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| The Essence of Crane-style Pushing-hands |
Gender Neutrality
Clockwise and Anti-clockwise
Left-right Neutrality
2. GENERAL TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY
Pushing-hands
Body
Point-of-contact
Crane-style Pushing-hands
Form and Kata
Freestyle
Inside-gate and Outside-gates
Lower-forearm
Shoulder-line
Hip-line
Mid-line
Centre-line
Single-hand-grip
Arms-contact Linkage
Cross-arm and Non-cross-arm Contacts
Types of Single-Hand-Grip
Sword-grip and Scabbard-grip
Grip-escape/release
Pin
Step (normal 'stepping through' step)
Shuffle-step
Hourglass-stance
Dragon (including Standing-Dragon and Lying-Dragon)
3. PUSHING-HANDS SPECIFIC TERMINOLOGY
Body
Point-of-contact
Crane-style Pushing-hands
Form and Kata
Freestyle
Inside-gate and Outside-gates
Lower-forearm
Shoulder-line
Hip-line
Mid-line
Centre-line
Single-hand-grip
Arms-contact Linkage
Cross-arm and Non-cross-arm Contacts
Types of Single-Hand-Grip
Sword-grip and Scabbard-grip
Grip-escape/release
Pin
Step (normal 'stepping through' step)
Shuffle-step
Hourglass-stance
Dragon (including Standing-Dragon and Lying-Dragon)
3. PUSHING-HANDS SPECIFIC TERMINOLOGY
Keeping Silk
Contact-arm (stable and unstable)
Non-contact-arm
Inside-contact-arm
Outside-contact-arm
Inside-push
Outside-push
Pushing-hands-stance
Pushing-hands-orientation
Roles and Modes
Driver
Receiver
One-driver-mode
Two-drivers-mode
The-three-changes (to the point-of-contact)
Unbendable-arm
Vertical-unbendable-arm
Horizontal-unbendable-arm
Diagonal-unbendable-arm
Inverted-diagonal-unbendable-arm
Leverage
Alert-arm-attitude
Practitioners of Pushing-hands may be of any gender, but throughout this website, purely for the sake of brevity and readability, they are all referred to as if they are male.
Throughout this website, these two terms specify horizontal circular directions as discerned from above.
Pushing-hands has no left or right bias and so any left/right specificity in this website’s descriptions of movements/sequences is purely for the sake of clarity and readability.
For any such text to be applicable to the mirror-image situation, the terms "left" and "right" (and "clockwise" and "anti-clockwise") must replace each other.
Any such pushing-hands-specific text refers only to a version of the movement/sequence in which each training-partner begins with his left foot foremost.
The precise meaning of each of several terms must be clearly defined, in order to expound upon Pushing-hands.
Throughout this website, the term "Pushing-hands" refers simply to the format known as "Crane-style Pushing-hands".
Outside of this website, the terms "pushing hands" and "push hands" are used throughout the martial arts world to refer to any of several formats of a particular two-person activity which, although sharing many characteristics, vary significantly in their fundamental precepts and have vastly differing purposes and rules of engagement. Some formats are considered to be training exercises solely for improving force-sensitive skills; others are to accommodate refereed competitions; and still others provide close-quarters (i.e. "in contact" as opposed to "on a gap") positions from which force-insensitive attack-and-defence practice-drills are launched. Formats include the "Tui shou" of the Chinese T’ai Chi Chu’an (Supreme ultimate fist) and the "Kakie" of the Okinawan Goju-ryu karate.
N.B.
A surprisingly large proportion of non-“Crane-style” pushing/push hands practitioners are unaware that more than one format even exists !
N.B.
Because it is through the arms (usually the lower forearms) that the vast majority of pushes are done, "pushing/push ARMS" would have been a more anatomically accurate nomenclature than "pushing/push HANDS".
The whole living, breathing, physical person (i.e. the head, neck, torso, arms, legs, hands and feet).
A point shared by (and therefore on the "body" of) each of a pair of people, while they are in meaningful contact with each other.
"Crane-style Pushing-hands" (and similar terms) refer to the format of pushing hands, to the system, to which this website is dedicated. Throughout this website, purely for the sake of brevity, this format/system is referred to simply as "Pushing-hands".
