Pushing The Issue (Part 2): Tai Chi Push Hands Competitions

Part 2 of 2: A critical look at Tai Chi Push Hands competitions in China and the United States. If you wish to support the effort of this film, please visit http://www.pushingtheissue.com

Due to the limitations of the Youtube reply format, an additional thread of comments can be found here:
http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=83258

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Tai
• Chi
• Chuan
• TaiChi
• Tajiquan
• Taiji
• Toi
• Shou
• Push
• Hands
• Competition
• Traditional
• Chinese
• Martial
• Arts
• CMA
• Combat
• Fight
• Bullshido

[phauna]

The Chinese version looks just like wrestling, why don't they just train wrestling.

[TomKagan]

@phauna If you were a Chinese poster, would you be looking at the videos for wrestling and commenting something like "That wrestling looks like Tai Chi/Shaui Jiao/Mongolian/etc. Why don't they just train that?"

[phauna]

@TomKagan Well, shui jiao and mongolian wrestling *are* no gi wrestling. Sumo is also wrestling, Judo is pretty close but the gi does change the look of it a bit. They look almost exactly the same as wrestling. This is because there are only a limited number of ways to throw another human. Tai chi of course is not wrestling although it may have a couple of throws in it.

The method of training is what makes it wrestling; partners use resistance and it is goal oriented, not form oriented.

[TomKagan]

@phauna Are you suggesting that to study Tai Chi you have no goal, but only form?

[phauna]

@TomKagan The goal seems to be to copy perfectly a particular form. If your goal is to learn to fight with tai chi then at some point you have to fight. Doing forms will never, ever bridge the gap from form to application.

[TomKagan]

@phauna Okay. Do you have a relevant point which is related to this video?

[Tianshanwarrior]

Soooooooooooooooooo True!

[nianfong]

american push hands are a fucking joke. you learn more by just applying taiji principles in a shuaijiao match. american push hands just looks like bad shuaijiao.

[aspiringbodhisattva]

I am a student of Master Wang Hai Jun, student of Chen Zheng Lei. Master Wang won gold medals in push hands many years in a row around Asia.  I have been a serious martial artist for 20 years, in addition to almost 10 with him. I could not agree more with your critique here. Chen Tai Chi is meant as a sincere, real-world martial art, not something all in your head. It, like other internal martial arts, is easy to create ideas of. Just practice sincerely with a qualified teacher.

[dekal1]

That judge was bothering me. STOP.

STOP.

STOP.

STOP.

[jwhitenstall]

Thanks for the video, I have never before seen American push-hands competition. I wonder how the rules compare in the European push hands circuit.

[mywingchunsucks]

"Whether US or China, what I see looks like a comb of bad judo/sumo." -- I agree.