Push hands: responding to spontaneouos movement

Four hands practice: This exercise trains connectivity and softness. In this particualar exercise, no attempt is made to penetrate into the other's personal space. Every movements is spiralled upward and rotated outward away from the participant's center. After a few thousand rounds of this, it becomes very easy to trap an elbow, etc. We eventually combine the eight variations of four hands practice with the two methods of walking in various permutations...fast hands, slow walking, slow hands, fast walking; random patterning...its all fun and designed to spontaneously respond to any movement.

There is so much to concentrate upon in spontaneous push hands. We build massive neurological networks in learning to respond to different kinesthetic impulses. And then we complicate it by mixing in different variables of personality.

Frank and Michael are practicing 'letting go'. What are they letting go of? Conceptual delusions like judgements on what they should have done when their partner made an advancing move of a certain type to which they didn't respond as they wished; conceptual holding patterns that are related to past training techniques, conceptual perceptions on how they think certain movements should be done....relax, relax, relax...sung is always there.

Connectivity, turning, spiralling, flexibility, balancing, learning...