It is during push hands practice that we can get a direct experience of what the philosophy of tai chi is all about. The way to get an advantage in push hands is not by being forceful and aggressive, but by focusing on the movements of others so that you can get out of the way of their attacks while staying in a balanced position. Through push hands we learn to relate to people in a different way by becoming more in tune with how our actions affect others.

Push hands or “tui shou” is a two-person sensitivity / alignment exercise that can gradually build up to a safe form of soft sparring or a competitive match. Regardless of the solo forms studied, push hands is the main vehicle for learning how to adapt oneself to the actions of another person in the internal martial arts.