Push Hands!

I was so excited in class today. Shifu had announced what his itinerary for class was, and it was to include some basic push hands practice! I've been looking forward to this for so long, and today wss the day. Shifu had us face off, each person with right foot forward, and single hand contact. We worked the mid level today, and the objective was to push in the towards the partner's center line. the partner would yield, turning his body front to accept the push, and then divert it towards our outside, while turning our palm upward and covering our partner's push. Then turning the palm back facing the partner, while pushing back again.

Sounds easy, right? Well, unfortunately I wasn't as good as my enthusiasm was high, and my initial partner was getting quite frustrated with me. Sigh. He was beginning to raise his voice and pushing harder, while telling me to relax. Relax? I could not have been more relaxed, while his energy was steadily increasing. Fortunately, one of my classmates was partner free, so, I took the initiative, and passed off my guy to him.


I went to practice with a more senior fellow. Now, that was productive. He was explaining and showing me, that my pushes needed to be more accurate and into his centerline. Then he was explaining that there were different types of "games" that one could do in these types of push hands exercises. This one today was the most basic, where we were pushing in straight on the midlevel. This partner made my practice much more positive and was more like what I had been anticipating.

I look forward to learning more about push hands and being able to describe what i've been shown and to share with you all.
J