Self defence and fights often end up in close quarters very quickly. At this range of combat or defence the use of the eyes is no longer effective on their own as the nervous system can’t process the information quickly enough.
The former generations of t’ai chi practitioners understood this well and developed partner exercises that developed the use of tactile sensitivity and body response. This means simply that if we feel force on a certain part of our body we can feel it, neutralise it and counter it in the most efficient way possilbe,
Developing a very rooted stance forms part of pushing hands, as does skill in moving around in an agile, rooted and powerful way, which is trained using footwork exercises while using the areas and upper body to feel, neutralise and issue force at the same time.
Some exercises work on training evasion and yielding to force so that if the strike or push lands, it’s had the power taken out of it (or ideally doesn’t land at all).
Pushing hands ultimately is simply the ability to a) detect force extremely quickly, direction and magnitude, b) render the force useless and put opponent in a bad position at the same time, c) issue our own force using whole body power, in the right direction at the right time.
There are 8 pushing hands drills to be practiced as regularly as possible. They also build aerobic fitness, flexibility, strength and so on.
