Push With Back Leg Part 3

I have written about what I felt about pushing with the back leg before. Recently, I realised that I have been getting it wrong. All the while, I had thought that pushing with the back leg meant that when I am pushing forward, all the force should come from my back leg. Instead, that doesn't generate force to my arms, and cause the problem of stiffening my kua.

After some thought, and talking to my teacher, I realised that to push with the back leg doesn't mean the back leg pushes with a constant magnitude of force throughout. As your weight slowly shifts in front, the front leg takes on more weight, and the back leg should push with less force. Pushing with the back leg is actually a gradual shifting of the weight from back leg to front leg. The reverse (when shifting weight from front to back leg) is the same, of course. This helps you to move your centre of gravity properly and thus allows you to bring your weight to bear.

Power From Stance Training

Power comes from the legs. This is something common to all martial arts. Weak legs, weak stance, and you cannot generate force. Which is why it is important to train the strength of your legs. And all seem to agree that the way to do it is via stance training. It can be static (zhan zhuang) or dynamic (adopting a low stance when practising taiji routines). So don't rush through your routines, use them to practise your stances and from it, build up and learn to generate the force from your legs.