Testing Tai Chi Push Hands Exercise

Video Transcript

"In this segment we're going to be using a partner to help us test our push posture to see if it's really effective or if we're just shoving. So the way we do this is you have a partner with their arms crossed, and they're in a pretty good strong stance. You begin with your hands on their arms, right. On their arms here. You would start with your weight a little bit back and you start by pushing with the back foot. So that's your source of movement. So I use, I like to tell my students to actually say it out loud. From your foot, through your legs, through your waist. So now the energy's in my waist, and see he's already going backward. Through up my spine, out through my shoulders and then out through my hands. And he can't resist that. So you do that a few times with just your mind, I mean using your word. From my foot, through my leg, through my waist, out through my hands. But what we want to avoid is forgetting about the waist. It's the most common thing. Push with the leg, right into your arms and now look at what we're doing, we're fighting with each other. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't push him. But if I come back into my leg and bring it through my waist, now he can't resist me. So this is a really good way to see if you're really going through the process of your movement in push. You take your time, it's not about shoving the person, winning or losing, it's about improving the quality of your movement."