Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 208

Tuī Shǒu 推手Training Part 6

When we begin to do Huó Bù Shuāng Tuī Shǒu 活步雙推手 – Double Hand Stepping Pushing Hands in Chén Shì Tàijíquán 陈式太极拳 – Chén Style Tàijíquán we must first start in the correct position.

We face our partner and begin by measuring the distance as we did before. This time our legs are slightly different. If we step forwards with our left foot, our partner will step forwards with their right foot. With our left foot forward, we will have our left hand forward, and our partner will be the right hand forward. Our partner will hold our left wrist and control our elbow with their forearm. Our right hand will form a circle with, the left palm facing our chest and the left finger side of the hand touching the upper arm of our left arm, also vice versa with right foot forward. We then start to follow the Lǚ 履, Jǐ 擠, Péng 掤 and Àn 按 sequence as we did in Dìng Bù Shuāng Tuī Shǒu 定步雙推手 – Double Hand Stationary Pushing Hands.

When our partner uses Lǚ and we are in Jǐ , at the end of their Lǚ we will change to grasp their hand and we will perform Lǚ and step back with our left foot. We repeat this every time we are in Jǐ to counter them and use Lǚ against their Lǚ and step back. We both do the same one after another, that is we both step back and forth. When we are pulled, we can stretch out a little bit further and then pull back. This is how we step back in Tuī Shǒu, we use this to counter our partner’s energy to avoid being pulled and losing our balance.