Pushing Hands - Ray Hayward

The What, Why, When and How of Pushing-Hands
copyright 2000, Ray Hayward

In this article, I will explain real pushing-hands techniques, practices, theories, and some benefits you can gain from this essential T'ai-Chi practice.

Over the years, instructors from other schools have come wanting to learn pushing-hands or take their knowledge further. They have read about soft and yielding, but once they leave the most fundamental of practices, they become, as Master Liang says, "two bulls fighting." This is a lesson for students as well as teachers. We may read many books about T'ai-Chi theory and pushing-hands, and we may grasp the ideas, but it takes a good teacher with the correct method and a certain degree of skill of their own to guide us through the pitfalls of tension, ego and competition. We are so fortunate that our teacher, Master T.T. Liang, is an expert in this field.

What is Pushing-Hands?

The first question is "What is pushing-hands?" Pushing-hands, otherwise known as push-hands, sensing-hands, outreaching-hands, joint-hands, sticking-hands, or tui-shou (which means a hand that reaches out by sense of touch, i.e. pushing) is a practice involving two partners using any one of five categories of methods, for the basic purpose of self-knowledge. Lao-Tse says in the Tao Te Ch'ing, "To know others is knowledge, to know yourself is enlightenment."

These practices involve fixed and active steps, prearranged sequences, "feeding" sequences (which literally means I will give you certain techniques over and over again), and many ways in between, leading up to free-style, which is totally spontaneous, improvised, and the summation of all partner training. The way we gain this knowledge is by working toward yin goals and yang goals, which I explain later in this article.

Pushing-Hands Drills

The first category of practice is the pushing-hand drills. The drills involve two partners taking turns between active and passive, offense and defense, issuing energy and neutralizing energy. Besides laying a foundation for more complicated practices, the drills help you to focus on a particular attack and a particular defense (which I like to call "problem" and "solution"). The drills illustrate the defenses for pushes, pulls, strikes and ch'in-na. They emphasize that the yielding, defensive aspect is accompanied by shifting back, while the attacking, issuing energy is accompanied by shifting forward. Leading, following, and many aspects of the philosophy of yin and yang are easily understood and experienced in the drills. Also in the drills is a set of basic sticking hands, which are mainly striking attacks and their appropriate defenses.

Pushing-Hands Methods

The next category we call the methods. This is what other schools think of when they want to do pushing-hands but, as you'll see, this is a higher level. The methods are either one- or two-handed, with vertical and horizontal circles, using the four directions (the postures of ward-off, roll-back, press and push) alternating back and forth in offensive and defensive patterns. As you will see, when we progress from the drills to the methods, we start to combine and use multiple techniques. The methods are also practiced fixed-step, which means you stay in place, and active-step, which means you can move around.

Ta-Lu

Another category is called Ta-Lu, which literally means "big rollback." Ta-Lu uses the four corner techniques, which are pull, split, elbow and shoulder, and the five steps, which are advance, retreat, left, right, and central equilibrium. In Ta-Lu, the techniques are generally bigger; therefore the attacks and defenses need footwork to support them. As a package, the four directions of pushing-hands and the four corners of Ta-Lu are what we call the eight energies, which are eight ways we may attack our partner's centerline or balance (this subject will be dealt with in the How To part of this article). The eight energies combined with the five steps are commonly called the 13 postures, and they make up all the variations in T'ai-Chi, whether it's solo, two-person or with weapons.

San-Shou

The final category is called san-shou, which translates as "free-hand" and is also called freestyle. The T'ai-Chi two-person form is called san-shou because it freely mixes and combines techniques from the solo form, the drills, the methods, and the Ta-Lus in a choreographed sequence to teach you how to deal with all kinds of attacks. Kicking, punching, pushing, pulling, locking of joints, sweeping, knock-downs, and other various problems are dealt with using relaxed T'ai-Chi solutions. The concepts of hua (neutralize), na (control), and da (strike), are clearly shown in each and every technique. The two-person form teaches many concepts and strategies for sparring and self-defense (for example, how to protect your territory while attacking your partner's territory, or how to apply the classic, "You must gain a good opportunity and a superior position"). Besides the basic sequence, there are many ways to practice and alter the two-person form, which is the jump-off stage for true freestyle practice. After mastering the two-person form in all its variations, you will be ready for true freestyle in the way the old masters practiced it.

