After learning taiji as a beginner for a while you will be ready for the next stage of practice. As our classes have mixed levels of experience, it may not be clear what the next stage is. When students finish learning the form (tao lu), what is next? 

Although it is not set in a structure or time frame, what usually follows is learning and practising push hands (tui shou). 

By now in our training we should have mastered some form of relaxation (level one) and have begun whole body movement (level two). Of course this varies from student to student, and these two levels, mentioned in a previous article, will be a continuous, ongoing learning process.

We continue to learn more intricate movements in tao lu, but we also begin to train in push hands.

This is a two person training routine practised in internal martial arts of many styles. 

At foundation level, we learn how to maintain a closed kua, relax into the training routine (which at the beginning may seem impossible), and learn how to ‘flow’. A side benefit to this training is the improvement in the strength of your legs.

This form of training also enforces grounding, or rooting, which is an extreme advantage to achieve when you progress into learning applications. With rooting as a defence, you are not quite a “pushover”. When someone tries to win over you with an application you will be much harder to unbalance. On the attacking side, rooting will give you the “extra” power.

The more you train, the more you will start to be lighter in touch with your training partner (opponent), and your ting li (听力) power will develop. Ting Li is the ability to feel what your opponent is doing. Literally translated – your listening power. In order for this to develop you must… relax of course!

As beginners, especially to push hands, it is important to master the foundations well and be as precise as possible. To “win” against your opponent, it is not so much your level of expertise but your ability to eliminate your mistakes so that you do not give any advantage away to your opponent. A tennis analogy would be: in a baseline rally, the one to win is usually the person who does not make the first mistake.

Some other useful thoughts by David Roth-Lindberg including his experience of when you should learn push hands can be found in his blogs.

The following are three types of push hands we practise. This is not a comprehensive description, it is just a general outline. To really learn, you need to do this face to face.

1. Single Hand Push Hands

In this school we start off with single hand push hands – with hands at medium height, then training at high and low heights separately. Unlike other styles, the stance may seem awkward as all feet, both yours and your opponents, are parallel to each other in a line while waist up you turn to face your opponent. This is a foundation level of push hands – stance training and whole body movement.

When practising, we keep the movement flowing and at an even and slow speed – it will seem as if we are circling our arm in a horizontal plane as we attack and defend forwards and backwards. Eventually the circle becomes more oval. When we push/attack, we push intentionally to the opponent’s chest using mainly our legs (simplistically) whilst keeping the structure of our arm as it circles. As we defend we practise the ability to avoid the attack  without using muscle force to defend. Instead we keep our arm structure and use the movement of our legs and the rotation of our body to defend ourselves from the push/attack.

2. Double Hand Push Hands

Double handed push hands – at medium height, then at a low height separately, followed by stepping once and eventually three steps while maintaining the push hands routine at either height level.

Our stance this time is more or less facing each other with our front foot parallel to the other, while each of our back feet is at a 45 degree direction behind. As we attack and defend the movement is more or less forwards and backwards at a diagonal.

Once the medium height routine is learnt, next is the low height which involves a change in how your hands flow. This time the attack and defence is at low level, to your dantien. Most students find sticking to your opponent difficult in this routine.

Your ability to stick (lightly) to your opponent’s hands/arms, and moving different parts of your body independently to each other is highlighted in this practice.

3. Zhao Bao Push Hands

In this style, the opponents stand with their own feet parallel to each other and make a 90 degree angle to the opponent with the left foot of one opponent tucked behind the right foot of the other opponent.  The circling of the arms occurs in a diagonal plane between opponents. The back of your right arm, for example if your opponent is on your right, wards off your opponent’s right arm making contact at the wrist while the other hand is lightly placed at the opponent’s elbow of their right arm. Your opponent does the same with their arms. As you circle in the diagonal plane, you stick to your opponent with both hands/arms and alternate between warding off with your right then left arms.

The larger the circle made, usually above your head, the more you learn to root, close your kua and relax.  Zhao Bao push hands is not very forgiving –  every “error” allows your opponent to attack. 

After a few revolutions, you are required to change leg stances. At the beginning we do this at a slow pace to keep the constant rhythm, but eventually we need to change stances as quickly as possible.  Because of the stance – right foot behind opponent’s left foot – there are certain advantages and disadvantages, so the changing of the stance regularly gives each person the opportunity to “attack” or “defend” equally.

Learning and practising Zhao Bao push hands is also slightly harder to achieve as your stance is more upright. Being more upright is necessary, as you are required to move and change positions/stances quickly – closer resemblance to combat.

When you are able and more comfortable with the routine, learning the applications begins.

It is said that the Zhao Bao style of taiji is one of the best for applications and counter applications.