Experimentation with Push Hands

I kind of like the way Taichi classes at Kreta Ayer community centre are conducted on Saturday evenings. Light hearted, multi-level and not having structured classes with predetermined routines all the times give practitioners like me an opportunity to experiment with other aspects of  Taichi, like push hands with my senior.

Push hands (推手）to me is a process of experimentation to test the validity of what I have learnt from the postures and silk reeling exercises.

Through the drills, I come to realise the difficulty to maintain balance and total relaxation when being in close contact with another person. My competitive nature shows up in my first few practices and the tendency is for me to use brute force to push my opponent out, which of course is not what it should have been.

As I learn a little more about push hands from my senior, I've learnt to relax a little more and focus more on paying more attention to where the energy comes from and the path of the energy. In theory, I do understand there are 13 postures in push hands, 8 of which are related to hand techniques: peng, lu, ji, an, cai, lie, zhou, kao but far from knowing how to apply them for self defense.

To achieve the result of 'four ounces overcome one thousand pounds" (四两拔千斤）will require proper understanding of the 13 postures and several years of practice but there is really no short cut sometimes
...Stay passionate and keep learning ...