My first visit to Chenjiagou - the village where Chen style Taijiquan was created - in the summer of 1997, was a pivotal moment in a martial arts journey that had begun nearly two decades earlier that, like many others, took place in a local karate school. On that visit in the Village Taijiquan School I saw a series of demonstrations that captured the breadth of the Chen family art of Taijiquan.
Chen Taijiquan is built upon a
complex philosophy and methodology that is often misinterpreted and
misunderstood. It requires the body to be used in a distinctive and unique
way. To achieve this, all aspects of the traditional syllabus must be
recognised as being interconnected and mutually supporting. Taking a whole
syllabus approach allows one to maximise the benefits of practice. From an
individual’s first contact with the system, from training the standing pole,
through the curriculum of basic exercises, continuing to form (hand and
weapons) training, to push hands etc, until final mastery. Progression through the different stages
should be approached in a methodical and ordered manner. While you cannot
underestimate the importance of hard physical training, one must also try to
understand the multiple layers contained within each technique. Over the course
of a short series of articles we will take a look at how the seemingly separate
parts of the Taijiquan syllabus are related to each other. This first
instalment takes a look at the relationship between form training and push
hands.
Form Training and Push Hands
An old Chenjiagou saying suggests
that “walking the frame is hitting hands and hitting hands is walking the
frame”. Walking the frame refers to form training, while hitting hands was
an early term used to describe push hands.
The inseparable relationship between form training and push hands has
been clearly established by generations of acclaimed Taijiquan
practitioners. Historically there are no
Taijiquan practitioners who were not also well versed in push hands. Likewise, there are no Taijiquan masters who
are not skilled in the form. Genuine
Taijiquan skills are the culmination of an extended period of training in both
of these facets.
All the body and movement skills
that can be used in push hands and combat should first be honed through
diligent form training. To use Taijiquan
as a combat art, both form training and push hands have to be seen as
complementary and vital. Training the form without doing push hands, while
giving some exercise benefits, will not equip an individual for combat and self
defence. Conversely, if an individual just does push hands without the
foundation of form training, while they may develop certain techniques, they
will not be able to use these to their full potential. Therefore, the
experienced practitioner should train form and push hands concurrently, without
favouring one over the other. While the less experienced practitioner must
accept that form training is the basis and foundation upon which any future
push hands success is based.
The traditional
way is to first put the building blocks in place – a strong unmovable base,
co-ordinated movement, agile footwork.
Cultivate the correct energetic qualities – weighted at the bottom,
light at the top, expanding from inside to outside and fullness in the dantian.
With this basis develop an understanding of Taijiquan’s different types of jin or
trained power – peng,
lu, ji, an
etc. Form training
or Taolu enables one to develop correct posture, to
synchronise the different parts of the body and to increase co-ordination to
the point where action is characterised by integrated whole body movement. The
traditional insistence upon a long period of form training is
Taijiquan’s means of developing optimal movement skills and
conditioning before beginning push hands training. It is wrong to assume that the learner can
achieve a high level of push hands ability just because they train hard. They may develop strength and improve
endurance, but what are their movement patterns like? Throughout the course of their lives, most
individuals develop poor habits of body mechanics and lose the original
mind-body unity, suppleness and naturalness that were their original innate
state. Trying to function with
inefficient posture or motion is akin to driving a car with the handbrake
on. If you are driving your car with the
handbrake on, the way to boost performance is not to put a bigger engine into
the car, it is to release the brake.
If an activity is practiced with poor form, the
poor form will be part of the information recorded in the individual’s motor
programme. Beginning to train push
hands, with its complex patterns of movement, before correcting these bad
habits means that these inefficient habits of motion are inevitably carried
over into the newly acquired movement skills and are further reinforced. Physical motor programmes, therefore, must be
developed and refined so the practitioner can perform effectively under varying
conditions and high levels of physical and mental stress. To return to the car analogy, only when the
car is running as well as it should in the first place does it make sense to
“soup up” the engine. Consequently, it
is much more efficient to first inhibit and release poor habits and then, building
on this foundation, train push hands. The physical structure and the movement
quality gained from form training provide the basis for all subsequent skills.
