Push Hands

PUSH HANDS – As with tai chi, there are a number of different styles of push hands. No matter if you are doing single hand, two hand, or even some using sticky hands as push hands the principles should remain intact throughout the myriad of changes. Listen, adhere, yield and neutralize. I was taught – before issuing force, you must first neutralize; in other words the push comes out of the neutralization. Many push hands practitioners focus on pushing or “not” being pushed which leads to using too much muscle force and/or the exchange is more like wrestling.

Back in the late 60’s, when I first learned push hands, Grandmaster Chen told me that he waited 3 years before he started to issue force. He spent 3 years focusing on learning how to neutralize. I’m not saying that we all need to follow his path; but I still do follow that pearl of wisdom. 🙂