Experience Tai Chi Push Hands with Elaine Waters!
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Tai Chi Push Hands puts into action the practical application of the tai chi principles. In tai chi push hands we stand as still as a mountain and move as a great river. Push hands emphasizes the value of yielding and relaxing, and the disadvantage of resisting and using tension. In tai chi push hands: softness overcomes hardness, and doing less is more; as we use minimum effort to attain maximum effect. Improve your tai chi skill by learning push hands with body mechanics. Proper neutralization in tai chi push hands, takes little physical upper body force as it has its foundation in correct alignment, timing, and body positions. In tai chi push hands, we adhere and listen to be able to read the opponents’ attack through the point of contact. In push hands, adhering means sticking, blending, or following the opponents’ movements.
How are the Tai Chi Martial Applications different from other Martial Arts? In Tai Chi, instead of blocking the opponents incoming force, we initially blend with it. We learn to listen to the line of the incoming force, adhere to it, then release the opponents force back at them at a different angle. We let our opponent have the direction of their attack, and take them a little farther than they planned to go, in that direction, causing a loss of balance. In tai chi, the opponents momentum, is gathered in the root, and immediately released at 45 or 90 degree direction from their line of attack. Proper neutralization of your partner’s force will present an effortless push. Practice this push hands training drill to learn to root opponents force
Practice this push hands moving step drill to develop quick reactions
Push Hands develops tai chi skill!
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Practice this push hands moving step exercise to learn to step and yield
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Tai Chi Push Hands Class Rules and Etiquette
The Do's and Don't in Push Hands Class
The Do's and Don't in Push Hands Class
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DO:
Empty you cup before arrival. Wait for instructions. Ask questions if you don't understand. Stick to the current assignment. Be ready to stop and change to next exercise so that you don't miss the directions, or timing to change partners. Give your partner a chance to learn by their own experience and repetition. When you are applying a technique: begin slowly and carefully. When receiving a technique, cooperate with your partner. Be willing to change partners and work with all other students. Be honest with each other about the amount of wrestling is going on. Examine the "need to win" in an art where tai chi principles state that "less is more and push hands trains to "invest in loss". Quit playing if you become afraid of getting hurt. |
DON'T
Interrupt class with stories of your past training. Don't use too much force. Don't injure your partner. Don't get so involved with doing a technique a certain way that you forget to pay attention to the reaction you are creating. Don't be shy about telling your partner to soften up if they are using too much force. Don't become discouraged if it takes many repetitions to feel even a little bit right. Don't think you have it so well that you don't need to practice it anymore. Don't compete with your partner. Don't tell your partner about other variations of training learned from a different school. Don't talk so much that you miss the next instructions. |
