As noted
last month, being grounded is one of the concepts as martial artists we strive
for all the time and in everything we do.
If you are
not sure or confused, you are not alone.
This confusion is because you may hear that when you are grounded you
feel rooted to Earth, you may read or hear an Instructor say to be rooted, and
in some literature being
rooted is used synonymously with being grounded.
As a
reminder for what grounding is, I refer you to the March 2009 blog, What
Is Grounding?.
And while they can be synergistic, being rooted and being grounded are not the same. You can be rooted and not grounded, and you can be grounded but not rooted. Being rooted is more a physical, structural connection to the surface of the Earth. In some literature, people recommend being more rooted to go barefoot and feel the dirt. It has also been described as literally as if roots are growing from one’s feet into the Earth and the deeper the roots, the more stable and balanced one can be (especially if one also has proper alignment). Whereas when you are grounded you are connected deep to the core of the Earth.
In a static situation, adding being rooted on top of being
grounded can be useful. Imagining being
rooted is a good aid/ tool because it can mentally help move your consciousness
to your lower body, reduce or eliminate muscular tension in your upper body
which will improve your ground state. But
if you are too rooted through your feet, you may not be very mobile and feel
stuck when you need to move. You might
also come off as too rigid. And when you
try to get unstuck, you may even unground to move again.
In
addition, being rooted will not automatically allow you to tap into and flow Earth
Energy. As a reminder for what energy is when
we talk about it in the Club , I refer you to the April 2009 blog, What
Is Energy?.
Similarly, sometimes we use the visual of getting heavy or filling lower body with lead. In fact, this is part of the Light & Heavy exercises we introduce to students (sometimes as early as Belts) to aid students to get grounded or tell them in their stances they should feel heavy to invoke significant focus on the lower body.
By focusing on the lower body this sometimes physically makes you consciously or subconsciously lower your stances (therefore lower your center of gravity) and/or reduce or eliminate muscular tension in your upper body which can aid you in being more grounded. But being heavy is not the same as being grounded.
In addition, to effectively use one’s grounded state, proper alignment is critical. If you do not have proper alignment, then you will be using more of your focus to staying upright and move easily versus focusing on powerful techniques. Sometimes a visual of a rod through your spine through your Center is a good aid to maintain proper alignment. Imagining a rod is very useful, but this rod image does not mean you are grounded and is not required to be grounded.
As another note, advanced students can also leverage energy-based connections to one’s Center. While these energy-based connections to one’s Center are very effective in being more stable, grounded, powerful, the energy-based connections themselves are not considered to be grounded and are not required to be grounded.
Hopefully this information is useful to understand what
grounding is versus other terminology you may hear related to being grounded or
practicing being grounded.
Regards,
Kelly
“Move like a beam of light: fly
like lightning, strike like thunder, whirl in circles around a stable center.”
~ Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969), founder of Aikido, author of the book The Art of
Peace
