not yet practiced the kung fu of loosening the waist and hips down to the soles of the feet, Yongquan has not been able to summon the root energy, and he has not realized the "oblique middle of the square" of kneeling down with loose knees to adjust the center of gravity of the body and stand firm. The bullet comes from the sinking, so we must first practice the loose elasticity of the waist and hips from the top to the bottom of the feet, and then advance to practice the loose elasticity of the soles of the feet from the bottom to the waist and hips. If you can't collect the opponent's strength under your feet, then you can't train the loose elasticity of the soles of your feet from the bottom up to the waist and hips.