By Tu-Ky Lam
Yiquan Push-hands originates from Taijiquan. But it has been modified so much that it has its own characters and flavours. It is much more martial arts orientated and so more practical as it is useful in fighting and helps students move smoothly to free sparring.
The posture in Yiquan single push-hands practice is exactly like the posture of “Embrace-a-Tree”, with each participant moving their right (or left) hand and right (or left) foot forwards. They make the back of their right (or left) forearms in touch with that of the opponent, while their other hand, held in the “Embrace-a-Tree” posture, will protect them from an elbow strike or prepare them to move forward to push the opponent. In Yiquan single push-hands, we are allowed to use both hands to push.
At the start of push-hands, one of the participants will rotate his arm to make his palm face diagonally to the ground and the chest of the opponent, and move his body slightly forwards to push (towards the centreline of the chest). The other participant will try to keep his arm round, sits back and turn right slightly to ward off the push (with his palm still facing himself as in the start-up posture). Then he will rotate his right arm (to make his palm face the opponent), move slightly forwards to push his opponent in the same manner as the first participant, who will need to ward off. So the two will push each other in turn, and their forearms move in circles, which look like a Taiji pushhands.
But Yiquan push-hands circles are very small, compared to those of Taijiquan (less than half the size). The main reason is that the participants can make their arms always stay close to and so protect their center-line. Another benefit is that the “peng” energy in the arms is very strong. (If you turn big circles, a lot of your “peng” energy will disperse, and so the strength in your arms will be greatly reduced.)
Please note in Yiquan push-hands, we usually push our opponent’s forearm(s) with our forearm(s), not with our palms, (for the purpose of controlling and destabilizing him before pushing him off balance) and when we push, our palms face the ground and the opponent (with our wrists extended). Pushing like this can easily uproot our opponent as our force goes right down to the bottom of his feet, and he can be destabilized. When this happens, he is under our control and mercy.
There is a good reason for using our forearms to control our opponent because they are almost three times bigger than our hands and are closer to our torso and so can produce much more power. (It is obvious that using our palms to push our opponent’s forearms, which Taiji practitioners often do, is ineffective.)
When we ward off, we will keep our arms round with the palms facing our chest like in the “Embrace-a-Tree” posture. This practice gives us more “peng” energy to ward off the opponent’s push. We should never let our arms bend to smaller than 90 degrees, which is considered “collapsed form”, and can result in getting thrown off balance.
There are several ways of using our forearms to control our opponents before pushing them off balance. The simplest one is to use our right (or left) forearm to push downwards, forwards and from the side (left or right) on the opponent’s forearm. The three directional push will make him hard to ward off. If his arm collapses, our palm(s) will immediately reach his chest and push him off balance (with one or both hands).
If our opponent’s forearm is very strong and we cannot push forwards, then we push backwards, downwards and sideways with our right forearm. This move will unbalance him, making him stumble forwards. We can now easily move our hands forwards to push him off balance.
If the opponent’s forearm is high up and very strong, we will push his forearm up and then push backwards and downwards, which will upset his balance. We can now push him off balance with (our palms) easily.
Another commonly used technique is spinning. When we push forwards and find our opponent resist our push, we can then push sideways in a half circle to spin our opponent so that his back is turned facing us. We can now push him off balance with both hands.
The above are the attacking techniques in Yiquan push-hands. To counter these, the major defending technique is the one called “Spiralling downwards”, which is used to redirect the downward and forward push of the opponent. Following the move of the opponent is also used though not as obvious as in Taijiquan. For example, when we are spinned, our arm(s) has to go loose. In short, in Yiquan push-hands, whoever has the stronger internal strength and better techniques will win the push-hands battle.
Where does the strength of Yiquan practitioners come from? Firstly, from doing zhan-zhuang (standing practice). The longer we stand, the stronger our internal strength will be. Shi-li (testing of energy) is also important as the shi-li movements are the moves used in push-hands. The two, together with zou-bu (stepping) are the foundation of Yiquan which we should spend a lot of time practicing.
Secondly, we know how to use our forearms to good effect. For example, we use the upper part of our forearm, which is bigger, to push at our opponent’s lower forearm, which is smaller. We bend our wrists in different directions to produce more power. We extend our wrists when pushing, and flex our wrists when warding off.
There is a special of training to increase the strength in the arms, which is call “Not yielding an inch.” Here when the opponent pushes hard, our arm will turn a smaller than usual circle and then push back. Both participants will do the same. This is using force against force, which in this case is a means to help develop strong arms.
In short, Yiquan push-hands is executed differently from that of Taijiquan. With their small circles, Yiquan push-hands is fast and powerful compared to Taijiquan.