I have seen the phase "Ground Connection" in many IMA circles so it seems everyone knows it's important. My question is: what SIMPLE exercise do you do in order to understand this "Ground Connection"?

standing, push hands, silk reeling

Moose

In addition, try this very simple thing, gently push the wall with one or both hands. Feel(be aware of) the pressure/force change as it moves through your body between your foot and hand. The days I have been particulary sensitive it has been very interesting.

Walter, can you describe how you do silk reeling?

Mark, the exercise you explain sounds like a very good method to connect the internal system with an external system.

How do you solve the connection puzzle when you just stand there? What I am looking for is a way to understand the puzzle before connecting an external system with your hands; perhaps I am more interested in the relationship between the ground and lower body up to the waist.

IM,
I'll give it a try.

There are five variations in the Chen system, according to Chen Zheng Lei: single handed left and right, double handed (think wave hands like clouds), alternating hands working on lu or drawing inward, hands in unison re-directing then pulling down, and another done to the side that I have not been taught. The names I used are descriptives from my understanding of them, not official names. I will describe single handed left or right.

You stand in a simple horse stance, the depth of the stance determined by your conditioning. Left hand rests on the hip, right hand is held in front, palm facing out thumb down, fingertips in front of the left shoulder, arm extended (think peng or standing post)so that the hand is well away from the shoulder. This extension is maintained throughout the exercise.

The movement originates in the dantien, as the dantien rotates several things happen simultaneously as a result of the rotation. I will start from the top down, explaining what happens with the hand and arm, then the waist, then the legs.

As the dantien rotates away from the outstretched hand(to the right), the hand is pulled across the body in a slow arc to the right, palm slowly turning over until it is palm down when it has come in front of the right shoulder. As the dantien continues to rotate, the palm turns up when in front of the right hip and the hand begins to circle back in front of the body and to the left until it returns in front of the left hip, then rises up and returns to the original position. The oval created by the rotation of the dantien is traced in the air by the hand. I will not go further into detail here, it is best shown and further detail may confuse the essential points.

As this is happening with the hand/arm, the waist is following the rotation of the dantien, turning back and to the right, then forward and to the left.

As this is happening above the stance shifts from even weightedness, to the weighty mainly on the right leg, the right knee circling outward and back to the right. As the hand and hip start circling back to the left, the right knee presses forward, the weight begins to shift to the left leg, and the left knee starts to circle outward and to the left, until the circle of the dantien starts back to the right. At this point the process begins again. The knees should visibly be expressing a figure eight pattern. In the beginning, it helps to work on this first, then add the hand, then lead with the dantien, if that makes any sense.

While all this is going on, the lower back (mingmen) is opening and closing. The lower back area presses or arches to the front as the hand is pulled to the right held high, while expressing ward off energy or peng, and then reverses its arch and pulls inward as the hand is low and being pulled to the left, while expressing lu energy.

Ideally, one will use reverse breathing, inhaling and drawing the abdomen/dantien towards the spine as the hand is low and the energy is being stored in the back, exhaling and expanding the abdomen/dantien as the hand is high and the energy is being released.

CZL stressed that the stances are never fully extended in either direction, i.e. the back leg is never straight at the knee.

I hope this is somewhat clear.

Iron Moose,
All of the above suggestions are very good, but you will never know if you are aligned properly (have 'ground connection') unless you are tested with resistence.

The simplest way to see if you are 'connected' with the ground is to assume a posture and have a partner push back into you from the point you are focusing your line of force directly back into your body. For example, if you stand in a 'ward off' position with your arm raised, have your partner push your arm directly back into your body. If you are stable without having to use any more effort than when holding the posture in space with no applied resistance, you are correctly aligned and have 'ground connection.' Since your partner is pushing inward along the same path to the ground that allows you to issue force outward, you know you are lined up correctly to issue force in that position. You can apply this type of testing to any posture or position.

Once you have been tested with resistance a few times, your muscle memory will internalize the feeling of correct alingmnent, and you will have a 'feeling' for it without the need to be tested again. After you have a feel for correct alignment at the termination of movements, you can begin to work on maintaining the feeling of alignment as you move.

Tim,
Just one point of clarification, please. When you wrote:
"For example, if you stand in a 'ward off' position with your arm raised, have your partner push your arm directly back into your body. If you are stable without having to use any more effort than when holding the posture in space with no applied resistance, you are correctly aligned and have 'ground connection.'"

Does it matter how hard your partner is pushing on you along that line? I mean, if your partner is pushing as hard as he possibly can, should your level of effort still be the same as when holding the posture in say standing post?

BTW, this method is very similar to the push hands we do at Gin Soon Taiji.

The reason I am studying ground connection is because it takes place in every stage of a typical movement, it's my believe that we should design exercises to address each stage of a movement:
1. Start with Wuji
2a. Do parallel stance without any movement other than breathing
b. Do parallel stance with subtle movements
3. Shift your weight between your two feet
4. Lift one of your feet, move this foot to another location, then plant your foot
5. Shift your weight and have the force bounce back from the ground and go through your body (see C3)
6. Contact another body

What Tim described is a good method to check body alignment in step #1 and #2a. I guess the pushing party should be as gentle as possible. Walter's silk reeling exercise is Taiji's version on #3. Just a thought: it will be even better if you pay attention to how the ground force(upward) interact with your weight(downward) and how this pair of forces interacts with the dantien rotation.
The weight shift exercise I described in the "tail bone" thread is Yiquan's version for #3, those who do Xinyi may give it a try. Push hand is #6.

BTW, Mark, ever see those Yiquan health stances that have arms learn against the wall or rest on the back of a chair? I used to think they were strictly designed for people who were too stick to stand still. Hahaha, now I have to reconsider.

Thanks everyone.

Walter,
The partner can push into you as hard as he can. If you are aligned correctly, you shouldn't have to use any more force to resist than standing in the post without the applied pressure (of course, the partner needs to push directly into your power line for it to be a fair test of that particular posture).

Tim, is there any special consideration in testing a Wuji posture?

You can test the Wuji posture (with the arms hanging down by the sides) by having your partner pull down on your arms (you should not tilt to the side), and by pulling straight down on the tops of the shoulders. You can also test by having someone stand behind you and push up under each side of your jaw with the heels of the palms (your head should not tilt backward).

In all my years of teaching I've only had one student who could withstand the 2x4 Wuji posture testing.