Pushing-Hands Goals

Once you know what you are going to practice, one thing that seems to get confusing is the goal for practice. I call these yin and yang goals.

Yin goals:

Test partner's relaxation and sinking
Use a push or pull to unbalance partner
Make partner take one step back
Make partner take two steps back
Uproot partner (both feet leave the ground simultaneously)
Push partner back past a line
Push partner into a mattress on the wall
Maneuver partner out of a circle
Touch partner's body or trunk (which is the foundation for sticking-hands)

Yang goals:

Partner touches one hand to the floor for balance
Partner touches two hands to the floor to regain balance
Body/trunk touches the ground from a push, pull, knock-down, throw or sweep
Lock partner's joint with ch'in-na
Strike partner with any possible body part (hand, elbow, head, foot, etc.)

In short, yin goals are for sensitivity, health, non-violence, and non-martial arts gains, while yang goals are more aggressive and dangerous, and are for self-defense and fighting. Great care must be taken to protect practitioners from serious injury.

Why Practice Pushing-Hands?

Why should we practice pushing-hands? Isn't the solo form enough? Can I substitute weapons or ch'i-kung? If I'm not interested in self-defense, why should I do pushing-hands? What will I get from all this? Let's see if we can answer these questions and clear up any misconceptions.

T'ai-Chi can be divided into four categories: health, self-defense, philosophy and meditation. We could say that these categories are like four benefits, uses, or even ways to look at the art, although they exist together at all times. Let's use each of these categories to see the benefits of pushing-hands.

Health

For health, the solo form gives us relaxation, balance, flexibility, strength, and breath-control. The pushing-hands will take all these actions further by gently challenging these areas. For example, you gain a certain degree of strength and flexibility in your legs and waist when you shift back in a stance. When someone is pushing you, you end up continually going a little past your limit, which will gradually increase that limit. During pushing-hands, your partner will push and pull you into places and positions which the solo form does not. The added bending, turning and moving can only be done softly, which will increase your degree of relaxation. Another point is that having someone in your face, in your living space, pushing you, can be a real challenge to your breathing, mental calm, and centeredness. When you go back to solo form practice, you will notice how much deeper your relaxation, flexibility, etc. has become.

Self-Defense

For self-defense, pushing-hands gives us the basics for fighting skills, but is not the final answer. The most important skill is a developed sense of touch. The old adage, "the hand is quicker than the eye," means for us that an opponent may easily fool our eyes as to what they intend to do, but will find difficulty hiding the feelings of their intended attack. The old masters called the sense of touch "listening energy (ting-jin)," like they could hear your actions and movements with their skin. The T'ai-Chi Classics tell us that after you can listen to energy, gradually you will be able to interpret the energy (tung-jin) as to how it will manifest itself, such as long or short, fast or slow, internal or external. Master Liang always stressed that "to know before the action" was the way to mount a suitable defense. He broke an attack into three easy to understand time-frames: before you are attacked, as you are attacked, and after you are attacked. Two of these you can defend against, but one is definitely too late.

There are five training words or phrases that help us develop our sense of touch and are commonly called the 5 elements of pushing-hands. All teachers have their own ways of describing them, so I will give you my brief ideas on each one.

