Making the knee disappear

Over the past year, I’ve worked on a number of exercises with a focus on the knees and kua. Here are a few examples and results I’ve noticed:

• Ensure the bottom is represented during the movement
  • Step 2 here: How to engage the waist
  • What it looks like: When your upper body moves, there is expansion in the bottom. Typically both knees expanding outwards.
  • Result: Body becomes more even, action is created from the waist (and lower) rather than entirely from the top.

• One knee up, one knee down
  • Feeling like there was a straight line shooting out of my knee, which would ‘carve’ out lines as I rotated my waist throughout Yilu
  • http://practicalmethod.com/2008/04/knee-movement-positions/
  • http://practicalmethod.com/2013/03/dont-move-the-knee/
• Practicing a lot of fetch water, and having the kua ‘bear out’
• Opening the kua into the foot
  • Tucking the waist in a manner that it goes down to the knee and foot
  • Feeling of kua opening and pushing directly in the my heel. The knee opening is a consequence of this push, not a focus in itself.
  • http://practicalmethod.com/2012/12/kua-opening-mechanics-online-video-trailer/
  • Takes the pressure off the outside of the foot,  and puts it into the middle of the heel.
  • Don’t feel the knee anymore during the form, only a line between the kua and the foot.
  • http://practicalmethod.com/2013/06/kua-exercise-online-video-trailer/