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Old 04-04-2011, 11:53 AM   #2
John Brockington
Dojo: Retsushinkan/Birmingham, AL
Location: Birmingham, AL
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 65
United_States
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Re: playing with weight and a question

Hunter-

Interesting to see the lack of response to your question- maybe some of the people who perhaps could answer it have been on vacation or something. Maybe you've gotten some PM's. But hopefully we'll see something from this forum other than another seminar announcement. I am not more experienced than you, I am pretty sure, and so can not answer your question.

But I do have a question for you- I was wondering why you suggest that there is a need to feel the load you are supporting in the dantien. I may have misinterpreted what you are saying, but your post seems to suggest a hierarchy of desirable load-bearing structures, with feet being the most basic, then kua as more advanced, then dantien. I always thought of dantien as more of a focal point for initiating movement that was primarily supported/driven by the ground, via the feet.

I do understand that you want to support your arms with your midsection, to shift away local muscle use in the arms themselves. But I have trouble seeing the dantien as a load-bearing structure that is not itself supported by another, lower, load bearing structure. Of course, I am still in the early learning stages of this, too, and may be conceptually limited as much as physically, accordingly.

John
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