Adhere is like when you glue two pieces of wood together. You have to use a clamp to make the glue effective. This word means to me: active sticking. I have to use some of my energy to stick to my partners so I can listen to them. In other words, I am responsible for the work of sticking to my partner.
Join is the action, or struggle, to keep connected to your partners so you can sense them. Either at the first moment or if they're trying to disconnect, join is the energy of getting back into contact. Charging forward to stick and defend is a funny way Master Liang used to describe join.
Stick is passive or staying easily in contact, feeling the opponent's power as it comes to you and avoiding it.
Follow is to be second or to take cues from your partner as to whether to go forward or backward, fast or slow, high or low. The Tao Te Ching says, "It is better to retreat one foot than to advance one inch, better to be the host than the guest." When someone is attacking, they have to take into account all your possible reactions, while the defender just has the attack to deal with. Follow means obey, listen to your opponent and obey them when they are telling you what their weak points are and how to defeat them.
No resistance, no letting go is what Master Liang called the "mother of the 5 elements" and the foundation for developing the sense of touch. Resistance can mean pushing at the exact same time as your partner. Letting go is breaking apart or having your partner escape your radar-like detection. Simply put, you can't feel anything, or feel correctly, in either situation.

Philosophy

The philosophy of T'ai-Chi, also called mental accomplishment or development, is based on the yin-yang symbol, which sums up the powers of active, passive, and neutral. An excellent definition of T'ai-Chi or yin and yang is opposites that cannot exist apart. The pushing-hands exercises thoroughly explore all manner of opposites, such as attack and defense, forward and backward, lead and follow, tension and relaxation, give and take, etc. The Tao Te Ching, the handbook of Taoism and the wellspring of T'ai-Chi, advocates yielding, softness, and water to balance or overcome aggression, hardness, and stone. We can experience these thoughts or ideas physically as well as intellectually and emotionally with a partner. We can actively experiment with softness to balance hardness, etc. It is easy to read a book or sit on a cushion or live in a cave and say, "I'm so spiritual, compassionate, caring, gentle and yielding," and then someone bumps into you or cuts you off on the highway and you explode into a raging, homicidal maniac. Pushing-hands practice with a live, thinking, breathing partner gives you plenty of hands-on practice and experience for putting Taoist philosophy into action.

Meditation

T'ai-Chi for meditation uses 70% Taoist and 30% Buddhist methods. The Taoist method is about saving and storing energy, circulating and extending the energy, and balancing and controlling energy. In the solo form, we try to extend the energy out to the surface of the skin. This will give us complete circulation of blood, ch'i, and spirit. The practice of swimming in air helps to achieve this. In weapons training, we use the body, mind and eye to extend our energy and sense of touch by using the tip of the weapon as a concentration point. This practices extending through an inanimate object. In pushing-hands, we can extend our energy from our body out to five feet away by using a biological conduit--our partner's body. We can extend through their arms, torso, and legs down to the floor. The Buddhist method is about emptiness, egolessness, and stopping the repetition of destructive habits. Many times during pushing-hands practice Master Liang would say, "Invest in loss," "Yield," "Don't take the initiative," and "Small loss-small gain; big loss-big gain." Pushing-hands practice done correctly can help us empty ourselves of ego, pride, and selfishness. We must learn to work with different people, adapt and change, and get along so our selves, our partners, our class, our families, and our world can survive in balance and harmony. Enough preaching.

When To Learn Pushing-Hands

As to when to start learning pushing-hands, I'll give a few examples. When Master Liang was learning from Cheng Man-ch'ing, he was recovering from liver disease. Cheng made Liang wait close to six years before he would let him do pushing-hands because he was concerned about any possible injury to a weakened internal organ.

As for me, because I had asthma and allergies growing up, Master Liang made me wait two years, until he was sure my lungs were healthy. I don't want to paint the picture of pushing-hands being so rough or violent. When you do pushing-hands, the whole body is affected and actually benefits from the contact. Because the torso is moved by someone else's energy, the safety precaution is only for people with a history of a weak or injured internal organ. My generation of students was taught single-hand and 4-directions pushing hands at the end of the second section of the solo form. (This was only practiced slow and soft, in the same vein as the solo form.) At our studio, the only prerequisite is the 150-posture solo form before you start pushing-hands classes. This way you'll have health, correct body knowledge, and will know many of the techniques used. My personal opinion is that once you begin, you should continue with some aspect of pushing-hands for the rest of your life, but at the very least, one year of continuous training will benefit your T'ai-Chi.

