Pushing hands is a form of exercise used to develop skill and understanding internal 'soft' martial arts. Its main focus is on leverage, reflex, sensitivity, timing, coordination and positioning. Instead of the more natural instincts in some hard martial arts styles for practitioners to resist force with force, pushing hands teaches the body to yield to force and redirect it. It is performed with a partner and this enables a student to develop what is known as 'ting jing' (listening power), which is the sensitivity to feel the direction and strength of a partner's intention and where possible redirect and use that against them. It enable 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 to effectively neutralise incoming forces in a safe environment.
Pushing Hands is said by T'ai Chi's Chen family to have been created by Chen Wangting (1600-1680), the founder of the Chen-style T'ai Chi ch'uan, and was originally known as 'hitting hands' (da shou) or crossing hands (ke shou). Other Tai Chi schools attribute the invention of pushing hands to Zhang Sanfeng, a legendary Chinese Taoist priest who was said to have developed the core principles of T'ai Chi. The video below shows some traditional T'ai Chi pushing hands:
Traditional T'ai Chi Pushing Hands
Pushing hands is a core part of many types of Chines martial arts, especially those devoted to internal arts and is even practiced at a competitive level (see video below)
Pushing Hands - Taiwan T'ai Chi World Championships
Types of Pushing Hands
Within Pushing Hands are what are known as the 'Eight Gates and Five Steps', essentially eight different leverage applications from the arms accompanied by footwork in a range of motions.
The Eight Gates
The Eight Gates are associated with the eight diagrams of the I Ching as previously described in the Pa Kua martial form:
- P'eng - "Ward Off": an upward circular movement, forward or backward, yielding or offsetting usually with the arms to disrupt the opponents centre of gravity.
- Lu - "Roll Back": a sideways, circular yielding movement
- Chi - "Press": pressing or squeezing offset in a direction away from the body, usually done with the back of the hand or outside edge of the forearm.
- An - "Push": to offset with the hand, usually a slight lift up with the fingers then a push down with the palm, which can appear as a strike if dine quickly.
- Tsai - "Pluck" or "Grasp": to pluck or pick downwards with the hand, especially with the fingertips or palm.
- Lieh - "Split": to separate, twist or offset with a spiral motion, often while making immobile another part of the body (such as hand or leg) to split an opponents body thereby destroying posture and balance.
- Chou - "Elbow Strike": to strike or push with the elbow.
- K'ao - "Shoulder Strike": to strike or push with the shoulder or upper back. Can also mean to lean.
The Five Steps
- Chin Pu - forward step/advance
- T'ui Pu - backward step/retreat
- Tsuo Ku - left step
- You P'an - right step
- Ching Ting - the central or equilibrium position. This is not just the physical center but the principle of the 'rooted stance' required in the first four steps as well.
- Dan Tui Shou - single-hand push hands
- Ding Bu - stationary stance push hands
- Huo Bu - moving stance push hands
- Da Lu - big pull push hands
- Hua Jiao Bu - "Flower Pattern" stance push hands
Core Pushing Hands Principles
As well as the key types of moves and training drills described above, there are also a number of key principles that need to be employed when practicing pushing hands. These can be summarised as follows:
Rooting - firm rooting to the floor through the feet and the rest of the body is key because this enables the path for absorbing an opponents energy and transmitting ones own. This is used to maximum effect with a 'spiraling' technique with the flow of energy and muscles within the body from the path of impact/contact to the ground.
Contact - maintaining contact with an opponent throughout the pushing hands exercise is very important as this fully enables one to sense an opponents balance, posture and strength. With constant contact it is possible to sense precisely when an opponent becomes unbalanced or vulnerable so that a successful attack can be made.
Softness - maintaining 'softness' or 'lightness' in the hands, arms and shoulders is probably one of the most important principles here as this enables much more effective sensing of an opponents balance and the ability to absorb or deflect an opponents attacking energy. A core technique for example is to be able to roll the arms on blocking an opponents strike, so that the attack is not simply met by a sudden impact but deflected and any resulting loss of balance can be taken advantage of. Likewise, if when attacking excessive strength or stiffness is used it is much easier to lose balance and become exposed to a counter-attack. Also softness throughout the body is requirement in order to use rooting principles and spiraling technique, as again excessive strength or stiffness of the muscles can block the channels for transmitting energy.
Balance - maintain one's own balance and shifting weight is a core skill to develop, as loss will immediately open up an opportunity for the opponent to attack. If at any point balance is lost, through the principles described above in 'Five Steps' focus should be made on immediately regaining balance and to regain the upper hand. Use of the waist to turn when blocking is also important as it enables firm rooting to be maintained and attacks to be successfully evaded without having to move the upper body excessively and the resulting loss of balance. A combination therefore of use of the waist and stepping are key to both evasion and attack.
Breathing - controlled breathing throughout pushing hands enables the softness and relation required, plus helps to more effectively channel energy.
Probably one of the most important points is that all of the above principles are very closely interlinked and all need to be used in conjunction with each other to practice pushing hands successfully.
Applications of Pushing Hands in 'Hard Styles'
In traditional hard style karate we practice a number of defensive and attacking moves such as:
- Age-uke: rising forearm block
- Gedan-bari: downwards forearm block
- Soto-uke: outer forearm block
- Uchi-uke: inside forearm block
The above and many other moves in traditional karate can be 'translated' into the techniques described in the Eight Gates (e.g. P'eng = Age-Uke, Lu=Uchi-uke), in fact it is likely that many of these moves have their origins in these principles.
While it is important in karate to be able to be able to perform the traditional moves, through practicing pushing hands it is possible to make them much more effective in terms of speed, power and visibility (the traditional moved become much 'smaller'). They are especially useful in close quarter situations and quite often it is possible to add locks, strikes and grabs onto the end of a pushing hands move (more on this in my next post on Chin-Na).
Its also quite interesting to see how many different types of martial arts take the principles of pushing hands and implement into their own styles - a few examples of these are shown below and each have their own very subtle differences in terms of how hands, arms and stances are used.
Yiquan Pushing Hands
Baguazhang Pushing Hands
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