THE IMMOVABLE ROOT

Immovable Root

Sifu Andrew would sit on his stance and an abled-bodied adult could not move him



Question

I need to develop an immovable root. My Kung Fu instructor said that I should practise stances but he wasn't specific. Could you please tell me some ways to develop an immovable root?


Answer

Taijiquan master Yang Lu Chan, had immovable roots. When they stood at the Horse-Riding Stance or the Three-Circle Stance respectively, a few people pushing at the masters could not move them.

But they did not purposely set out to develop immovable roots. Their immovable roots were a bonus. They were also very agile. Should these few people try to touch the masters, they would also not succeed as the masters could move away so fast.

If you really want to develop an immovable root, the method is very simple, but by no means easy. Just practise the Horse-Riding Stance or the Three-Circle Stance for a few hours every day for many years. That was how Hoong Hei Khoon and Yang Lu Chan got their immovable roots.

But you should not, in Chinese terms, “mistake branches for the stem”. In English, you should not mistake effects for the purpose. Hoong Hei Khoon and Yang Lu Chan spent hours daily for years on stance training for the purpose of developing internal force, and one of the effects was that they had immoveable roots.

You need not practise for hours for years. If you can practise daily for five minutes on the Horse-Riding Stance, or fifteen minutes on the Three-Circle Stance for one year, you would have developed sufficient internal force against which black-belts would find formidable. Your internal force could not make you immoveable yet, but by itself an immoveable root is not very useful. On the contrary you should at the same time daily practise leg stretching exercises so that you are also agile.

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