the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

but...muh push hands

Which one is you?

Good posting by, I assume, Paul Silverstraele. The essence of what he's saying seems to be that any preconceived technique/move will (probably) fail because it's not brought forth by the forces in play at that moment.

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Push hands isn't fighting or self-defence, but as a method that moves into free play it can train you to keep the principles alive in the moment and from this to let fitting solutions, 'techniques', appear. These can include techniques you have trained specifically, but they must choose [edit] themselves. You are just responsible for maintaining the framework. Zero guarantees in an emergency of course, but maybe improve your chances.

Giles wrote:Good posting by, I assume, Paul Silverstraele. The essence of what he's saying seems to be that any preconceived technique/move will (probably) fail because it's not brought forth by the forces in play at that moment.

You mean posting on FB? Probably him. Dan Docherty's Wu Tai Chi "Practical Tai Chi Chuan". What they do is quite technique based, so I guess what he posts is from his own perspective.