Push Hands Summary

Today, I was pushing hands with a non-student, someone I pushed before Covid. This person does not know how to lock, but he was looking for a place that I am locked by testing with a push. I tested myself with having peng on contact, and even he tried to hold on to my arms, he slided right off along my arms. Then I tired without extending my arms, just focused on walking forward, it also bumped him out. It was like he was caught in the river current and had to go out.

Being there for a long time

On Nov 25, 2022 in the English instructor class, Master Chen Zhonghua mentioned that Grandmaster Hong was there with Grandmaster Chen Fake for 14 years from 1930 to 1944 before he moved to Jinan.  Many students came for a short time to learn from Grandmaster Chen Fake.  Grandmaster Hong was there every day listening to Grandmaster Chen Fake teaching others, Grandmaster Hong would wait for everyone else to be gone for today, before he would get his chance to work with Grandmaster Chen Fake. Master Chen Zhonghua said Grandmaster Hong was always there compared to others who would come and go.  I just realized in my professional life, I was in the same database product for over 20 years, although I was working directly in certain components, I actually knew them well compared to others who didn't have as many years of experience.

Push Hands Practice Analysis

0:04 - I stretched my right hand, locked my right hand. My left thigh was behind the opponent's right thigh. My left kua moved forward and created a bie with the my right elbow, and rotated a dot at around his right waist on the opponent.

0:14 - My left hand and my left thigh created a bie, which broken his integrity. He started falling backwards, and I walked backed to make sure that he could not recover.

0:28 - FAIL - My left hand and my left thigh attempted to create a bie, but this move was not very precise, and I moved left foot out and the opponent was able to recover part of the balance would not fall.

0:36 - I used my left thigh to bump the opponent's left thigh, he was off balance. He was leaning a bit on his left, my left arm was under his armpit, I rotated my waist to right and got him to fall. I followed him and led him to the ground.

0:48 - This was the same move as 0:04, except it was done in one go starting from far away, got in and finished it all without powering up the arms.

1:05 - I locked my head and right foot, moved my left foot to sweep the opponent's left leg, which was one of his supported legs. I was rotating using my head to right foot as the vertical axis. My left hand was on his right shoulder, my right hand was on his left upper arm. My hands moved opposite to my left foot.

1:34 - I locked my head and left foot, and used that as the vertical axis. I moved my right foot behind the opponent's left front foot, and pulled it back. My right hand was touching the opponent's left upper arm.  I moved the right hand out, as the right foot was pulled back. This was Embrace Head to Push Mountain.

1:44 - FAIL - A similar attempt as 1:34 was made, it did not work. The opponent was locked at the waist, so he was able to get out of it and regain balance. In comparison, for 1:34, I used my right hand to create a lock on the opponent's waist. I tried to follow up with a left leg towards his left leg, but I missed.

1:54 - This was the same move as 1:05. I moved my left foot as I pulled the opponent to rotate him.

2:11 - FAIL - My left foot didn't go deep enough. When I rotated my waist, the downward direction was not correct as my right foot was in the way to allow the opponent to go to the ground. Overall, my rotation was too short. I followed the opponent to push him out of bound.

2:28 - FAIL - I attempted to bounce the opponent, but it didn't work as I didn't lock the opponent or he was charging into me enough.

2:31 - FAIL - This was the same attempt as 2:11. Too much upper body movement for me.

2:46 - There was a bie between my right hand and left thigh. I used my waist to break the opponent's waist. It allowed me to go over the opponent's dantian to his chest. However, he had his arm around my neck, I didn't fight him, and just followed him down until he was on the ground. If I fought him, he would be able to use my neck to stop his fall, as his feet might catch up.

3:07 - I tried to the bie between my right hand and left foot, but I wasn't close enough. I was only able to get the opponent off balance, but I followed up to push him out of bound.

3:12 - FAIL - I tried to use my right foot to sweep the opponent's left foot, but he was able to stretch and maintain his line. I should have hooked his left leg, and pulled it up to execute Initial Closing instead.

3:24 - My left foot didn't go deep enough, my left shoulder popped up.  I should have dropped my left shoulder to stretch my left hand and left foot out. I bent at my waist instead. The good part was that I didn't try to stand back up. I moved to the right to continue the move, and then rotate to the right to throw the opponent. The opponent grabbed my right wrist, so my footwork pulled him along to become off balance.