How To Learn Pushing-Hands

Just as a great dish needs a recipe or an extensive trip needs a map, so too does the path of learning and practicing need a plan of action. T'ai-Chi as a system has many clear-cut formulae which we can use for learning and practicing as well as teaching. We are going to look at the T'ai-Chi symbol, which is a guideline for breaking down any learning/practicing plan into three parts. We will also use the eight trigrams, which will give us a couple of lesson plans in increments of eight.

When looking at the T'ai-Chi symbol, most people see black and white fish or dots, and this makes them think of opposites, but the symbol represents not just opposites and not two, but three, powers: active, passive, and neutral. The three powers, called San-Tsai in Chinese, represent heavenly power, earthly power, and human power. If we approach pushing-hands in three progressive steps, we can not only save time and energy, but understand pushing-hands and the entire system of T'ai-Chi as a whole.

The first set of three for learning is to train the body to become first soft, then hard, and then have the ability to freely change between the two. The T'ai-Chi Classics say, "From the most soft and yielding you will arrive at the most powerful and unyielding," and an old martial arts saying tells us to be able to make our bodies soft as cotton or as hard as steel in the blink of an eye. I can't emphasize enough that softness is not only one-third of the mastery of pushing-hands, but it must be the first part mastered.

Another set of three for learning purposes is the concept of hua (defend), Na (control), and Da (attack). Each technique in T'ai-Chi has three distinct parts which, at the highest level, are done together but for learning purposes are mainly broken down into three parts. Defense can be defined as the many ways to avoid or reduce your partner's energy or attack from coming toward your body. Control is to stop any further energy coming from your partner. Attack is to issue your energy to your partner. The first step in learning any pushing-hands practice is to study the defensive part, to truly understand how to protect yourself. Control is a very subtle idea of doing something to stop your partner from doing anything further to you after you have neutralized their first push or attack. This can be achieved by unbalancing, trapping, locking their joint or any other number of ways to try to freeze them, so to speak. Attack is to issue energy of your own for a specific counter-attack such as a push, strike, throw, trip, or a finishing joint lock.

When you understand the three parts of a technique separately, you can begin to combine them together. First, you should combine the defensive and controlling aspects and then counterattack, combining the three parts into two. The final stage is to defend, control, and counter in the same movement. Easy to say (or write), but difficult to do without years of correct practice.

There are many ways to use the three powers for training, but I'll just give one more. When learning a new method or practicing a familiar one, put your attention first on your body, then on your partner's body, and lastly on both bodies at the same time. Master Liang always told us, "The first step of pushing-hands is to make a thorough investigation of feeling and sensitivity." When practicing pushing-hands I want to feel my body--Is it relaxed? Unified? Balanced? Am I in a defect position? Then, I want to feel my partner's body for the same qualities. Finally, I want to feel both our bodies at the same time, processing information and acting accordingly. A common pitfall is to focus on your partner's faults and mistakes without first correcting your own. Without fail, 90% of all complaints made to me about other students is after a pushing-hands class. You work on getting yourself right. When that is done, you can look at and study your partner. Then, and only then, can you begin to understand any given technique from both points of view. The Art of War says, "To know yourself and know your opponent is to have 100 victories in 100 battles."