This format has no secondary purpose and is worth pursuing purely for its own sake. It requires mobility and extreme physical sensitivity of its practitioners and their adherence to a principle of non-judgemental reciprocation: "If you try to push me (testing my balance-and-posture), then I'll respond in kind (without adding any punishment/penalty, even when the original force is threatening/aggressive)." This format has structural characteristics that are more like those of the "Chi Sao" (Sticking/Sticky-hands) of the Chinese martial art Wing Chun rather than those of the Tui shou of T'ai Chi, in as much as its practitioners "chase the torso, not the hands"; and yet "It is non-competitive and is, in fact, a unique form of interactive moving-meditation (an antidote to aggression-promoting martial arts)".
N.B.
This pushing-hands format has the words “Crane-style” included in its unabridged name and has the bird depicted in its logo, in acknowledgement of underlying influences.
A major part of some martial (and associated) arts is the performing of specific sequences of movements. Each such sequence is referred to, in Chinese martial arts and Korean taekwondo, as a "form" and, in Okinawan and Japanese karate, as a "kata". Throughout this website, solely because it has no other (and therefore potentially confusing) meaning within the English language, it is the term "kata" that is used.
Within the martial (and associated) arts, "Freestyle" refers to practice in which two (or more) training-partners interact entirely spontaneously and which is therefore devoid of collaborative performances of predetermined sequences of movements, such as some non-solo training drills (including kata application demonstrations) or parts thereof.
Conceptually, a person's "inside-gate" is the space inside (i.e. between) his arms, and therefore each of his "outside-gates" is the space outside an arm of his. This is made obvious if his arms are envisaged as stretching horizontally directly forward.
The anatomically lower part of the forearm (i.e. the part nearest the wrist).
A straight, usually horizontal, notional line joining a person's two shoulders.
A straight, usually horizontal, notional line joining a person's two hips.
A straight, usually vertical, notional line through the centre of a person's torso.
The forward projection of a person's mid-line (and therefore, strictly speaking, not a "line" but a "plane"), at right angles to his shoulder-line.
A grip that is applied BY only one hand.
Whenever one person applies a single-hand-grip around another person's arm, the grip can be termed “cross-arm” if two left arms or two right arms are involved, or else “non-cross-arm” because one left arm and one right arm are involved.
N.B. Whenever two persons' arms are linked by TWO cross-arm grips, the two grip-linked pairs of arms cross each other (assuming the persons are, at least approximately, facing each other).
When any single-hand-grip is applied to an arm's hand, wrist, or lower-forearm, the grip can be termed a sword-grip or a scabbard-grip (even in this "sword-free" context), depending on whether the majority of what is being gripped (i.e., the section of the arm from the shoulder, through the elbow, to the
position of the grip) protrudes from the index-finger side or the little-finger side, respectively, of the hand that is gripping it.
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| Scabbard-grip |
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| Sword-grip |
These two terms are derived from the fact that, all the while that a sword is being conventionally drawn from its scabbard, the two grips involved exemplify the two types of single-hand grip (i.e., the majority of the sword protrudes from the index-finger side of, and the majority of the scabbard protrudes from the little-finger side of, the hand that is gripping it).
N.B.
The classification of any particular single-hand-grip into one of these two types is unaffected by:
The classification of any particular single-hand-grip into one of these two types is unaffected by:
a) its position along the arm (i.e. whether it is the lower-hand, the upper-hand, the wrist or the lower-forearm that is gripped),
b)
its position around the arm (i.e. which surface of the gripped arm the grip's palm is touching), and c) its cross-arm/non-cross-arm status.
The freeing of a limb from a grip applied to it, such that the grip is no longer effective and cannot control/restrict the limb's movement.
N.B. Physical separation (i.e. to be free of contact) is not necessary for a limb to be free of a grip's control/restrictions.
One person's limb (usually an arm) can be said to be "pinned" or "subject to a pin" when another person presses and continues to press it against something (usually its own body, or part thereof).
