Pushing hands world championship.

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.