Push hands serves as a feedback
mechanism for testing the efficacy of these skills. While an individual may
think their movements are accurate in terms of Taijiquan’s strict body
requirements and that their posture is stable and rooted, pushing hands with a
partner quickly highlights any contradictions. Where postural and movement
accuracy are put in place through form training, push hands reinforces the
necessity for this accuracy and allows the practitioner to further refine and
tighten up the form. For instance, if during push hands the waist turns too
much and a partner is able to capitalise on this loss of position, this information can be
fed back into the form. Waist movement can be reduced and in a little while the
testing process can be repeated.
In the above context, push hands
and form training are explained in terms of developing one’s own capabilities.
A second vital area is learning to recognise the capacity of an opponent. While
push hands training sensitises an individual to the movements of an opponent,
this is a double-edged sword. The Taijiquan
practitioner must also accept that his own movement may be read by his
opponent. Even as an exponent is feeling
for the tell-tale signals giving away the intention of another, he must learn
to recognise his own anticipatory movement.
This is one of the reasons why the form is practiced slowly and
meticulously. By minutely examining each
movement one can begin the process of thoroughly rooting out any “telegraphing” of
our own intention.
In form training
the requirement is for tendons and bones to be loose and for each joint to be
connected so that energy fills the whole body.
In time the body becomes light and agile. These provide the necessary foundation for
the essential push hands skills of ting jin and dong jin, or
“listening skill” and “understanding energy”. Like form training, push hands
training should be approached systematically. First looking to develop the
skill of listening to and following the movements of an opponent and then
eliminating the mistakes of disconnecting from your opponent, over-reaching and
resisting with force.
At the same
time, training push hands helps the individual to take a step forward in their
understanding of the form as regards the qualities of “song rou chen wen” or
looseness, suppleness, sunkeness and stability. During form practice an individual
may be unsure as to the correct degree of looseness, softness etc. The feedback
gained through push hands greatly helps in establishing the correct functional
level of these aspects. Uncovering all the places where movement is inefficient
or lacking the necessary smooth and spiralling quality, one gradually reaches
the point where it can be said that we “know ourselves.” When you reach the
point where your movement is smooth and coordinated, and you have understood
the idea of following an opponent’s movement, then you can begin to examine the
application possibilities within the form.
Generations of past masters have
left a valuable oral guide to today’s practitioners. Those impatient to get past the form and to
get to the “real stuff” of
Taijiquan push hands would do well to think about the clear directions that
have been handed down. Sayings such as:
“Profound principles emerge by themselves after you practice the form ten
thousand times”; or “Skills come naturally when you are familiar with the forms”. Push hands has traditionally been used to
examine the quality of gongfu that
an individual has attained through training the form.
“Whatever shortcomings one has in
the form will certainly show up as weaknesses during push hands, giving an
opponent the opportunity to take advantage.
To this end, one needs to practice push hands; check on the forms;
understand the internal force (jin); and learn how to express the force (fajin) as
well as how to neutralise the force (hua-jin). If one is able to withstand confrontational
push hands, then it is an indication that one has understood the underlying
Taiji principles”.
(Chen Xiaowang)
Whilst form training is a vital
component of Taijiquan training, it is important to remember that at the
highest level Taijiquan is formless, especially in terms of practical usage. An individual should be able to
improvise and react to whatever
challenges posed by the opponent, making use of all the principles and
insights gained from form practice and applying them to the situation.
In the next part we’ll consider the
role of weapons training within the wider Taijiquan curriculum and ask how they
can be used to develop the physique and attributes of a Taijiquan player.
David Gaffney
David Gaffney began training in
Asian martial arts in 1980, focusing exclusively on Chen Taijiquan since 1996.
He holds a 6th Duan grade with the Chinese Wushu Association and holds an Instructor’s
Certificate from the Chenjiagou Taijiquan School. He makes regular trips (since 1997) to
Chenjiagou to train at the birthplace of Chen Taijiquan and has co-authored two
books: Chen Style Taijiquan: The Source of Taiji Boxing and The Essence ofTaijiquan, both available on Amazon.com.
He can be contacted at: chenjiagoutaijiquangb@gmail.com 
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