Eight Energies

There are many talks by different masters and authors about the 8 Postures of T'ai-Chi. These 8 Postures or Energies play an important role in pushing-hands. In Master Liang's book, T'ai-Chi Ch'uan for Health and Self-defense on pg. 89 the Classic says, "In Ward Off, Roll Back, Press, and Push one must know the correct technique." In the commentary it says, "They are supplemented by the movements of the four corners--Pull, Split, Elbow and Shoulder. Together, all of these are called the 8 positions (essences) and all the variations in T'ai-Chi Ch'uan are derived from them." The 8 Postures are not static or just single movements, they are actually outward manifestations of 8 intrinsic energies.

Here is a brief list with basic descriptions of the 8 Postures and the uses of the energy.

Ward Off: Keep out or away using the circular principle of the horizontal wheel (this is commonly the first energy to master.)
Roll Back: Lead in and past, or away, like a matador with a bull (for Cheng Man-ch'ing, this was the first energy to master.)
Press: One hand controls as the other hand counters.
Push: Manipulating yin and yang to attack partner's balance, control and attack with the same hand.
Pull: To guide the power or to off-balance, as if plucking fruit.
Split: Divide four options, split the power, break the joint, attack the stance, and split the mind from the body.
Elbow: All strikes, folding, and unfolding.
Shoulder: Short power.

The 8 Postures are, in essence, 8 sensations or feelings you develop within your body, manifested from your body to your partner's body, or sensed in your partner's body. The 8 Energies are one of the steps in understanding Master Liang's quote, "The first step of pushing-hands is to make a thorough investigation of feeling and sensibility."'

Eight Conditions

When practicing pushing-hands with Master Liang, he would always remark that we didn't know him, but he knew us quite well. I found out later he was paraphrasing a line from the Classics which goes, "My opponent does not know me, but I know them quite well. If you can master all the techniques, you will become a peerless hero." I asked him, "What is it that you know, that I don't know?" He answered, "The 8 Techniques." The word "techniques" confused me for many years because I thought of the word as related to physical procedures like blocks, grabs, attacks, etc. Once I had grasped the 8 Techniques, I started calling them the 8 Conditions in my mind, and that cleared them up for my own learning, practice, and now, I hope, teaching. The 8 Techniques are essentially conditions present in your and your partner's bodies which make your attack effective, or theirs ineffective.

Here is a brief list of the 8 Techniques with basic descriptions:

Yin and Yang: The hard and soft, the insubstantial and substantial, the moving and the still and all the variations in between.
The Line: This is the weak point in your partner's stance or position and the direction that is the most effective for attacking them.
The Center of Gravity/Center Line: These are the horizontal and vertical lines in a person's torso which make them difficult to turn or defend themselves.
Superior and Defect Position: Having your opponent at a disadvantage and being able to take advantage of it.
Single Weighting: Knowing the correct way to issue energy from your body.
Concentration of Energy: Like a mathematical equation, getting the whole body to issue energy at the same time for maximum power.
Control: The Chinese word Na, which means to seize or hold, the technique of keeping your opponent in the defect position.
Territory: The "living space" of your and your partner's stance--how to get inside your partner's territory to attack them without them taking advantage of you.

Master Liang told me that the Yang family could get all 8 Conditions any time they wanted and that is why their pushing-hands was so effective. He also said to work on 1 or 2 and gradually build up to getting all 8 before pushing. There are numerous references made about the 8 Techniques/Conditions in Master Liang's book-see pp. 5, 24, 26, 39, 41, 76 and 91.

Eight Levels

In my early days studying with Master Liang, I loved to ask him questions and hear his stories and comments about the old masters, especially the Yang family. One day I asked a question that elicited an answer which, to this day, continually gives me fresh insight. I asked Master Liang, "At what level are you, compared to Cheng Man-ch'ing and the Yang family?" He answered by saying, "I asked Professor Cheng the very same question." Master Liang was told what the various levels were and how to recognize them. He alluded to these levels on page 105 in the short text called "To Know Before the Action" in his book, which states "The way of T'ai-Chi can be divided into three levels: that of one who has foresight and vision, one who knows and apprehends only after the event, and one who knows nothing from beginning to end. As soon as fellow disciples of T'ai-Chi join hands and begin to practice the pushing-hands exercise, they can perceive each other's level of mastery." I like to tell students that when you meet a new partner for pushing-hands, you want to figure out--is this person more, less, or the same level of sensitivity? If more, work on defense. If less, work on offense. If equal, work on sensitivity, which is all the variations of yin and yang. As T'ai-Chi for health, self-defense, philosophy, and meditation are all based on the nervous system, or more simply, the sense of touch, we can see the correlation between how delicate and refined the sense of touch is and how elevated the level of martial ability and meditation.

