Pushing hands in NorwichWe teach a weekly pushing hands class every Wednesdays at 7:30PM come along and try a free class!
Ancient Tai Chi Scholars wrote,
‘You learn solo movents to know yourself and you learn pushing hands to know your opponent’.
The aim of Pushing hands is to destabilise you partnered balance whiles maintaining yours.
Push hands practice starts with single-handed push hands. Contact is made with just one hand against the partners same hand and wrist. Students do not initially compete with each other, as plenty of time is needed to develop a relaxed pattern and cultivate ‘listening energy’, this is the ability to automatically read and understand the opponent’s energy.
The next stage in push hands training is double-handed push hands. This involves students changing directions and switching both hands within the traditional patterns.
Once students can feel their opponent forcing tense energy upon them, they learn to neutralise the force by shifting their body away from the forceful push and taking their opponent off balance. When they feel their partner is off balance and no longer connected, they learn to use fa jing ‘explosive energy’ to launch the opponent away from them.
Eventually students learn competition push hands, which includes freestyle and moving push hands.
The Hung Sing Martial Arts School teaches a weekly push hands class on Wednesday for all levels and abilities. It is open to all student members from Tai Chi and Choy Ii Fut.
Tai Chi Self Defence Development, Overcome larger opponent, Learn to read opponent’s energy, Redirection of attack, Develops Martial Root, Optional Competitive Events, Aids Kung Fu Contact Sparring, Balance.
The Hung Sing Martial Arts School teaches a weekly push hands class on Wednesdays at 7:30PM for all levels and abilities. It is open to all student members from Tai Chi and Choy Ii Fut.
Tai Chi Pushing Hands in Norwich, UK.
Sifu Niel Willcott competes at the Tai Chi Pushing Hands world championship in Taiwan 2006.
Sifu Willcott teaches a weekly push hands class at the Hung Sing Martial Arts School in Norwich.
Each Wednesday 7:30-8:30PM
Pushing hands (tuī shou) is a name for two-person training routines practiced in internal Chinese martial arts such as Tai Chi Chuan (Taijiquan) and internal Kung Fu.
Pushing hands is said to be the gateway for students to experientially understand the martial aspects of the internal martial arts (內家 nèijiā); leverage, reflex, sensitivity, timing, coordination and positioning. Pushing hands works to undo a person’s natural instinct to resist force with force, teaching the body to yield to force and redirect it. Health oriented tai chi schools may teach push hands to complement the physical conditioning available from performing solo form routines. Push hands allows students to learn how to respond to external stimuli using techniques from their forms practice. Among other things, training with a partner allows a student to develop ting jing (listening power), the sensitivity to feel the direction and strength of a partner’s intention. In that sense pushing hands is a contract between students to train in the defensive and offensive movement principles of their martial art; learning to generate, coordinate and deliver power to another and also how to effectively neutralize incoming forces in a safe environment.
Pushing Hands