Tui shou, or ‘push hands’, is a part of taijiquan that isn’t always taught. The postures of the form are the actual martial movements, but push hands develops the sensitivity of your own and your opponent’s weight and movements, and is where you build up experience in being able to emit fa jin.
I mentioned that after Monday night’s class I had practiced tui shou for a while with one of the instructors. He came along to today’s class as well, the first time I’ve seen him on a Saturday. We did some more practice, under Master Chong’s guidance. I have a habit of leaning forward when I push, and this unbalances me – which allowed Master Chong to comprehensively throw me a round the room! (There are no mats, but there is a strategically placed sofa to fall on). Also, it seems that I will slightly pull back my hands when I’m about to push, signalling to my opponent what’s coming. Much work needed here.
Practising the form, in my individual session with Master Chong went over the sequence from the end of ‘parry and punch’ to ‘fist under elbow’. Later, when other students arrived, we went through the whole form; I think I just about held my own, even though I haven’t yet studied the whole form as taught by Master Chong. I have done the whole thing with other teachers, but with many differences; mostly minor, but some moves are substantially different. Today’s session also reminded me that I really do need to get working on my Chinese again…
Recent Comments