Tim and company,

I was doing push hands with a dude that was not moveable. He said that I could try to throw him or strike. He kept pushing me away which was frustrating. I was trying to uproot him using the dead angle principle(he was in a forward stance). I did not try strikng because he was not striking.

How do I "get in" on someone who seems so immovable? I tried waiting for him to move first but that seemed to be his strategy. I realize that this might be hard to put into words. I just want to know how to negate someone's rootedness.

Its been mentioned here before by tim and others, you have to use the principle of sticking and following. If he advances, retreat, if he retreats, then follow, Dont overextend, If he pushes, you pull, if he pulls you push. If he is waiting for you to attack, find the weakness in his defense and attack twice, once to where he is weak, and once where you think he is going to move to, or do a technique you have been practicing and try not to telegraph your movements.

It takes practice. Keep getting you butt beat and soon enough you will learn a thing or two.

I wasn't getting "my butt beat". He was just sort of uprooting me and pushing away. I'm not sure that take much skill to do. His reasoning is of course that since he was able to push he would also be able to strike or do other things. My logic says, "Then why don't you just do the other stuff and stop hinting at it!". I find push hands in general to be a frustrating ego save thing for some people.

I get your points though, Robert. Those are basic adages of all principle based martial arts. Putting them into practice is the hard part.

Timber it's ok. Everyone gets a proper asskicking from time to time.