Tui Shou (push hands) or Chi Sao (sticky hands) are common practices in Chinese martial arts, meant to develop both structure, sensitivity, power, offense and defense. All too often though they become overly formalized practices that leave the original intent far behind, and as a result practitioners fail to develop any real, usable martial arts skill.
At Falling Leaves Kung Fu in Tempe, we strive to practice these drills in the spirit which they were developed, a real, "live" drill.
We ran these stationary drills taking turns being the "anchor" and then cycling through the line. each person got two minutes as the anchor, then at the end I wanted to shoot the clip and the students thought it would be funny to challenge me to just stay in the anchor spot until i dropped. Unfortunately we ran out of space on the sd card before I gassed completely but i was just about all in by the end anyway.
So what we were doing is trying for the anchor to start out as "lower hand" and then we play "control".
Definition of "control" is:
lower hand can tap the partners arms and body (like striking) and try to get to "upper hand".
upper hand can pull / push from the get go and wants to try and defend from the lower hand attacks.
both upper and lower attempt to maintain contact/stickiness throughout.
once lower gets to be upper then the roles reverse.
The idea was to maintain the harmony of the 13 points, manifest 45 and 90 to the point, manifest offense and defense (highest point), etc. at all times and under duress, while at the same time constantly shifting level of play (hard and heavy with the guys and lighter with the ladies, and even the difference in body types and energy on touch between the guys), to challenge the attention while in a state of fatigue.
Video uploaded a little funny, so you may want to click to view on YouTube...
A quick clip from our martial arts classes in Tempe Arizona discussing our Tai Chi - Kung Fu principles of absorb and project and how they might apply to a clinch.
Students of Falling Leaves Kung Fu in Tempe, Arizona gathered early this morning, some as early as 7am, to participate in my Sifu's only regular class taught in New York, the monthly "Master's Class" for I Liq Chuan, The Martial Art of Awareness.
I'd like to discuss some thoughts on the day while the content is fresh in my mind. It was a fantastic experience for everyone I think, and I definitely got a lot out of the day (a few technical difficulties aside). Although looking at the list below, it might not look like a lot, but five hours of martial arts training ended up flying by!
Some of the days content that was covered was;
the ground as a tai chi point
all actions as either open or close
discussion of the above principles (and others) via application of the 21 Form
The Ground As a Tai Chi Point
This was a great topic for me, since it relates directly to the training I'm currently pursuing for my student level 6 (roughly equivilant to a 2nd degree black belt in other systems).
Master Sam FS Chin discussed the point at which the feet touch the ground as being a tai chi point, in the case of the feet, the point at which the enegry goes down, but also back up, so that you're never sitting on the feet, but that the feet merely support the body giving you a strong stance when you need it, but the ability to move and step and kick when you need it as well.
My Sifu also discussed it as a peng 棚 point, or a point of fullness as well.
As I understand it, this tai chi balance at the point of contact with the floor occurs as a result of the alternation of absorb and project, and opening and close energy and gives you the readiness to change and move freely while maintaining the ability to generate power (remember martial arts are about power, offense and defense).
This topic also timely, since I had just watched a short clip from the Grand Master's workshop in Kuala Lumpur in which Master Chin duscussed the very same topic, so the repitition of the concept was great reinforcemnet.
Return To Simplicity...
"All actions as either open or close" was another interesting and juicy morsel that just helped to tie everything together into a nice, neat little package. "Make everything as simple as possible." Master Chin explained (which is somewhat ironic considering the highly technical nature of a martial art like I Liq Chuan), but it was concept that helped everything else gel.
Application Of The I Liq Chuan 21 Form
The majority of the days training was devoted to application of the principles via movements from the 21 Form. This was all hands on, contact based partner training.
Just due to time limits we were only able to cover a few variations of applications from the first 7 moves -
Commencing Form (qǐ shì) 起势
Hold The Ball (Left & Right) (xiáng shī xì qiú) 祥狮戏球
Whirl & Hook (huī tiān mǒ dì) 挥天抹地
Pull & Push (shuāng gōu tuī zhǎng) 雙鉤推掌
Drag & Shoulder (lì bá shān hé) 力拔山河
Brush Knee & Push (jiàng lóng fàng yuān) 降龙放渊
Circle & Press (huā shì wèi jìn) 化势为进（双手）
A great little gem for me was just thye application of the first step to the left in commencing form as a shoulder stroke (ofter refferred to as kao jin 靠勁 (bumping power) in Chinese). This was probably the greatest insight, or just reafirming that every little movement in I Liq Chuan has it's relationship and it's purpose.
Moving on through all the various applications, I felt the strongest emphasis for the day was recognizing the opening and closing action to get the right result on the opponent.
Being able to recognize the origin of movement and the right timing of application of force is the key to making your martial arts application seem like magic. That's the key behind the nei jia 內家 (internal martial arts). It's the path from obvious power (ming jin 明勁) to hidden power (an jin 暗勁).
