The impregnation and mutation
Tutorial on the importance of tree roots in the art of Japanese sword.
Fighters targeted by this lesson: This lesson is for fencers who practice the art of cutting (Battodo, Tameshigiri) or the art of drawing a katana (Iaidô). However, fighters who perform kicks and punches can enjoy this tutorial. Indeed, to the extent that give a kick or punch away a member of your body that lengthens the lever arm and consequently increases the pressure on the structures of the involved members. If the body is not adapted to this training, it generates imbalances of your movements that cause injuries and pain that can be installed in the distal limb (eg wrist) to the proximal section (eg shoulder) and migrate to the neck, spine, lower back, hips, and legs. This is true also as regards the kicks. However, it is essential to understand that in the case of the use of the sword, the sword is more cumbersome and time, the more these tensions will be high and will exert an even greater stress on musculoskeletal structures. Never forget that your body is not an addition of members and segments, but a closely linked chain and shoulder pain that can result from poor decision-saber your a/l of the wrists, and conversely, a pain a/l of the wrist can come from poor stability  a/l of the shoulder.

Analogy of the tree.
The growth process of the seed to the shaft follows a logic that can be applied to the body of the slasher. The seed falls into the ground, and seed. Then, the roots begin to grow and to sink into the ground at a greater rate than the pin that points to the sky slowly. This root is the assurance that the tree will grow in height and withstand winds and extreme tension that apply unleashed his kind. A tree that grows in rocky ground will broad roots to counter the inability to locate in depth.

Similarly, the slasher is first a seed. This must begin by deploying roots. This period is called impregnation or rooting. This is in fact to anchor the body before starting the movement. This step is critical because it allows good stabilize motion to avoid injuries and premature wear of your body while allowing quick and precise cuts in the course of evolution.

The basic exercise to implement this phase is Chi Gong (Qi Gung, Qi Gong). With this daily practice (minimum 3 minutes) you develop a Chi (vital energy) while anchoring this energy in the depths of your body, well below future movements. It is not a surface energy as that given stimulants and drugs, but of profound strength that allows you to exercise a strong and honest work throughout your life. You actually take root in the depths of your musculoskeletal architecture movement by providing essential stability following things.

I have noticed over the decades that a lack of impregnation has several negative consequences that inevitably result in lesions, pain, bad boss in cutting and an inability to cross a certain performance threshold. This certainly reduces the pleasure of your martial art while mortgaging the welfare of your life every day and the quality of your mature age. Furthermore great vitality and deep rooting for possibly exert mystical curative actions and not as the imposition of hands and Shiatsu.

The second phase of your evolution is mutation. Once your roots is strengthened, it is now possible to start moving. If your impregnation is adequate, the movements that arise will be solid, precise, energy-efficient and reduce the possibility of injury and premature wear.

 Basic exercises to implement this phase are Tai Chi modified, slow kata, the Eight of Gong Fu silks and exercises fluidity and coordination. This step does not yet incorporate speed, power or combat. This is rooting and coordinate the deployment of the trunk and branches. We are still in the shaft of the growing period. We avoid the still immature to provide structure to the violence of high winds and winter pressures.

It is essential to understand and assimilate once and for all that the movement must be rooted from proximal to distal. For example, if you want to cut tatami, you must first visualize the movement, allow the Chi to wake up to prepare the mutation while giving time to proximal structures to anticipate the movement by stabilizer. Once the mutation ingrained in your mind, your energy and your body, the mutation may arise adequately minimizing the expenditure of energy and protecting your bodily structures. In this case, and only in this case, you will ensure a precise and maximum gesture while minimizing harmful side effects for your integrity.

Finally, to mix with swordsmen and martial artists, I realized that despite long and intense training, the majority of practitioners who come to meet me on especially developed an external approach and modern based on the speed, performance and power at the expense of internal and flexible approach Chi and ancestral resources of the animal. In most cases, a short assessment of the basic posture and movements can observe a sub-maximal use of the proximal body resulting in uncoordinated movements, inaccurate and damaging to structures involved. In many cases, there is an overuse of muscles for movement and misuse of key structures rooting. This results in weak and anchored katas, cuts that lack of penetration and control, and pain. These conditions can improve with optimum physical and mechanical energy and a conscious mind notions which this text refers.

It is therefore essential to understand the analogy of the tree if you want to deploy to the skies and over time instead of falling, flaming, in the first winter storm. Ponder this text in depth, and are implementing what you understand.

Text from the book: The sixth wheel
written by:  Nichiken Yamabushi (José Pouliot)
Founder of Chi Gong Fu Ni Dô
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