Monday, June 05, 2006

Pushing hands (video)

I thought the martial arts enthusiasts who read this might enjoy this video. Its me competing in push hands at a kung fu tournament in Ohio about three years ago. I'm the smaller of the two people in the video.

For that particular tournament the push hands division had no experience limits and I was 2 pounds above the cutoff for the heavyweight class. Which meant that I was the lightest and least experienced competitor in my division. I think I did ok, it could have been better though.

Anyway, one of my training buddies sent me the link and I thought it might make for interesting viewing.

For those of you wondering what push hands is, in its noncompetitive form it is a training tool used in the Chinese internal martial arts, most famously tai chi, to teach sensitivity to force being applied by your opponent and weaknesses in their structure. In its competitive form you use this sensitivity to manipulate your opponent outside of a marked area, usually a circle, for points.

That's how I was taught to think about it anyway. People might disagree.

Comments are welcome by all.

Edit: looks like whoever put up the video took it down.
I'll see if I can get a copy

5 comments:

R. said...

ha! you piked my interest and the voila! no video.

*smh*

messed up meng.

Kwasi said...

it vanished man.

I still want a copy for me. Granted, I lost, but it was a good contest.

If I find it I'll put it up

Don said...

That wasn't 2003's Battle of Columbus, was it? I was there, though I couldn't remember if it was that year or the year before when I was watching the push-hands competition. If it was the BOC, it was quite possible that I might've been watching you ;)

Kwasi said...

nope, it was the 2003 Wu Tang invitational in Akron. You didn't go to that too did you?

The fights are usually really good

Card Counting said...

I hope, you will come to the correct decision. Do not despair.