Principle #9 – Power is always generated from the ground upwards.
Here’s the next instalment in my long-running series ’13 Principles of Effortless Motion’.
From my background in Tai Chi training, I have learned that power is always the result of structure plus relaxation; this is known as ‘sung’ in Cantonese and denotes a particular kind of physical state, the closest English translation of which is “relaxed power”.
It’s not the sort of power you develop in the gym; modern day exercises like squats and bench press simply strengthen your muscles but can’t improve the strength of your bones, tendons or fascia or help you develop a physical framework capable of withstanding and exerting an elastic type of energy which employs ground-force, compression and connection – all highly important aspects of relaxed yet efficient movement, especially when dealing with sports that demand the release of explosive energy i.e. the golf swing and the tennis serve.
In other martial arts too (most notably those of the internal schools of Chinese kung-fu) priority is always given to training standing postures which have the effect of developing a state of relaxed readiness so that your body develops like a coiled spring capable of issuing immense power before returning once again to stillness.
This type of training can help you develop what the great Martina Navratilova calls “escalation” whereby the power is seen as coming from the lower body, through the waist and into the upper body, and where these three sections of the body (feet/legs, waist/torso, shoulders/arms) move in an accelerated sequence whereby each successive section as we traverse from lower to upper body moves with increasing speed.
The legendary Jack Nicklaus said something similar in that “Golf is played with the feet” and hearing this many years ago was the catalyst which set me on my mission to bring Tai Chi wisdom into sports performance as it resonated with a phrase from the Tai Chi classics which states,
“Tai Chi is rooted in the feet, springing from the legs, guided by the waist and expressed in the hands”.
So how can you train relaxed power, escalation, compression and so forth?
Well, as a follower of Chi-Performance you’ll know that I’m presenting principles and techniques that predate sports-science by several hundred years. The reason for this is so you are offered a complete map of how energy and motion are affected by what I call the foundations of effortless movement.
Get these foundations right and your technique will have certain anchor-points that can lock it down such that you can maintain good form, even under pressure. Moreover, training the foundations of movement the way they are trained in Tai Chi and kung fu will help you to generate relaxed power and all the benefits that come from training a solid yet elastic framework that’s propelled by centrifugal force (remember the t’an tien?!) so that your power comes close to what Bruce Lee described as “like being hit with an iron ball on the end of a chain”.
Recently, we’ve been talking a lot about correct breathing and traditional meditation and how these ancient practises help to bring the mind and body together and allow movement to flow in the heat of competition. You’ll be aware of my book “Breathe GOLF; The Missing Link to a Winning Performance” which is a bestseller on Amazon
Now that September’s here and we’re all cracking on again with our goals, work, fitness and personal challenges, I’d like to shift the emphasis of these newsletters towards sharing what I know about the foundations of movement.
Don’t get me wrong, I see breathing meditation as absolutely essential if you want to accelerate your game but it stands alongside ancient biomechanical principles to form the two central pillars of the Chi-Performance method.
Principle No. 9 in my list of 13 – states that power comes from the ground so we’re going to start our exploration of ancient biomechanics by looking more closely at your feet and footwork.
Here’s a video I shot a couple of years ago which explains more (6’:19”)
It’s aimed at golfers but the same principles apply and have been used successfully by tennis-players, skiers, snow-boarders and other athletes looking to release the greatest amount of force with the least amount of effort i.e. relaxed power.
Let me know how you get on.
Happy training!
