Tuishou 推手 (Taiji Wrestling)

The Tuishou taught at the academy may be quite different from what taiji practitioners are used to seeing in Pushing Hands. This is because it is the academy's goal to provide students with techniques that are real world applicable beyond what is typically taught nowadays.

To this end, we examine first what the ultimate goal in modern Pushing Hands normally is - to unbalance the opponent and restrict their movement by following their energy. We extrapolate and follow this through to its natural real world conclusion which is to be able to execute takedowns and joint locks on our opponent with the most amount of ease possible.

We break our Tuishou into two major parts.

Part 1: Takedowns

This part of the training deals with the wrestling that is more commonly seen in Tuishou competitions in Mainland China. While our style is very similar to this, we still have some aspects to the training that is not typically seen in those venues.

The general method is that hands and arms are used above for twisting, grabbing, locking, holding, bumping, prodding, and pushing; and feet and legs are used below for tripping, kicking, hooking, and lifting in addition to angling through footwork to set up a better position. Furthermore, we can use our shoulders and hips to bash the opponent and aid in the throws respectively. Unlike some other styles of Tuishou, we can grab the opponent’s legs for a throw as well.

Part 2: Joint-locking

For our joint-locking, we avoid small joint manipulations in live training as these are easy to create injuries, especially in the initial stages of training. Our goal is to be able to submit and control the opponent through our proper execution of techniques. We employ locks and chokes from all positions and learn to escape and counter.

The Academy also provides specialized training for students interested in entering Tuishou competitions. We have taken our students to compete all over the US and in Canada. They have won numerous gold medals and several have been named North American Champion in their weight class.