Push-Hands
Push-hands is a misunderstood and often confusing aspect of taijiquan training. Let’s take a look at a few of the ideas and beliefs surrounding push-hands.
First let’s look at what push-hands is not:
It is not solely for those who wish to become good boxers.
- Push-hands is used to help you explore the stances and balance of the empty hands form. A good way to test your structure in a bow stance is to have someone give you energy, such as a push, and see how it travels through the body to the root.
It is not mandatory in order to learn the lessons of taijiquan or benefit from the qigong of taijiquan.
- When training in taijiquan for medical purposes you don’t necessarily need to practice push-hands. The empty hands form, regardless of which family, provides an excellent qigong and muscular-skeletal workout.
It is not the measure of one’s taiji kungfu skills, understanding or abilities.
- If you are good at a particular aspect of any art form then you have a tendency to use it as a metric. There is a difference between a metric and the metric. Taijiquan is a broad spectrum martial art with much to learn and many reasons for its learning. Skills and goals vary, and quality based on comparison to others is a product of ego and not necessarily a gauge of your true development.
Now let’s look at what push-hands is:
It is a tool to learn peng-lu-ji-an and central equilibrium energies.
- A great way to feel the energies and to differentiate between energy and body is to practice push-hands. Too often we try to move another person’s body and not their energy; push-hands shows us the difference.
It is an addition to forms practice that helps us explore balance and structure.
- If you are not sure about you balance and the connection between your left hand and right foot in a posture, then push-hands is a good tool to explore these.
It is a game played for competition to create a sports side to taijiquan.
- In an effort to create a sports aspect to taijiquan, push-hands evolved into a competitive game. The rules of the game are flexible often morphing the competition of push-hands into a form of Greco-Roman wrestling. Certainly taijiquan skills would be useful but not necessary. Strength and speed are as equally advantageous to the push-hands competitor as are taiji skills.
The best way to learn from push-hands is to train with a good teacher and work with varied training partners. Once an understanding of peng-lu-ji-an and central equilibrium has been attained then those skills can be applied to kungfu or self-defense training. Always keep in mind your purpose for training taijiquan and let those goals be you guide.