Sinking or Squatting

One of the biggest obstacles that students of the Chinese martial arts have to overcome is mastering the ability to sink. The concept of sinking is very abstract to beginner students. It is an abstract concept that must become a concrete element as essential as breath.

In Yang Taijiquan, we teach five "sinks" ... sink the shoulders, sink the chest, sink the elbows, sink the wrists and sink the waist. Your system may contain any number of these "sinks" but whatever the case we begin by instructing the student to keep these parts down or in other words to prevent these parts from rising up during transitions and during the execution of techniques. My own teacher often refers to the five "stay downs" for beginners. He lists these as: shoulders, chest, elbows, buttocks and back heel as these are areas which erroneously rise up on occasion. If you can, as a student, willfully keep these parts from rising, then eventually you will be able to control these parts in a greater, more intricate way and master the skill of sinking.

In Bajiquan, we often discuss a total of eight body parts which must be trained to sink. The head, shoulders, elbows, hands, hips, buttocks, knees and feet. To aid in the training of sinking students are taught several methods of stomping (stamping) or Duo Jiao. These stomping methods are very useful tools for the students body and his mind because the understanding of the mind is just as important as the understanding of the body when it comes to sinking. Stomping gives the student a tangible way to feel the explosiveness of sinking.

Sinking can be defined as a sudden, violent downward motion of all of the parts of the body (especially the aforementioned ones). But how do we accomplish this? First, we must take a look at the counterfeit of sinking ... squatting.

Squatting originates usually in the knees and ends its downward motion in the waist (Gua Gun in Chinese) although it can begin in the waist. The erroneous thing about this is the fact that squatting looks like sinking but the parts are not in harmony. One part is moving and then the next and so on and it is in no way explosive.

Sinking, on the other hand, is an action whereby all of the body parts (five, eight or eighty) explode downward in one instant. One way in which I explain this concept to my students is to imagine you are on an elevator which lurches suddenly in one direction or the other (up or down) and recall how your body quickly tries to maintain balance ... that is essentially "sinking". Now, when sinking, you are not traveling more than an inch or so. The explosive downward motion of sinking is directly related to Fa Jin (explosive energy). In fact, sinking must be harmonized with the breath, Qi, all of the Jin's (especially Chan Si Jin and Shi Zi Jin) and the Li (physical strength).

Until you master the skill of sinking, you will not be able to deliver the true power of kung fu into your techniques. Your homework assignment is to ride on a few elevators. Remember what we say in Chinese martial arts ... "ten thousand repetitions to mastery"!

Ma Bu 馬步 (Horse Stance)

In most Chinese martial arts the first 3 or 4 months of practice consists of mostly horse stance training. This is especially true of Bajiquan 八極拳. Bajiquan's horse training may be the most cruel of all the arts but this also makes it the most beneficial.

After mastering the Baji "ma bu" it seems that other horse stances from various styles are quite easy to perform. The reason for this is that Baji's "ma bu" is quite narrow compared to others and the spine must be absolutely erect ... no leaning forward. It is also noteworthy to mention that we train the Baji horse for 2 minutes ... yes that is all.

The rule of thumb is if you can stay longer than 2 minutes then you are standing too high and if you cannot stay 2 minutes you are sitting too low. The optimal horse is - thighs level and back straight - as though you were sitting in an invisible chair. The arms are gently outstretched and the shoulders, elbows and wrists are sunken and relaxed. You will find that the more you relax the shoulders the more weight falls into your legs. The distance of the Baji "ma bu" can be measured 2 ways. First the old fashioned way ... drop one knee to the floor by rolling one foot to its inside edge then place one fist between your knee and the other foot ... now just roll your knee back up and you have the correct distance for your body. The other way is easier but you have to have a mirror ... place your palms flat together in front of your chest with your elbows pointing sideways then place your feet directly under your elbows by looking in the mirror.

No reputable kung fu master will tell you it is okay to skip "ma bu" training. If you come to Bajiquan from another style you will always have to begin again with the Baji horse. No matter what style you train in it will benefit you to train the Baji horse. And please don't be whiny ... we know it is hard.