What's involved in tai chi pushing hand?

Question

What's involved in it?

Does it work for self defense against a real attacker?

Answer 1

There are numerous ways of practicing push hands, but always remember that it isn't combat.  It trains specific skills necessary for combat, but by itself will be worthless in combat.  Push hands (tui shou in Chinese) trains sensitivity, sticking energy, following energy, posture, balance, stability, mobility, etc.  It can be done slow and light, slow and heavy (with resistance), fast and light, and fast and heavy.

It is trained within the formal choreography of push hands drills and with free flow limited sparring or competition.  Particular techniques gleened from the forms can be trained within push hands and tried out in light sparring.

Push hands is a training tool that should lead up to actual sparring and self defense training. But most importantly it is an opportunity to specifically train taiji (or any other internal art) skills in a controlled manner.  Some of these skills include:

Ba Fa (eight methods)

1. Peng (Ward Off)

2. Lu (Roll Back)

3. Ji (Squeeze)

4. Anh (Press)

5. Cai (Pluck)

6. Lieh (Split)

7. Zhou (Elbow)

8. Khou (Bump)

Five Footworks:

1. Jin Bu (Forward Step)

2. Tui Bu (Backward Step)

3. Zuo Gu (Left Step)

4. Yu Pan (Right Step)

5. Zhong Ding (Central Equilibrium)

Now I say that it isn't directly applicable to fighting, but if you look at the push hands tournaments in China, there will be no doubt as to its relation to combat.  Remember, there is training push hands to develop the skills, and there is competitive push hands to test the skills.  And then it should lead to actual martial practice.  Yes, with resistance.

Answer 2

I'll agree with Bluto's first two points, however, I take some sense of contention with his third point and his brief description respectively.

As I read it, he describes something more along the lines of either snake-fist sparring or even Wing Chun Sparring.

A main philosophy of T'ai Chi Ch'uan is that there is no insistence and no resistance. Another good example of this is in Judo where one uses his/her opponent's force against him/her. The same holds true in push-hands. Thus, if two T'ai Chi Ch'uan practitioners are "sparring", then neither wants to give the opponent anything with which to work! That is also why a match is begun by making a series of circles - otherwise, you would have two people standing still!

To begin, opponents line up against one another with their same side wrists in contact (right wrist to right wrist) and an open palm on one another's extended elbow. While you need not retain this position the entire match, you must retain contact. Now, there is stationary push-hands (not moving), single-step push-hands (one DELIBERATE step - not catching your own balance!), and moving push-hands. It is also noteworthy to state that it should be practiced slowly to limit the masking of lack of talent/understanding by speed and power. There are no hard strikes or kicks, just methods to off-balance your opponent. Obviously, everything learned would be sped up when actually applied.

When this translates into an actual confrontation (which is admittingly rare), it should be that much easier to disrupt one's center and overtake him/her when you know how to control somebody else's positioning and they don't know how to control their own.

Answer 3

its kind of like pummelling drills in wrestling.

yes it has a value and a place, but on the problem with it is:

1- far too many cma (not just tai chi) places say "we push hands we don't need to spar". that is the equivalent of an olympic wrestler saying "we do pummeling drills so we don't need to wrestle".

2- most cma places (and this is key) DON'T TEACH YOU HOW TO GET AN OPPONENT INTO THAT POSITION, or what to do if they back off, get out, etc. do you really think your opponent is going to start by "locking forearms" with you.

In my mind that is like bjj teaching you to groundfight but never teaching you a single throw or takedown or other means to get your opponent on the ground. or better yet, like teaching a cop to shoot a gun, but not how to unlock thier holster.

3- many tai chi gyms are weak in this because they are taught to do it softly without resistance.  you should have resistance in pushing hands as that is what a real attacker will be doing- ie: many schools do it co-op and as a result have no power.  yes, tai chi is about absorbing and re-directing incoming force or deflecting it. its not about standing there like a limp noodle and just getting hit.

basically it is where opponents are in a position where thier forearms are touching or I have your arms tied up and/or you could have mine tied up.  from that position one party will and ideally should be able to strike openly because the defender's arm is out of position to block or defend.