Awesomeness!

I attended a seminar on Push Hands by Grandmaster Huang today, and it rocked. For those who don't know (which is probably 99.9% of the world), Push Hands is the best explained as Tai Chi sparing. There's no protective gear worn, because it's not that damaging of a competition. I think it reminds me of sumo wrestling, only in the sense that the main goal is to get your opponent off-balance. (Great, because I mentioned sumo wrestling, I can think of at least one person who's going to think I like wearing diapers and hugging half-naked men.) Anyway, you're in constant contact with your opponent, and the point is that as one is pushing, the other is yielding and deflecting the push away, and then as the first is withdrawing their missed-push, the second begins to push in return, and it falls upon the first person to yield and deflect the push away. Brute strength isn't an issue here, as I witnessed by seeing old Grandmaster Huang ('old' being a term of respect in asia) challenge a student at least a foot taller and 50-60 pounds heavier to push him and watch him deftly and seemingly effortlessly deflect all of the younger man's efforts to off-balance him. It's about technique, and knowing when your opponent will be succeptible to certain pushes or pulls. It was great; a bit too much to really understand in just two hours, but great nonetheless. And I offer a quote from Grandmaster Huang for my closing remark: "The more you get beat up, the more you learn."