Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 269

The softness of Tàijíquán 太極拳 overcoming a stronger enemy is a very powerful image. Can we reach that level? To be able to receive a metal ball and make it come to rest in our palm or to stop a bird being able to take off from an open palm? I would say that a person cannot do that, perhaps a special machine could, but not a human being. However, there is still power in that image of Tàijíquán and we should still practise and aim for that level. we can definitely use the soft way to overcome a powerful strike and divert the energy somewhere else, or even make it go back against the person attacking us. This is already a good level.

We need to practise our Tàijíquán hand forms and weapons, and then we have to learn a lot of applications in order to understand how to apply the skill and how to read the opponent’s energy and use less strength. So, Tuī Shǒu 推手 – Pushing Hands is very important training and we should practise with many different people. We should lean by making mistakes and trying to remember how the techniques work. When we are practising Tuī Shǒu, we should use less energy. It is just like driving, at the beginning we are nervous and tense, but in the end we feel very comfortable.