Once again, here are the 8 Levels, brief descriptions, and a reference to each from the Classics:

Jumping Energy (t'iao-chin). When your partner's energy has fully reached your body, you "ride" it and land safely, maintaining your relaxation and centeredness. When one has been struck and is just about to fall over, they must hop like a sparrow.
Neutralizing Energy (hua-chin). When your partner's energy is 70% in your body, you turn, shift, bend, etc. to neutralize, reduce or transform it so that you maintain your balance. When your partner puts pressure on the left, the left becomes insubstantial; when pressure is brought on the right, the right becomes empty.
Withdraw/Attack Energy (tsou fa chin). When your opponent's energy comes to your body, you neutralize it, borrow some of it, and issue energy of your own at the same instant. To withdraw is to attack; to attack is to withdraw.
Receiving Energy (chieh-chin). When your opponent has issued half their energy, you combine the skills of neutralizing, rooting, and issuing with timing and sensitivity to add your push to the last half of their push-getting 150% by spending 100%. Suddenly disappear and suddenly appear.
Listening Energy (t'ing-chin). The sense of touch is so developed at this stage that as soon as your partner's muscles are stirring with energy, about to push you, you can feel it or "hear it coming" and push them first, anticipating and stopping them. If your opponent does not move, you do not move. At their slightest stir, you have already anticipated it and moved beforehand.
Interpreting Energy (tung-chin). Akin with Chinese medicine, you can feel which organ/meridian is manifesting energy and know, or interpret, which action they are taking, be it offensive, defensive, or controlling, before the muscles even move. From the mastery of all the postures you will apprehend "interpreting energy"; from apprehending interpreting energy, you will arrive at a complete mastery of your partner without recourse to detecting their energy.
Sticking Energy (nien-chin). By controlling positive and negative charges in the body, the practitioner can attract or repel their partner using bio-electric magnetic energy. The mind and the ch'i must respond ingeniously and efficaciously to the exchange of substantial and insubstantial so as to develop an active and harmonious tendency.
Spiritual Insight (shen-ming). The practitioner's sense of touch is so acute that they can feel/read the intentions of their partner and anticipate them well in advance--"reading their mind" and dealing with their attack perfectly. After you have learned to interpret energy, the more you practice, the better your skill will be, and by examining thoroughly and remembering silently, you will gradually reach a stage of total reliance on the mind.

As we can see from this list, the 8 levels are about how sensitive your nervous system is and at what distance your nervous system becomes aware. Master Liang said, "When you practice the solo form, imagine you are swimming in air. This will make your body so sensitive and alert. Gradually, you will become aware of an ever increasing area around your body."

These three lists of 8 are considered by many masters to be the "secrets" of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan, and they would make their students wait many years before revealing them, if ever. As we can see, the secret is not in what we do, but how we do it. A classic says, "To enter the gate and be guided onto the correct path, one requires verbal instruction from a competent master. If one practices constantly and studies carefully, one's skill will take care of itself." Master Liang, in his true role as a teacher, learned them, cataloged them, taught them, explained them, demonstrated the ones he could, and encouraged us to seek the highest levels. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the first, last and always starting point to any pushing-hands practice is softness, but I'll let the Classics sum up this whole article, "From the most soft and yielding you will arrive at the most powerful and unyielding."

Back to articles index