Essence of Pushing-hands

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The Essence of
Crane-style
Pushing-hands

"Pushing-hands" training practices (of one format or another) have many millions of practitioners in a wide variety of martial arts, whereas the distinctive format that this website is dedicated to is non-martial. Not only is this format  meditative, but its method of dealing with "centre-line crossing" pushes is unique.

"Crane-style Pushing-hands," as this format is known, is hereon throughout this website referred to simply as "Pushing-hands" (purely for the sake of brevity).

  
Pushing-hands encourages thought-free, harmonious interaction between practitioners by advocating the "watercourse-way", in which force is never met with force but is instead deflected using pliancy and natural, flowing movements. Central to this "empty-handed art" is the dynamic, vital, mobile interplay between two training-partners who maintain continuous, purposeful, physical contact. It is non-competitive and is, in fact, a unique form of interactive moving-meditation (an antidote to aggression-promoting martial arts).

At its simplest, alternating training-partners each attempt to severely upset the other’s balance-and-posture via a counter-push  immediately after neutralising the other's counter-push. This reciprocal action is a cycle that can continue without end. 

Once a practitioner’s body has acquired such attributes as "contact reflexes", (i.e. touch-triggered reactions,) and the ability to "borrow force", Pushing-hands serves as a fundamental framework within which an infinite variety of forces can be safely experienced.

At its most rudimentary, Pushing-hands has the appearance of one training-partner unfailingly defending himself against an attacker’s persistent, non-prearranged, diverse combinations of thrusts, balance-and-posture threatening pushes and pulls, grips and locks. At its more refined, there is a degree of harmony as forces circulate within the duo; yet ultimately, with the roles of "defender" and "attacker" continually interchanging, and both training-partners focusing on "the moment", a special dynamism can be both seen and felt.

Although this website's authors (Dave Franks and Daniel Langton) gratefully learned this format's key mechanics from Nathan Johnson (the founder of Chan Tao, Zen Shorin Do and Kodo Ryu), the attitudes expressed throughout this website do not necessarily represent those of any group or organisation. With regard to the research and videos presented within this website, the assistance provided by Roy Smith (senior Kodo Ryu instructor – Southampton, U.K.) was invaluable.