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Sensitive Hands

Tai Chi Push Hands, or Tui Shou, is the most distinctive and well known partner exercise of Tai Chi. Tui Shou is translated as both “pushing hands” the literal translation, and either “sensing hands”or “listening hands” as a more descriptive translation. The game of push hands is to off balance your partner using no more than 4 ounces of pressure. Along the way a diverse series practice exercises are used to develop the fundamental skills required to play the game of Tui Shou well. Push Hands is a safe, fun, game and partner exercise to deepen your understanding and skill in Tai Chi Chuan.

Push Hands focuses on learning how to use the four most important techniques of Tai Chi the Ward Off, Roll Back, Push, and Press. These four moves are performed more than any others in the longer and older Tai Chi Forms.

Push Hands or Tui Shou Benefits:

Balance – Tui Shou practice incredibly improves your balance immediately. Without feedback it is easy to fool oneself into thinking their balance is better than it is. With your partner constantly training you in how to maintain your balance, your balance gets fantastic quickly. In Tai Chi we like to learn rooting and grounding. These terms describe becoming impossible to push like a huge tree rooted in the earth or mountain. You learn these skills by perfecting your leg and knee alignment and learning how to sink your hips and move with a flexible responsive waist. These skills really improve your solo form and help you learn how to “Sink Your Qi”.

Relaxation – In push hands, if your body is tense you are stiff, brittle, and easy off balanced. In practice you’ll loosen up and relax quickly to avoid being constantly off balance. It is a really fun game and every one has a great time!

Understanding – Most people find Tai Chi Push Hands sets off a long series of epiphanies, and insights into the nature of Tai Chi and the Tai Chi Form.

Open to all Tai Chi Friends

Tai Chi Push Hands, or Tui Shou class is open to all Tai Chi friends regardless of style or past experience. You do not need to learn the Yang Family Long Form that I teach before joining this class.

If you know another Tia Chi Form that is terrific. However, even if you don’t know any Tia Chi and practice other martial arts you are welcome to attend this class and learn Push Hands with us and have a great time. Students of Xing Yi Quan and Ba Gua Zhang also find these exercises extremely helpful to improving their mastery of those arts.

This is particularly true because of my own experience learning Xing Yi Quan and Ba Gua Zhang and my inclusion of incredibly complimentary exercises form those disciplines into this class. In Class we practice Many sensitivity drills and variations on single push hands skills from Xing Yi Quan and Ba Gua Zhang as well as classical Tai Chi Push Hands.

 

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One Comment

  • Ralph Somack says:

    Hi Sifu:

    I would be interested in attending weekly “push hands” classes in Marin especially if I could take the private Hsing Yi lessons before or after the class on the same day.

    I’m very enthusiastic about and grateful for the Hsing Yi lessons with you. I feel like my form and alignment are significatly improving with every class.

    Thanks,
    Ralph

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