This entails relocating one foot:
It is the moving of one foot (the rear one if stepping forward, the front one if stepping backward) a distance equal to twice the length of the stance, to a position in line with its original position, and the forming thereby of a mirror-image of the original stance (from the waist anatomically downward).
This entails relocating both feet:
It involves first momentarily expanding the stance by relocating one foot (with no change to the feet’s positional front/rear relationship), and then immediately restoring the stance’s original dimensions (though not necessarily restoring the direction of facing) by a dragging relocation of the other foot.
An immobile, unsymmetrical stance in which the weight is borne by both legs equally. The feet are slightly toed-in, are shoulder-width apart and one is a foot's length further forward than the other. The knees are slightly bent.
N.B. In the Nai Han Chin kata, each "Dragon" is the result of the kata practitioner contorting his training-partner's arm, whereas in the Rokushu kata, each "Dragon" is the result of the kata practitioner contorting his own arm.The following terms have a special meaning, when used in a Pushing-hands context:-
The physical combination of stability and carriage.
At each point-of-contact, each of a pair of training-partners, almost constantly presses against the other, reciprocally and with a force of pre-agreed strength.
When one training-partner attempts to push (or pull etc.) the other:
a) "the pusher", with no excessive suddenness:
a) "the pusher", with no excessive suddenness:
..(i) redirects and/or
..(ii) momentarily, increases slightly the strength of his "pressing force" (typically by 10–25%), and
b) "the pushed" smoothly yields to this redirected/strengthened force, possibly by deflecting and/or by skirting around it.
b) "the pushed" smoothly yields to this redirected/strengthened force, possibly by deflecting and/or by skirting around it.
If ever there is no pushing (or pulling etc.), then of course, each "pressing force" of each training-partner is "matched" by that of the other training-partner.
The term "keeping silk" (perhaps because of silk’s reputed smoothness and delicateness) is used as shorthand for high quality consistency in this tactile interaction, and it is what enables each training-partner (who, by practice has programmed touch-triggered reactions into his body) to monitor the other's movements physically, without conscious thought, and thereby react appropriately.
N.B.
The "watercourse-way" requires that the reaction to a training-partner’s forward push, attempted arm-lock, etc. is never mere rigid resistance ("jamming").
N.B.
With the ability to limit forces to an agreed maximum strength, not only is there no need for a weaker practitioner to have difficulties merely because he has a stronger (even a much stronger) training-partner, but also a strong practitioner, rather than relying upon his strength (which one day, when confronted by even greater strength, will not suffice) can, like his weaker training-partner, practice and program his body with strength-independent reactions.
An arm on which there is one or more points-of-contact.
The positional relationship between (a) a contact-arm’s owner’s centre-line and (b) each point-of-contact that is on this contact-arm, determines whether or not the arm’s owner should replace it (at the point-of-contact) with his other arm. Thus, a contact-arm can be termed “stable", if all points-of-contact on it are on this arm’s anatomical side of its owner’s centre-line, or else can be termed “unstable”.
The positional relationship between (a) a contact-arm’s owner’s centre-line and (b) each point-of-contact that is on this contact-arm, determines whether or not the arm’s owner should replace it (at the point-of-contact) with his other arm. Thus, a contact-arm can be termed “stable", if all points-of-contact on it are on this arm’s anatomical side of its owner’s centre-line, or else can be termed “unstable”.
[For example, a left contact-arm whose only point-of-contact is to the right of its owner's centre-line (i.e., to its owner's right) is “unstable” (until its owner substitutes his right arm for it).]
An arm on which there is no point-of-contact.
A contact-arm that is in the inside-gate of a training-partner.
A contact-arm that is in an outside-gate of a training-partner.
A push that is in an inside-gate.
A push that is in an outside-gate.
A fluid, unsymmetrical stance in which the weight is borne by both legs equally and which allows turning at the waist. The feet are at least shoulder-width apart and one foot is one or two foot-lengths further forward than the other. The knees are slightly bent.
