How the legs physically spiral inward:

[Anonymous]

This post will attempt to answer Robert’s question about how the upper and lower body work. I could be cheeky and just say exactly the same as the arms, but everyone would still have the same questions that Robert had. 

Like my post on the arms, I only plan to describe the closing or storing action from the foot to the kwa. To open or release, just reverse the flow. If you did the store correctly, the energy is stored similar to a compressed spring. It gets stored wherever you directed it. So if the end point is a joint, release from the joint. If the end point is an organ, release from the organ. If the end point is the lower tan tien, release it.

One other thing, I’m going to use the ko step of the single palm change as a reference for the leg. My hope is that you’ll go back to the DVDs and be able to appreciate how Bruce is relating the same information but in a different way. I also hope you’ll start to see the brilliance and design of this movement.

Warning! The legs are much stronger so you have to be more careful.

Onto the legs…

Like the spiraling in the arms which starts with the hands, in the legs we start with the foot. The first movement of the ko is really a simple turn (rotation) of the foot inward. I think in and out of the foot is easier to understand because the range of motion is more restricted. You want to move pressure, energy, your mind from the tips of the toes back toward the ankle joint as you turn the foot in. You are trying to perform a spiraling close into the ankle joint. It is significantly harder to feel this in the foot than in the hand (at least when you first start). So, don’t worry about the feeling the store at this point. Just turn the foot.

Like the hand and forearm, you’ll find that turning the foot in twists the calf muscles, tendons, and ligaments as though they are a matched set. Don’t twist the knee or the knee joint or the bones. Note that the forearm bones (ulna and radius) as well and the shin bones (tibia and fibula) move, but they don’t twist in the sense of flex. It is okay that they move but you don’t want to flex them. Flexing the bones can create small micro fractures in the bone structure. You don’t want that! So, only twist the soft tissue.

The soft tissue of the lower leg spirals into the back of the knee just like the elbow.

The next segment is the upper leg. There are a lot more muscle in the thigh than the bicep and I think it is a lot easier to find the muscles that twist the thigh, but I still think the most important rotation comes from the hip. Remember that you are closing so the knee begins to bend as soon as the pressure, energy, mind reaches it and it continues to bend as you move up into the kwa.

You’ll start shifting weight to the leg which will be aided by the closing. That weight shift helps bend the knee. This is the equivalent of bending the elbow.

Now you have to find the equivalent of three rotations in the shoulder to the three rotations in the hip. The first is the rotation of the whole leg inward from the hip. The second is equivalent to the pumping arm. In the leg the rotation is the same as lifting your leg like you want to knee someone. You might think this is the opposite of the arm, but it isn’t. You have to remember the definition of “in”, toward the lower tan tien. The arm swings down toward the lower tan tien. The leg swings up toward the tan tien. They are exactly the same.

As you continue to shift your weight to the leg that ko’d, the kwa folds or bends. Although the leg doesn’t rise, the body does lower. This creates exactly the same relative position of the torso to the knee. It is the same rotation as the arm swinging down. You’ll get the use of your weight (gravity) to help produce the referred pressure from the foot to the knee to the kwa. This is much easier than creating the inward movement in the arms.

The third rotation is the wrapping motion. I primarily think this is done by the piriformis muscle, but there is a lot of tissue in the butt that I’m sure contributes to the action. You should be able to feel the pressure go into the joint between the pelvis and hip.

Again, everything is done as one smooth continuous motion. If you are successful, you are now able to access the side channel. You’ll want to train this for a while until it is smooth and easily done.

This might sound really complicated. It really isn’t. Everyone can do the rotations already except possibly the wrap (remember Bruce calls the shoulder blade the lost joint of the body.). The inward movement or pressure is easy in the legs because all your weight creates it. You are just guiding it with your attention (mind). So, twisting should be pretty easy. Spiraling is more difficult and the real key to opening the channels and nerves of the body. The inward spiral is naturally created by the soft tissue. Basically, the tissue is being wrapped around the bones. As the rotation increases, the tissue squeezes inward. So you’re just guiding that squeeze in and toward the joint in coordination with guiding the pressure in.

This is really hard to describe. Hope this helps someone.

[Author]

Posts