#push hands

[ilonabito]

Do This: Holding the Tree, solo and with a partner. 

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“Standing alone and unchanging, one can observe every mystery.Present at every moment and ceaselessly continuing, this is the gateway to indescribable marvels.“ –TAO TEH CHING Solo tai chi practice is standing meditation. In Holding, or Embracing, the Tree, stand in the “wu chi,” position-  translating literally to “without separation,” referring to the moment before distinction, a meditative…

[ganzl]

Pushing Hands Applied to Combat!

The Five Armies of Tai Chi Chuan! I say Tai Chi Chuan, but these five armies. are usable in every martial art. The five armies are: the wrists the elbows the shoulders the waist the feet It’s pretty simple, actually. If you understand a little push hands it will really make sense, but even if you don’t, there is a logic here that can’t be denied. If somebody grabs your wrist simply roll it. This…

[tonytsai]

Prof. Tsai demonstra Tui shou básico em 2 mãos onde a conduçao de energia e soltura é importante.

Prof. Tsai demonstra Tui shou básico em 2 mãos onde a conduçao de energia e soltura é importante.

17/12/2022: O treino de Tui Shou (pushing hands) ou empurrar as mãos pela tradução deve ter cuidado para não levando para o lado físico e sim energético, dessa forma nosso corpo se torna cada vez mais desbloqueado e sereno. Para maiores informações sobre tratamentos favor acesse: https://centrotaoista.com.br/atendimento/ Link onde pode ara pesquisar seus sintomas em mais de 400 depoimentos…

[sims2animguide]

[lynxmuse]

Philosophy Moment

One of the activities the Black Rock Kwoon often hosted was a push hands* meetup organized by the Dread Pirate Lee.  It was a great time to meet fellow practitioners and to get to push against a wide variety of people from all sorts of backgrounds, lineages, and experience levels.

One year, mid-way through, I began to develop a sense of something.   Taking it on as an inquiry for the rest of the meetup, I began to formulate a principle/theory I quickly coined as the Tai Chi Push Hands Skill Differential Exponential Experience Factor (or TCPHSDEEF for short**):

If I have 1 level of skill, and you have 1 level of skill, to me it will feel like you have 1 level of skill.

If I have 1 level of skill, and you have 1.1 level of skill, to me it will feel like you have 1.25 level of skill.

If I have 1 level of skill, and you have 1.5 level of skill, to me it will feel like you have 3 level of skill.

If I have 1 level of skill, and you have 3 level of skill, to me it will feel like you are a god.

As the skill differential grows, the one with the greater skill gains the multi-whammy ability to be more relaxed, have less openings, sense the other’s movements and openings with greater clarity, and has the techniques to be able to engage those openings, AND those techniques will have greater subtlety, compounding the lesser sensitivity on the other side to respond before flump!  You’re off balance.

The upshot of it was this: when I pushed against those at higher skill levels than me, it almost always felt like I was light years behind (both physically in the movements/responses but also metaphorically), being tossed this way and that.  On the other side of the skill coin, however, it mattered little what my partner would send my way, even if I was unfamiliar with the technique.  I could remain centered and able to redirect with seeming ease.  I felt very much in control.

While the idea of the compounding nature of skill, and the abilities that it grants us, was important enough, it was the experience, the feeling, that came with that really struck me (and stuck with me).

Especially as this, as they so often do, ranges far beyond just implications for the martial arts.

No matter what skill we may aim to develop, whether it be tennis or skiing, drawing or cooking, working or playing, listening, giving, caring, or even in the realm of profound skills such as being peaceful, generous, passionate, expressed, loving… for any of those skills it means that the high level of ability is actually closer than we might think.

For one, that compounding nature works in our favour.  But more importantly, it further means that things that may seem out of reach are not really that out of reach.  We need not accuse ourselves of lacking talent, or fall into “I can never…”, or relegate ourselves to the dustbins along the margins.

It is nigh-well inevitable that we compare ourselves with others and their skill level(s), but any vast gulf that seems to scream at us that we (still) suck is illusionary and, in actuality, an overly dramatic scream.

We may see someone, interact with someone, be with someone, and come away with the feeling that they so own that skill that it must be ingrained, and I must have an equally ingrained difficulty with it.  And yet that feeling is just the Skill Differential Exponential Experience Factor (SDEEF for short…?) at play.

Thus, we can let that feeling be the feeling, and continue to play.   For that is what great push hands is, play.  You play, you teach, you learn, and ultimately grow, enjoying the moment now and enjoying the fruits and fulfillment that comes with the ever-deepening skill.

* Push Hands is a practice from Tai Chi to develop the basic concepts of sensitivity, following, emptying, redirecting, and effortless pushing, beginning with simple drills where one partner pushes while the other receives and empties, followed by a switch in roles, continually back and forth.

** Well, OK, not really so short… :P

[entershaolin]

Advanced Tai Chi Push Hands Training Drill

[japanchenstyletaiji-blog]

2002年中国温県焦作市にて開催された推手競技の70kg級で、及川会長、初参加で優勝。

詳しくはhttps://www.jctahp.com/blank-7

[thetaichiclub]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A6lAQIbFSM)

[steelandcotton]

A great photo from one of my seminars in Tallinn of a student from Poland training with an Estonian. It really captures the spirit of the Center, of our school, pushing each other to be the best versions of our selves, with a big smile on everyone's face.

https://www.facebook.com/greatriver/

[unspunr]

Journey into Taiji

When I was younger I used to think it hyperbole when they said that you’d need seven years to master Taiji (or T’ai Chi if you used the old Wade-Giles spelling).

Now, after having taken up Taiji for coming close to three years, I am inclined that you’d take considerably take more time – like a lifetime – if you want to master the art.

But first, what is Taiji? Many people have the impression that…

[tonytsai]

Passo de Tai Chi praticado em dupla avançando e recuando para verificar o estado interna de energia.

Passo de Tai Chi praticado em dupla avançando e recuando para verificar o estado interna de energia.

16/07/2022: Prof. Tsai demonstra os passos de tai chi junto com alunos para resaltar a importância da prática é para alinhar sua postura e cultivar sua energia intergrada durante o movimentos, dessa jeito sua prática não cai na forma externa apenas. Link sobre aula de Tai Chi Chuan com Prof. Tsai: https://centrotaoista.com.br/cursos/tai-chi-avancada Link sobre curso de Tai Chi Chuan…

[ima-imo]

One of my informal teachers is making a video series.

So my martial arts learning structure is.... a bit unorthodox. 

Usually, you have a class with a single teacher and some senior students, learn that particular style lineage, and develop and test it based on the recommendations of your teacher. 

I, on the other hand, started attending workshops with a group of higher-level practitioners, some teachers and some not, who got together once a week to do push hands. Most of them practiced Yang, though there was one Wu stylist; one of them taught me my short form, and goes over it with me when i return. 

Each of them would share the ways they’d learned to practice and apply the forms; they all had their differing emphases and methods that they’d trained, either through different lineages or personal backgrounds. 

Few are as unique as Damian, the tall dude in the ponytail here.

I shared some of the footage I have with Damian in one of my first posts on here. There’s also the push hands recorded of me and him from a couple of years back: 

That stuff where people go flying is usually aided by compliant partners, but in his case the dude can actually do it. 

[kungfu-scifi-highschool]

Push hands practice (at Portland Shaolin Center)

[janlucanus]

I start my #TaiChi beginners with Single-Arm #PushHands from day 1. Shoutout to my buddy Yunil for taking on Tai Chi to compliment his Rugby, Boxing, and Wrestling training.