I will be competing tomorrow (sunday 7th) in push hands at the Wu school competition in Hackney. Worth a visit if you have an interest in CMA,it's at Clissold Park Leisure centre . Met Robertmap last year ,always nice to renew friendships, form new ones and a good chance to see both other styles and different flavours of your own.
I'm hoping the organisers will send me some like last year. Won silver in both moving and fixed push hands but only have footage of one bout of moving step which I'll post if I can. An enjoyable day which highlighted for me areas of improvement and those that need work.
At Mushrooms request ! - Brief edit of some of the moving step (lightweight) push hands from last sunday's competition ( I added a soundtrack to spare you the qi gong muzak in the background ) Unfortunately I got nothing of the fixed step and the organisers were'nt doing any of their own filming this year. It was my second time competing in this category ; locks , throws and sweeps are allowed but no attacking/scooping the leg with the hand/arm which is the main difference between this and moving free push hands , a format I prefer. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KCe_lkz8oI"]moving step push hands , wu school competition , hackney 2015 - YouTube[/ame]
Ah, thanks. Nice job Ned. I hope you posted not minding comments and questions. There seems to be a lot of leaning very far forward by both you and your opponent. I see this in moving step at my school and I have caught myself doing the same. But your opponent does it a lot more than you do. It seems like you take advantage of it a couple of times (1:19). But it looks to me like there are a couple of times you fight that forward energy and it is force against force 33 :37) instead of taking advantage of it. Would you say this is true or is the video misleading (or my interpretation from watching)?
That is the aspect of Pushing Hands that I am not keen on - but this comes when there are rules and competition. I much prefer when Moving Step is more experimental and there are more counter turning throws to turning throws.
This is my feeling also , I prefer either fixed or free step . But for me this is really just a chance to push hands outside my usual circle .
What art is that? tai-chi?, they need more rules to get rid of the leaning approach, makes it look like wrestling. Maybe tie one hand behind back or some devise that keeps people from bending forward. ???
I am taught that leaning is not good. But it is an easy thing to fall into during a match. But fixing it has to do with proper stances, rooting, and how to take advantage of another person leaning by redirecting their forward momentum to help them along that lean instead of fighting force with force and leaning back into their lean. But TCC has many stand up grappling elements in it, hence the fact that it "looks like wrestling." The leaning isn't what makes it look like wrestling, it is the fact that people are actually competing against non-compliant opponents. TCC properly (IMO) taught is an actual martial art. And I am glad to see Ned participating in it as such.
I have a dickie right hip-joint that makes competitive Push Hands very difficult for me - because there are so many silly rules, that seem quite artificial to me, but they do keep matters fair, square and relatively safe. For me the interesting part of PH, is its use in bridging and changing in Applications - I am much, much more interested in Applications than PH in its own right. PH is 1 skill aspect, but a lot of folk get fixated upon it as end in itself.
So Ned, I will ask you what I ask myself after any tournament. What were you happy with in how you did at the tournament? And what did you learn that you need to work on from the tournament?
He be the Daniel Craig-lookin' blonde geezer pushin everyone around, havin his hand raised afterwords
I was pleased to have improved my placing from last year's bronze in the fixed step and to have gained more experience in the moving step , especially in light of the injuries I've had this year ; lower back pain (similar to yours) , shoulder , elbow (tendonitis , like Belltoller's but nowhere near as bad) . Although the rounds are short the matches were close together and those who have'nt competed in push hands would probably be surprised at how physically demanding it can be. The main things I need to work on are to be more relaxed , with less tension in the shoulders/arms and to be ready to adapt my stance more if necessary to suit different opponents . These are things I really knew anyway but one of the benefits of competing is that they are made plain to you against 'live' resistance.
