Pushing Hands Training Guidelines

1. Push Hands is training, not a contest.

Pushing hands is a form of physical and mental training. It is intended to replace the common reflex to resist being pushed with an effective method of relaxing, absorbing and guiding a push. It is intended to replace reliance on upper body strength with reliance on posture coupled with leg and hip movement. To accomplish this it relies on the quality of “rootedness”, a resilient relationship to the ground and “listening”, and an awareness of the timing and direction of an incoming push.

2. Push Hands is a strenuous activity.

Do not practice if you have any medical problem that is exacerbated by strenuous activity. Stop practice if you have pain or become tired.

3. Agreement between players about the level of their play is important.

If one person wants to saw wood and the other wants a higher level, undesirable results can happen. In general the more experienced or skillful player should adapt their practice to accomodate the less experienced or skillful player. Using a shallower or shorter stance is one way to do this.

4. A request to Push Hands can be refused and no explanation is required.

Push Hands can be terminated at any time and no explanation is required. Before beginning push hands both players should reach an understanding about the level of push hands that will be practiced. If one person is, for example, able to “saw wood” and no more, then the more advanced player should agree to meet them at their level or below. Bullying can’t be tolerated.

5. Push Hands should provide benefit to both players.

At each stage in development of Push Hands skill both participants can benefit. This is of particular importance in early push hands training. When one practice partner gives the correct type and quality of push the other practice partner can experience performing real (as opposed to ritual) neutralization. The partner providing the push gets to experience being neutralized and learns how to avoid over extending and so becoming vulnerable.

6. If Form and Push Hands are different, one or both are incorrect.

Push Hands and Form constitute a complete T’ai Chi practice. One may study T’ai Chi Sword or T’ai Chi Lance for their pedagogic and physical value after the push hands concept of neutralization has been understood and to some degree accomplished. When this happens the practitioner will find a new level of meaning in the form practice because each movement between postures will be experienced as containing a “neutralization” and each self-correction of a posture error will be experienced as containing a “recovery” from the initial effect of a push.

7. Push Hands isn't a replacement for Form Practice.

Push Hands and Form constitute a complete T’ai Chi practice. The form allows a practitioner to "know themselves" while the push hands allows the practitioner to "know the other." Knowing the other is accomplished by feeling the effect the other has on the practitioner. Without the form, push hands degenerates into wrestling.

8. Discern when you should move your feet.

In commonly practiced push hands, a movement of either foot under the impetus of the practice partner (or as some would have it, “opponent”) is considered a defeat. Our practice is training, not a contest. Discerning the moment and situation in which receiving a push requires you to move your foot rather than lose your upright body posture is an important part of training.

9. Do not change speed to seize an "oportunity."

Push Hands is done in slow motion for the same reasons the form is done in slow motion. It allows study of internal sensation and release of tension. Moving faster is trying to win, not trying to listen and neutralize.

10. Do not give in to the impulse to treat push hands as "reps."

Each movement is taken as the first time its been done. You never put your foot in the same river twice. This is needed for listening skill (Ting Jing) to grow.

I have an observation that I think is important. At the Tai Chi Association and at Shr Jung school, when people were pushing hands they were often laughing. I've aways thought the laughter came from new and unexpected self knowledge.

Copyright

Liam Comerford

September 23, 2017

about Liam Comerford