Hey, the Question popped up in the "internal before external" thread
http://www.rumsoakedfist.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12497&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=90&sid=67ffa1693f0a0041ae8cb93f73d97a0e about turning the Foot on the Ball or the Heeel or otherwise?
There has already been some discussion but I think it might be interesting for a lot of us who probaly dont find it there, so it could have a thread of its own.
To (ort of!) ) sum up what were the main points of discussion
we have
the "Front-Turners" who think this is the only way to be agile and not get stuck in their movement
and
the "Heel-Turners" who claim this sort of Rooting is the only way to generate enough Power (which for them is not the kinetic Kind of Power but the Structural Power needed to properly borrow Energy)
Positon One says: In the past 2 days, I have tried to turn on my heel for at least a 100 times. everytime I have the feeling that my foot was "stucked" on the ground as if somone is pulling on my leg back. It's not a good feeling at all.
Position Two answers:
See John to me feeling stuck to the ground is a great feeling. It is the third most common thing my teacher tells us to do. Basically it's "More tuck in, more round, feel stuck to the ground". But it is all a matter of what you use it for I suppose. In our system we want to be able to be stuck to the ground at any given time, whether attacking, yielding, whatever.
So far my very poor summary and citations, as mentioned you can find the discussion beginning at
http://www.rumsoakedfist.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12497&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=75&sid=67ffa1693f0a0041ae8cb93f73d97a0e I have studied in two different traditions of which one turns mostly on the ball, the other always on the heel. I can see both points of the discutants above and can attest that from the focus they respectively have on agility or rooting they are in a way both right. Goddamm, stuck now?
I think there is more to be said about it.
Point 1 (no particular order, just letting ideas flow):
Do you too have the impression that turning the back foot on the ball gives more the feeling of pushing (say in brush knee in taijiquan) more downwards while with turning on the heel the push has easily more of a rising quality?
Point 2:
My feeling is that while pivoting on the heel compressses energy more into the front foot (which might be the reason why those who advocate Power Pushing and Peng Jing strongly, do it that way), pivoting on the ball results more in a straight "Power-Tangent" from the pushing hand side of the slightly circling body? (I know this Pont might be very subjective, but physically at least not wrong)
http://fr.maths.free.fr/maths/mnr/qt-revis/geometr1/image51.gifPoint 3:
I am kind of sure it also depends on from where to where (how much degrees) you pivot the foot. If,s say you turn from 90 degrees to 45 degrees or even just 60 degrees, turning on the heel is appropriate, because it is hard to stretch the already very open Kwa even more, which would be required if you turn on the front foot and so enlarge the stance. If, on the other hand you turn, say, from 45 dgrees to straigth like they do in wu style taijiquan this would be very odd to do on the heel in a big stance as the mobility of the calves limits the moovement.
To sum this point up I have seen some people starting the pivot on the heel and finishing it on the ball wich would be consistent with this Point.
Point 4:
Some Traditions (of Taijiquan) speak of the inner heel as the "Power Point", some emphasize Yongquan as liveliest "energy center". Maybe they reaally experience it that way? - probably because of their training habits???
So much for now, I am curious about what you have to say.