Chen Ziqiang and the Fighting Applications of Push Hands

chen family taijiquan chen ziqiang push hands applications tai chi workshops taiji push hands Oct 21, 2013

Chen Ziqiang and Ken Gullette Takedown web

Chen Ziqiang demonstrates a push hands technique on me that becomes a takedown.

I've been looking for an opportunity to attend a workshop on push hands applications with Chen Ziqiang for several years. They play rough in the Chenjiagou Taiji School, where he is vice-principal and head coach, and I have heard of his reputation as a tough guy for about 9 years. The recent TV broadcasts of some of his sanshou matches were tutorials on effective Taiji fighting principals. What I appreciate most is his ability to "bump" an opponent, getting them off-balance just long enough to close the trap.

Chen Ziqiang is a direct descendant of the creator of Taiji, Chen Wangting. His father is Chen Xiaoxing. His uncle is Chen Xiaowang. His great-grandfather was Chen Fake.

It did not look promising three weeks ago for me to attend this workshop, when my cardiologist told me that I am considered to be "in heart failure." After losing my left lung four years ago, my heart was expected to weaken -- it was beating faster and not getting enough rest. But I hadn't been feeling bad so the diagnosis surprised me. The doctor put me on a new medicine three weeks ago that made me actually feel worse and more short of breath. I have not been a happy camper, and for 24 hours after this new diagnosis, I decided not to attend the push hands workshop. I got over that feeling, and I'm glad I did.

Because of this recent revelation, it was with a little uncertainty that I went to Chicago this past weekend to finally train Push Hands Applications with Chen Ziqiang and a group of good Taiji students and teachers, including Andy Loria, sponsor of the workshop. I wondered if I would even make it through the first day.

Chen Ziqiang demonstrates a variation on the armbar at Sunday's training session.

I did make it through, and despite working on sweeps and takedowns for two days, I made it through the entire weekend. On Saturday morning I felt better than I have in over three weeks. It lasted throughout the weekend and as I write this on Monday. Good timing.

On Day 1, we worked 4 or 5 applications of single-hand push hands. We drilled them over and over, which is the way I like to train. It's far better to learn a few techniques well than to learn a dozen techniques poorly.

After the warmups and stretching, Saturday's training started with a simple wrist lock in single hand push hands. Chen Ziqiang demonstrated the proper way to "close" into it.

After the wrist lock, we practiced various sweeps that come straight from movements in Laojia and Xinjia. Leading the opponent's arm away and turning with the proper body mechanics. Ziqiang was sweeping the largest people in the room as he demonstrated. The first sweep was from behind the opponent's lead foot, causing him to fall backward. The second sweep was from the front of the opponent's leg, causing him to fall forward. The Taiji "energy" of Split was involved in most of the techniques -- taking your opponent in two directions at once. Our ankles and achille's tendons were pretty sore by lunch time. In the afternoon we worked on an application that involves a spin and a takedown.

As we practiced, Ziqiang would come around, watch us do the movement, and then laugh good-naturedly. It was actually funny to see him watch an application and then laugh as if he was thinking, "These silly Americans." Then he would demonstrate on us and show the proper way, correcting what we were doing.

Once or twice, my partners and I would either disagree over what we had witnessed when watching Ziqiang demonstrate an application, or we would need more clarification. We would ask him to demonstrate on us and he willingly obliged. This is one of the greatest benefits of a workshop with a teacher of his caliber. If you are wondering if you are doing it correctly, just ask and you can feel him do it to you and your partners. At that point, you know what you are working to achieve. It's all in the body mechanics.

I was lucky to be paired Sunday afternoon with an eager, tall 19-year old, Daniel Frohman. I did not intend to throw him as hard as I did a few times, but after working on the mechanics, it just happened. Fortunately, the floor on Day 2 was carpeted. I would apologize and help him up off the floor and he would laugh and say, "Don't apologize, that makes me happy!" What a great young man. It made me happy when Chen Ziqiang saw a couple of my takedowns and laughed (in a pleased way this time) and he said, "Good." That's always worth the price of admission.

Day 2 began double-hand push hands and takedowns that you find in movements such as "Part the Wild Horse's Mane" and other movements from Laojia and Xinjia. Sweeping from the front and the back while controlling the upper body. Zhou and Kao energy were used. It is crazy to feel the sudden violent explosion when your "energy" is taken in one direction and then suddenly in another. In the afternoon, we continued double-hand applications, including wrist locks, armbars, and particularly nasty variation that involves stepping over your opponent's arm after you have taken him down, then sitting and turning into the joint, creating intense pain and potentially breaking the elbow.

It was great to see some of the people who support and further the art of Chen Taiji in the Chicago area. I realized yesterday that I first met some of them back in 1998, when I was studying with my first Chen Taiji teachers, Jim and Angela Criscimagna. If not for Jim and Angela, and their efforts to bring in masters such as Chen Xiaowang and Ren Guangyi, the workshop this weekend would probably never have happened. I was lucky to find them back then, and lucky to have the opportunity to continue to learn.

During the weekend training, my recent medical diagnosis was never far from my mind. It's quite shocking to realize that it would be a medical marvel if I am alive in 10 years. The reality is hitting me that my window of opportunity for training this way is brief, but my intention is to keep going and learning as long as I can, and passing along what I learn. I must have been swept 75 to 100 times during the weekend, and swept my partners as many times as they swept me. It was FUN, and I only wish I had another 40 years to study this amazing art.

Each day, I finished by writing notes on the applications. Guess what I'll be doing with my students this week?

--by Ken Gullette

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Chen Ziqiang and the Fighting Applications of Push Hands

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