uproot both feet not just one

[Ian]

...uprooting both feet at the same time, not just the front foot, in push hands.

It depends on what you want to do though, no?

If you believe push hands is for training an aspect of your fighting ability, then sometimes you may just want to uproot one foot e.g. to place all the weight on the other before sweeping the supporting leg out or breaking the knee.

Or sometimes you don't need to uproot at all e.g. standing elbow wrench.



Boom!

[johnwang]

How do you prevent your opponent from landing back on both feet when you uproot both of his feet? Did CMC ever taught his students what to do after that? When your opponent is flying in the air, shot him down with your shot gun sound like a good follow up plan.

[Dmitri]

IME uprooting doesn't mean make someone fly off his feet -- to me it means to make the other guy lose his "connection to the ground", make him "float"... not sure how else to say this. It's a prerequisite to many "techniques" and should be happening automatically when an IMA person engages a non-IMA person, without "doing the uprooting" specifically, as a separate "technique" or even effort.
Uprooting alone, in and of itself, bears little to none martial value IMHO. Sending people flying is completely useless, unless: a) you're launching him into a sharp table corner or the like, b) you're launching him (case of multiple attackers) into his buddy to buy a couple of seconds to either run or whatever, and c) you're showing off how great you are in some "masters demonstration"...

As to the original question -- it doesn't matter one or both feet or which foot; the point is to make them feel unstable and "floating". Also of course it doesn't always apply or is relevant. E.g. you of course need to be aware of cases when someone might do something silly like this:

[gosao]

In Tai Chi the clean uproot in push hands is not the end all. It's just to train an energy and a refinement of a specific skill. I think many tai chi people get caught up in training the clean uproot because it really is very cool and it's difficult to do. In some of these clips I see a very vertical lifting and bouncing up of the other person. I don't really think that's the skill that's mentioned by cmc. To catch, intercept, and float a resisting opponent in mid motion without grabbing them or lifting up with a very overt upwards push is not easy. You don't want to lift up, you want to project the other person backwards but have both their feet off the ground so they can't land and regain balance easily. When you capture a person mid motion and pop them out like a champagne cork you're not only intercepting their motion center, and balance but you uproot them psychologically as well. I think if you've been on the receiving end of a clean uproot and powerful rearward projection you wouldn't question the ability. It's pretty scary.

[ShortFormMike]

one of my teachers said that a slight push that makes a person come up off the ground is against physics so what is really happening is that you are accessing a reactive energy that's intrinsic to the nervous system (not chi but some kind of reflex).

somebody here talked about people looking fake who jump up and back but if you feel you may fall on your butt, that is a common reaction. i assume this is one of the examples.

one of my buddies can tap me on the chest lightly and then follow up with another quick tap which makes my feet come up. this must be a way to play with spinal reflexes cuz i find it almost impossible to control if i am totally relaxed.

[johnwang]

one of my buddies can tap me on the chest lightly and then follow up with another quick tap which makes my feet come up. this must be a way to play with spinal reflexes cuz i find it almost impossible to control if i am totally relaxed.

Have you play this game when you were young. You ask a person to sit on the chair. You touch both index finger together, hold both hands, and put under his left knee. One of your friends does the same under his right knee. Two of your friends do the same under his shoulder. All 4 of you count 1, 2, and 3, you and your friends can lift that person up in the air from the chair.

Even today (50 years later), I still have no idea what could happend that day. How can one person been lift up in the air with only 8 fingers without even feel that person's weight? Can anybody be able to explain this?

Another one that I can't figure out is any cup that can move freely on it's own on the table (similiar to ouija board) by just 3 persons's fingers touching. One time my frineds and I brought in a baby ghost who was only 6 months old. She was crying when she was invited.

[meeks]

some of the stuff that Wang Shifu is doing looks pretty good. The Mr. Park guy has strange execution, but besides that, most of what he does in the video belongs on David Letterman under 'stupid master tricks' (stupid pet tricks)... a fond term some of us have for basic push hands tricks with no real fighting merit.