Stephen Douglas Tai Chi Blog
Stephen Douglas Tai Chi Blog
Free Pushing
There are 8 major styles of pushing hands in Wudang Tai Chi. These are Four Corners, Reeling Silk, Fu Yang, Zhou Lu, Seven Stars, Nine Palaces, Da Lu, and Cai Lang. Each style forms part of martial training, teaching for example, footwork, distance, rooting, and sensitivity of touch, each an important aspect in the application of Tai Chi Chuan. Practice allows development of a number of different skills which help develop application in a TC way.
Free pushing, as the name implies is not a set pattern, and as such is arguably not a style. It does however form an important part of training. Generally speaking, it is the only push hands where you are trying to ‘push over’ your opponent. It is for this reason it is often seen only as a competition, and winning by any means becomes the thought process and objective. Free pushing (in a class situation) however is not primarily intended for this purpose, but like pushing hand styles is simply another learning/training tool. It is by losing the idea of competition or winning that allows improvement. It is not the winning or losing that is important, but the learning. Often referred to as ‘investing in loss’. Learning to genuinely accept being pushed over is of no consequence in practice can open many doors.
That is not to say however that you should not be focused on being the last one standing (good spirit, finding root and so on, are integral), but it is misleading to see winning itself in free pushing as a barometer of Tai Chi progress. There may be progress if free pushing is developed to a high level in Tai Chi skill, but not where it is developed as a battle of strength and shoving alone. This approach is more often than not ego based, and leads to practice contrary to allowing learning. This type of practice leads to somewhere between a glass ceiling (invisible to the offender) and blinkers, and is usually accompanied by a ‘force against force’ skill set development that is contrary to Tai Chi principle. The benefit to Tai Chi development as a whole is then lost, and as the adage says, you can only hope it is effective until you meet someone stronger. Most importantly, if Tai Chi principle is abandoned, then it is no longer Tai Chi.
Free pushing therefore should be thought of as more than pushing over your opponent, but more as a development of skills. The classics say ‘ when my opponent does not move, I do not move. And if my opponent moves slightly, I move first’. Practice then is about developing a sensitivity in response to your partners movement, and the skill to divert that movement before it gathers momentum, almost before it begins. (I recommend Ian Cameron’s article ‘Tai Chi Principle in Self Defense’). With practice, technique and application found in other areas of Tai Chi are also developed within free pushing exercise, but behind that must be this idea of sensitivity of response. Eventually, correctly developed skills in free pushing help inform the correct approach of other applications in Tai Chi, although its purpose primarily is to allow close contact fighting.
This sensitivity in Free Pushing can only be developed where the body is relaxed, common to all Tai Chi. That is not to say you are not alert or are lacking in focus and spirit. Neither does a soft (relaxed) approach mutually exclude being strong, but this is a core rather than ‘external’ strength, accompanied by developed technique. The classics dictate that correct posture should be from feet to fingertips throughout all training, and the mind alert. The relaxation so often described as a goal of the hand form should also underpin all other aspects of Tai Chi, including free pushing. The goal in free pushing then (and ultimately self defense) is to develop a response to your partner without pre-conceived intention, regardless of where or how you are pushed. It is the combination of all these Tai Chi aspects that leads to meaningful practice.
Free pushing is commonly found in various Tai Chi competitions, and preparation for events can no doubt give added focus to training. Some see competition as the best or only test of one’s free hand skills. If entering these events, then the focus should no doubt be to win, but the importance attached to winning must be kept in proportion. As my teacher once said to me - tomorrow it’s someone else. Competition may add to the Tai Chi experience, but it is a drop in the overall Tai Chi training, and for me often missing the point. Simply incorporating free pushing into the mix is where the benefit lies.
Stephen Douglas
10.6.11
Saturday, 24 March 2012