The point must be raised that there is no single ‘correct’ way to do push hands. Correctness can only be judged on how well your performance matches the training objectives you set out for yourself, which may go beyond the agreement you have with your training partner. As an extreme example, Sifu told one of my colleagues that he was not allowed to push at all – that, basically, he must lose until told otherwise. This ban was in effect for a year. For all that time he didn’t tell the people he was pushing with that he was constrained in this way. You can imagine his relief when the restriction was lifted, but can you understand why training this way would have benefited him?

We all come from different backgrounds and have different reasons for learning Tai Chi. Many of us hide an aggressive need to win that comes out when we first try push hands. This was indeed the case when I first started. I tended to spend less time on single and double push hands and a disproportionately long time on doing ‘sensitivity’ (freestyle) training with anyone who would push with me. The rules were simple: stand with opposite legs forward, let our arms touch each other and then push like crazy until someone lost balance and moved a foot (was uprooted). Against the seniors I used to lose almost every time. I just wanted to keep trying – to understand why they were able to so easily uproot me. Looking back I expect that they saw it as rather good training. They were much softer, more still and more relaxed than me, yet at the same time they were either solid like iron or vaporous as mist when moving me off balance.

Looking back, I don’t necessarily think that my approach was wrong, as we must allow ourselves the time to work through our ego, emotional aggression and also our external strength. Also I believe that your seniors should be capable of dealing with the strong bouncy energy of those who feel the compulsion to push hard without regard to much internal principle. If a junior is given this opportunity, their Tai Chi has a chance to progress quite quickly. Over time you will learn what it is that is making your seniors more successful – or forever lose. A junior may believe that they can eventually improve without having to change the way they are doing things, but every session takes the senior further along the successful path they are following. In the end what chance do you have unless you convert to true internal training?

Once you recognise that there might be a benefit to being softer and more relaxed, the factor that will most determine your win or loss in push hands will be, as my Sifu says, your engine size. In this we are referring to how powerful your centre is and how powerful the energy that can travel from there to all parts of the body is. Next on the list is probably how good your listening energy (Teng Ging) is. This is your ability to correctly interpret, intercept and merge with your partner’s intention (Yi) and accompanying physical movement. The bigger your engine in comparison to the person’s you are pushing with, the softer and more relaxed you can be even when you do not divert their force, but instead take the pressure. Also the greater your system’s tolerance will be for having ‘faults’ – i.e. you can make ‘mistakes’ and it won’t show. If the engine size of your opponent is similar (or yours is smaller) you will find signs of more and more external strength being used to support your internal power. This is natural. If you want it to be different, train more often than the people you are pushing with.

I remember that after a few years my engine size had reached a point where using the internal pattern for generating power in push hands seemed to be stronger than just using my external strength and so I began to trust it more. This allowed me to become better at loosening the arms, waist, hips and shoulders. After a while longer I found that some of the seniors were not finding things so easy. I was pushing with one in my normal way and it seemed to be in my favour. Suddenly he said, “Yeah. But anyone can push off the front leg”. This was a very generous teaching. I had spent the first few years following a path which was bringing me more and more success. I hadn’t even noticed that it was based on always starting with my weight forward and trying to keep it there all the time. How interesting I thought. From that moment on I tried to operate more and more from the rear leg. It was almost like starting again – initially I just kept losing, but after a while it took my push hands to a completely different level. Now, with more experience behind me and the continuing support of those around me I can see how far I have to go on the path of push hands (a long way) and what I need to do to take my next steps (quite a lot).

Cheng Man Ching used to be fond of the phrase ‘invest in loss’. It is a very neat way of summing up an approach that, with the right guidance, will help you bear fruit more quickly. From the brief account of my own progression in push hands, you can see that I did not begin to truly invest in loss until I had some usable engine size, a certain understanding of internal energy and was able to push with a certain level of success off the front leg - in the beginning I would lose almost every time no matter what I tried to do. How could I decide to invest in loss when loss was my only choice? To be perfectly frank, I thought the idea was stupid. It is for this reason that I don’t think investment in loss from the outset of training is the right thing for everyone; you may be investing in something you don’t understand – so how can you trust that the process will bear fruit? But don’t forget the phrase. There will come a time in your development when the true meaning will suddenly become clear. Then it will be an easy, productive concept to apply.

Here are some do’s and don’ts for freestyle (sensitivity) push hands training which you may find useful:

• Agree on training objectives and exercise limitations (e.g. no strikes, reset when someone’s foot moves, only one side pushes etc).
• If you are successful at uprooting the other person and you want to help them, then keep attacking the same way until they can stop you.
• Never move for the sake of moving. Be more still. Let them move more and show errors
• Take the opportunity to experiment with tai chi concepts and principles. For example you might want to look at substantial and insubstantial, look left and gaze right, storing downward intention in upward movement, or any number of different things.
• Take the opportunity to experiment with some of the body mechanics you are learning in your forms and other training exercises (i.e. play with some of the martial techniques, such as elbow locks, shoulder strikes, grabbing techniques, twists and turns etc.). Just be reasonable and make sure they do not hurt your partner unless that partner has agreed to be hurt.
• Invest in loss, but even so keep training your Yi and Hun and never give up until the other person has completely uprooted you.
• Try to relax the arms and shoulders. Remember that power comes from the back – try not to start it in the arms.
• Try to initiate your movement and be sensitive to their pressure by shifting weight from one leg to another, by turning the waist (using the kuas) or by altering how hollow your chest is and how tucked your pelvis (i.e. by bowing and un-bowing the back).
• Initially spend enough time in each training session to really get somewhere (perhaps a minimum of 10 minutes, preferably 20 or more).
• If someone always seems to beat you, try to train with them as often as possible. Do not allow loss of face to lose you progress in the art.