The relative body positions of a pair of training-partners (with particular regard to the arms, the "gate" boundaries) that facilitates exchanging outside-pushes. In this orientation there is one point-of-contact and each training-partner, in Pushing-hands-stance, faces the other,
either:
a) with his left foot foremost and has
i) a right outside-contact-arm and
ii) a left non-contact-arm,
or else
a) with his left foot foremost and has
i) a right outside-contact-arm and
ii) a left non-contact-arm,
or else
b) the mirror-image of that.
N.B. Other orientations do occur, but only transitorily.
There are, in the example in the next photograph, two points-of-contact and again each training-partner, in Pushing-hands-stance, faces the other,
with his left foot foremost but now has
i) a right inside-contact-arm and
ii) a left outside-contact-arm.
There are two roles either of which a training-partner can be designated:
Each individual "bout" of freestyle Pushing-hands must be in one of two modes:
a) "One-driver-mode" requires the pre-designation of the role of driver to one of a pair of training-partners (and the role of receiver to the other).
b) "Two-drivers-mode" requires this designation of the roles to be impermanent, with the two roles perpetually, spontaneously alternating (and occasionally clashing), and therefore each of the two partners will, on different (perhaps many) occasions during the course of the "bout", be the driver.
N.B. Two-drivers-mode is intended solely for experienced practitioners becaise it functions properly only if each training-partner has the confidence that his body has acquired the system's complete range of touch-triggered reactions.
These are three separate sequences, each of which:
a) includes temporary changes to the point-of-contact,
b) is instigated by the driver using one of his arms to push one of the receiver's forearms across the receiver's centre-line, and
c) both begins and finishes in Pushing-hands-orientation, where each training-partner has one contact-arm and one non-contact-arm.
In each sequence's name (Contact-Contact-Change, Non-contact-Contact-Change or Non-contact-Non-contact-Change) "-Change" is preceded by the (immediately prior to the sequence’s “instigating push”) contact/non-contact status of each of the two arms that are involved in that push: first that of the driver’s, then that of the receiver’s.
In each sequence's name (Contact-Contact-Change, Non-contact-Contact-Change or Non-contact-Non-contact-Change) "-Change" is preceded by the (immediately prior to the sequence’s “instigating push”) contact/non-contact status of each of the two arms that are involved in that push: first that of the driver’s, then that of the receiver’s.
N.B. The drills for practicing these sequences are referred to as "Six-six-six", each sequence being considered as consisting of six sequential moves.
An arm that is able to resist attempts to collapse its elbow joint and/or shoulder joint, with the word "unbendable" intended to convey the quality of being unyielding, but not through rigidity or brute strength. This unbendable quality is achieved by evoking the feeling that “energy” is flowing through the arm and out of its fingertips, thereby establishing an elbow angle that is mathematically obtuse; with that "feeling of flowing energy" resembling the way pressurised water flowing through a hosepipe straightens its bends and kinks.
An unbendable-arm whose wrist, elbow, and shoulder are all aligned in a virtually vertical plane that tilts slightly such that the elbow is closer to the centre-line than are the wrist and the shoulder, as in the kata Rokushu (immediately preceding the “Snake”), for example.
An unbendable-arm whose wrist, elbow, and shoulder are all aligned in a virtually horizontal plane that slopes slightly downward from the shoulder, as in the kata Rokushu (ending the “Penultimate Technique”), for example.
A horizontal-unbendable-arm with the wrist slightly raised and the elbow lowered and is therefore midway between a vertical-unbendable-arm and a horizontal-unbendable-arm.
A horizontal-unbendable-arm with the wrist slightly lowered and the elbow raised.
N.B. In the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun, this same position, with the same function, is known as "bong sau" (wing arm).
Throughout this website, this term does not refer literally to the "mechanical power gained by the use of a bar turning on a fulcrum", but refers figuratively to the (still physical and surprisingly strong) "power to influence a situation". Examples of "leverage" being applied are:
a) when a diagonal-unbendable-arm remains "unbent" while resisting a strong push against the outside of its forearm and
b) when a vertical-unbendable-arm successfully deflects past it, a strong push that is in contact with the inside of its forearm.
N.B. Without balance-and-posture, there can be no leverage.
A position similar to that of a vertical-unbendable-arm but with the open hand’s palm being vertical and facing away from the shoulder.