3:34 - FAIL - This was the same move as 0:48, however, the opponent had his arm around my back, so he was able to pull me down with him. Part of the problem was that I tried to hold him down gently.

3:50 - FAIL - This was the same move as 3:34, and the same problem occurred that the opponent's arm was on my back and was able to pull me down with him. Another problem was that my left foot didn't get out of the way for the opponent's fall, so he fell right into my left foot, and caused to fall as well.

4:05 - I used my left hand to pull the opponent to get him off balance. I walked backwards and pull him along, and at the end used my waist to turn to spin him out and around myself. He landed out of bound.

4:22 - This was the same move as 0:04. I had more distance away from the opponent. My left hand did a bie with my left knee, it broke the opponent's integrity. It was falling backwards, and I was standing perpendicular to him, and was safely out of his way of falling.

Overall, I was not powering with my arm, I was using my arms/hands to hold the opponent, and acted with my bottom.  Master Chen Zhonghua gave a comment of "Good".

8 out of 20 attempts failed, that's a 40% failure rate.

Line up the forearm and rear calf

What does it mean by lining up the forearm and rear calf? There are 2 ways:

1. The forearm and rear calf can on the same line, but separate into two sections.
2. The forearm and rear calf can also be on two parallel tracks.

Refining Flash the Back

Overall, flash the back is used to throw someone over the top. We started training with a stick to understand the idea of a lever.  The left hand is a pivot and does not move at all. The right hand holds one end of a stick, it starts at a location front of my body. It stretches against the non-moving left hand, and goes downwards towards the floor, and then goes up on the other side, all the while stretching more. At the same time, the right move from the front to the back, it is used to pull the stick. We have to imagine that the other end of the stick has a heavy load. We catapult the heavy load over our head and throw it. As my right hand stretches down and back, there is a point where the opponent's power disappear, and we need to quick switch to the other side with the left hand continuing the overall vertial rotating motion. The use of the stick makes it very clear how the lever works here.

Now without the stick, we need to rotate the dantian area. We need to thrust the dantian to the left and up to go around the top. The stick is like between the left hand and the right foot. The movement of the right foot allows the left hand to turn over at the dantian.

Driving energy on the two sides of the forearm.

Today, Master Chen Zhonghua talked about how to cause energy to go around within the forearm.  It involved using the shoulder to cause the elbow to go over within a vertical plane of the entire arm.  We have done similar exercise for the kua and knee standing on one leg.

The elbow is not allowed to move, but it has to rotate. The elbow rotation is driven by a very big motion at the shoulder.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on July 1, 2022

Chinese Class

In Six Sealing Four Closing, there must be a stick that does not change direction between the two hands.  In Practical Method, there are rotation and resolution. Rotation is not considered a move. Resolution is considered a move as it causes something to change position with respective to the ground. The result is 螺旋缠丝 luo xuan chan si. 

This is moving a rotating saw to cut a piece of board.  As the saw makes contact of the board, the rotation does not slow down, the saw blade does not change shape as someone pushes the saw through the board (or the board through the blade).  The common problem is that we change shape or direction as we move

English Class

In training, we must lock the whole body, and move one body part.  Use a big stance in Brush Knee in Oblique Stance to lock the body up, and try to only push up the front (left) kua. Only in this kind of training, we can train to gain the power.  Most people just train the useless moves, moves that make them feel good.  The move we want to train is the one that we don't want to do, and it is one that seems impossible to do.

At the begining of the 2nd Flash the Back, I need to lock the front (right) hand and put the rear (left) shoulder into the same line with the front hand. Lock them, and try to open front (right) kua, lock the front kua, and move the rear (left) kua.

Before the jump after Flash the Back, I need to make the right kua bump into the left kua like newton balls, to cause the jump (no movement in the body).

After Punch Covering Hand, I need to shrink the distance between the right elbow and the right kua, in order to suck the right foot up to complete the turn.

In Single Whip, after the right hand and left foot stretch, I must rotate the left kua to get into the left half horse stance. I can't just move the left kua.