In last week’s talk, I traced the confusing definitions of root enough to establish that, although conventional gung-fu and Taijiquan use the same term to describe the same general result, an ability to “receive” the force of the opponent in such a way as to maximize the redirection of that force vertically into the feet, they employ entirely different methods of doing so. I spent the majority of time explaining the idea of “double-weight,” and its use as a deliberate method by conventional gung-fu. Now I describe the Taijiquan method of “dynamic rooting,” and then continue on to an explanation of the second meaning of root, as mentioned in the Classics, which pertains, not to reception of the force of the opponent, but to the chansijing method of locomotion, frequently referred to as “internal force.”
Please check out my article “Root”. This article covers both lectures on the subject.