Area grappling is common everywhere in the world. More or less every culture has a grappling format where you win by pushing your opponent out of an area or by making them hit the floor. This is true of Asia, South America, Europe, England, more or less everywhere. The reason for this is that you grapple to prove you are the bigger man, to move up the pecking order. You physically force your opponent out of the area or physically force him to the floor. You are the big man! This is done in village fairs with a crowd of chicks watching. Adding a raised area takes away any possibility that you leave the area and don’t acknowledge it and it adds to the sceptical. Technically it also means that your technique has to be a lot cleaner as in a flat marked out area you can push someone out who is still holding on to you and "win". On a platform you go out with them if they are holding you so you have to be much more dominant and sharper. If you want to kill the guy you pull your knife and stab him, you dont grapple him.
ha ha, ok ok ! I noticed the dropping of subtle hints here and there.. when you going to be around (not all of us are so lucky to be overseas workers lol), I'll set something up. I can book Stevenage pretty easy. How does October sound ? ( I'm hoping to move house pretty soon and have a holiday booked in Sept) I'll put the thread in the general discussion, so we should get a good turnout. Sound good
funny that, I had an offer for a house accepted as I was writing that post above! I'm in the UK most weekends.
meet is in the works, anyone who wants to come for some push hands is most welcome http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?p=34172130#post34172130
Dude, I am so out of training right now. I'm down to around one class every other week and had 6 months of zero training! This could be your last chance before i'm back:woo:
I started push hands practice in my first year of studying tai chi. The push hands I learned was a fixed stance and the idea was to uproot your opponent and make him take a step. Of course this was done by using the tai chi principles of yielding to and absorbing tension and redirecting force to knock your opponent over. We practice with our eyes closed. Push hands is a lesson in feeling and letting go. You learn to absorb your opponents force by relaxing into your root and then you release that energy by giving it back to your opponent, forcing him out of his root.
Practicing Push Hands I studied with Grandmaster William C. C. Chen and began push hands after a year of Yang form. Four of his students, including myself, got together every other week for a few hours practicing what we had learned in class. At the same time I owned an animal importing company and practiced push hands by handling the animals and noticed that they had their own skills. This included wild cats of several species, giant anteaters, monkeys, pythons, boas and other snakes and lizards, honey bears, coati mundi's and many others. My favorites were the tayras and grissons, weasel-like animals around 30 pounds each, like a cross between an otter and a wolverine. Now around 40 years later, I teach on Long Island and practice with my students.
"sticking to" a cat's front paw can be quite a fun game as it tries to lift its paw from your finger, but i've not pushed hands with such a range of creatures lol
