Relaxation must reach the feet. If you can really relax, the weight of the body will definitely be transferred to the feet, and relaxation will inevitably lead to sinking.
The legs will bear a lot of body weight, and the degree of load-bearing of the legs is actually the degree of relaxation. At that time, the thighs will be very sore. I don’t know if you have such an experience during the practice of boxing. If not, it means that there is something wrong with the practice.
The body can be relaxed, either downward along the gravity, upward along the reaction force of the ground, or in all directions around under the combined effect of these two forces. Among all the directions of relaxation, downward relaxation is the most basic, and downward relaxation focuses on the word “release”. It is like putting the heavy objects on the shoulders, back, hands, and hips on the ground, and putting them down along the gravity. Put the skeleton straight and straight, and the skin and flesh hang on the skeleton like clothes on a hanger and fall naturally.
Really relax to the feet. The part that is put down feels heavy, and you can feel your own weight. Relaxing downward, the spirit in the body sinks like mud and sand in the water, so it is also called relaxation and sinking, or simply “sinking”. The more parts of the body are relaxed, the more body weight is placed on the ground, and the more Qi sinks to the soles of the feet. The more Qi sinks to the soles of the feet, the center of gravity will also follow, and the rebound force will increase, which is more consistent with the gravity of the center of the earth.
The key to relaxing to the soles of the feet is to relax the waist and hips. When the waist and hips are relaxed, the Qi will naturally gather, and the Qi will go down to the two feet, and the lower body will be stable.
If you really relax and sink to the soles of the feet, you will feel a force rising from the soles of the feet, filling the whole body, and pushing people up. This is the effect of the earth’s recoil.
When practicing boxing, the knees cannot be stressed. It is not the knee joints that bear the weight of the body, but the waist and hips are relaxed to sink the weight of the body to the soles of the feet. If you can relax the waist and hips, the knees will be relaxed and naturally stressed.
Some people use the method of bending the knee joints to lower the center of gravity and body height. It is not a relaxation, but a deliberate lowering of the center of gravity; the stiff knee joints are not conducive to the change of virtual and real, and it is easy to damage the knee joints. Only when the body is relaxed and the waist and hips are lowered, the qi sinks to the soles of the feet, and the knees are not stressed, can it be considered relaxed and sunk.
If the boxing stance is too low, it is not relaxed but stiff, and the knees are stressed, which will damage the knees over time; only when the soles of the feet are attracted to the ground and the recoil force is relaxed upwards, and the center is relaxed and comfortable, can it be just right.
To know the relationship between relaxation and center of gravity, when fighting, the internal boxing is to defeat the opponent with the center of gravity of kung fu.
There are four types of center of gravity for boxers:
1, The first is the actual center of gravity, which is the real center of gravity of the human body.
2, The second is the center of gravity of the mind. For example, when boxing, you should use the waist and spine to drive, and it is also said that the dantian is used to drive the whole body to box. This waist and spine is the center of gravity of the mind, and the center of gravity of the mind is variable.
3, The third is the center of gravity of feeling. When boxing, you feel where your center of gravity is. If you sink to the soles of your feet, you will feel it. An important key to quickly sinking to the soles of the feet is to retract the coccyx. Retracting the coccyx can cause the dantian to bulge forward and upward, and the internal energy naturally sinks to the lower dantian.
4, The fourth is the center of gravity of kung fu. The center of kung fu is a combination of the first three centers of gravity.
How to find the center of gravity of kung fu?
If you want to find the center of gravity of kung fu, you can experience it by pushing hands with an opponent who is weaker than you. After you have the feeling of sinking from the waist and hips, you will gradually feel the strength coming from the knees, calves, and ankles. Soon you can feel it sinking to the soles of the feet.
Try to unload the opponent’s strength to the bottom of the feet through relaxation and sinking, and dissolve it cleanly. Sinking to the soles of the feet and sinking to the ground are two different levels of kung fu. The practice of sinking to the soles of the feet is not yet in place. You need to sink to the soles of the feet and stick to the ground tightly. This is the practice of sinking to the ground, and the sinking from top to bottom is in place.
In the process of practicing boxing, it is often difficult to transmit the strength, so you must practice with the correct body posture. Therefore, we need to do the following:
1, Loosen the hips and waist
Since the hips are a combination of the hip joint, pelvis, lumbar spine and muscle tissue, they are formed by the connection between the femur and pelvis, and between the pelvis and spine. Therefore, to loosen the hips, one is to loosen the connection between the thigh root and the lower abdomen, and the other is to loosen the connection between the lumbar spine and the pelvis.
To check whether the connection between the thigh root and the lower abdomen is loose, you can touch the groin with your hand. If the groin is soft, it means it is loose. If it is hard and tense, it is not loose. To check whether the connection between the lumbar spine and the pelvis is loose, you can feel the pelvis straightened. The lumbar spine feels like it is inserted into the pelvis, and the pelvis feels like it is “falling down”.
When our hips are really loose, the weight of the upper body will fall directly on the legs, the thighs will be very sore and swollen, and the soles of the feet will be very solid, just like the feeling of being rooted deep into the ground.
2, Loosen the shoulders
Most people have very stiff shoulders before they practice boxing. When the shoulders are loose, it feels like the arms are falling down, and the shoulders and back will feel very comfortable. Let me give you another example. When we were young, we all played with rattles. When we loosen our shoulders, it’s like two small drumsticks hanging on the drum. When we shake it, the drumsticks move with the drum, and it feels like a broken lotus root. I don’t know if I’ve expressed it clearly. Words are like this. It can’t be said, it can’t be said!
3, Thoracic and abdominal cavities
The human body cavity includes the thoracic cavity and the abdominal cavity, which are separated by the diaphragm. The heart, lungs, spleen, stomach, liver, kidneys, intestines, etc., all these organs are suspended in the body cavity. Under normal circumstances, when the human body is in a static state, these organs are naturally suspended. When we exercise, in order to avoid collision between the five internal organs, the body will naturally contract the waist and abdominal muscles to protect the five internal organs, thus putting the body in a state of tension.
During the boxing practice, it is required to loosen the body cavity. When it is really loosened, it seems that all the internal organs have fallen down at once, hanging naturally inside the body cavity. The chest seems to be empty and the abdomen is full. This is what we often call empty chest and full abdomen. The body seems to feel heavy, and the soles of the feet feel particularly solid, like a giant’s foot stepping into the ground.
Only when all of these are achieved can the requirements of boxing theory be met. It should be noted that these are all practiced, not imagined.
In boxing theory, “holding the chest” is used to describe the relaxation of the body cavity; the feeling of empty and spiritual top strength is like one’s neck has grown longer, and the height seems to have grown along with it; the feeling of pulling the back is like carrying a pot on the back, always suspecting that one has a hunchback, and the chest is gone, leaving only the pot; the feeling of sinking shoulders and dropping elbows is like a dislocated shoulder joint, hanging on the body, the shoulder and elbow are gone, leaving only the palm; the feeling of loosening the waist and dropping the hips is like one’s pants are not tied with a belt, and the pants always feel like they are falling down; the feeling of walking like a cat is a bit like walking on stilts with two legs, and the crotch is very wide, as if one’s legs are gone, and it feels weird.