We are finishing up a new DVD on the Clear’s Internal Push Hands method.

Here’s a video clip showing the internal Iron body & palm that you will develop from the methods shown on this DVD. This is not the primary focus of the dvd. It’s just one of the many skills and body qualities that this method builds.

The DVD will be available in late January / early February 2010. To get the latest info about release dates & pre-order specials sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.

photo by: spaceamoeba

Included in this post is a long term training progression for Clear’s Tai Chi Internal Push Hands method.

I am sure to some folks that much of what I am listing will seem unbelievable.  In the last year I have demonstrated most of these Internal Push Hands skills to non-students on non-students without telling them what I was going to do beforehand and with them having no prior knowledge of me.

I have demonstrated all of these Internal Push Hands skills at one time or another to all of my close students.  I have one student who is able to do most of what I am listing here and a lot of my regular students have experienced it from him at one time or another.

Please make arrangements to visit if you would like to see these Internal Push Hands skills for yourself.  I have nothing to hide and will openly share.  These skills take a lot of work and time to build and so far I have not found any tricks or short cuts.  As a result I am not worried about hiding it and if you can debunk it somehow and show me a shortcut that actually imparts the skill and ability that I have then I am more than happy to pay you for the privilege.

I try to approach all of my studies with a critical and skeptical mind.  Over the years I have disregarded a lot of material and focused my efforts on what really works and gets results.  For me it has to work even when the person I am doing it to does not believe it at all and is trying to circumvent it.  After all what good is it if it does not work in the real world.  I do teach for a living and so at the point where it becomes instruction to you as opposed to a demonstration or simple comparison of some kind I do humbly request to get paid for my services.

Clear’s Internal Push Hands
Training Progression

1. Listen for Partners Heart Beat
2. Feel Partners Energy Sink & Move Inside their Body
3. Sink your own Energy by dissolving
4. Sink & Dissolve while you push
5. Feel opponents root depth, blockages and stiffness
6. Troubleshoot partners lack of depth, blockages & stiffness
7. Dropping the Root Deeper Game
8. Must be able to quickly drop your root lower than their root with ease
9. Try Different Hand Positions
   • 1st  (Strongest) Position should be under armpit
   • Hands on waist
   • One hand on waist & one under armpit
   • One hand on waist & one on shoulder
   • Hands on shoulders
   • Hands on elbows
   • Hands on forearms
   • Hands on back
   • Any Position while stronger but lesser skilled opponent has a stronger position
10. Use 4 oz. to Move 1000 pounds
11. Must be able to sense opponents root depth by placing a hand on them
12. Sense when opponent is about to push and slowly push them first so that their push is negated because their intention and energy is cut off
13. Must be able to feel the direction of the opponent’s body energy through contact with their arm
14. Must be able to quickly tell where stiffness or root imbalance is in subject’s body by sight
15. Must be able to tell the difference between an opponents physical energy and mind intent
16. Must be able to basically manipulate an opponents internal energy with your mind
17. Must be able to block the opponents mind intent
18. Must be able to move a beginning player without having to make physical contact with them.   (Empty Force)
19. Must be able to heal by feeling through physical contact utilizing the internal sensitivity
20. Must be able to heal by feeling & utilizing the internal sensitivity without any physical contact
21. By the time you reach this level you should be able to perform a nice level of Fa Jing whereby you physically move very little but they move as if you hit them hard and fast.
22. More and Higher Levels

I recommend that anyone reading this post on Clear’s Internal Push Hands first read the previous post and watch the video on the right.

Once you have read the previous post and seen the video and worked on some of what is being shown then I recommend you read and step by step put into practice what I am listing here.

1. Both People Place Both Hands Below the Neck and Above the Waist
2. Relax and Sink your Root/Energy
3. Try to Feel the Other Person’s Root/Energy
4. Slowly Push -When you think you have found their root/energy -If you are correct they will either easily move or they will have to adjust their position and change their root/energy so that they are not easily moved
5. Keep your Root/Energy Down and Hidden so that the other person can not find it
6. If the other person finds your root/energy then try to adjust (sink more and let the body turn a little) so that they can not move you – Use the Ahhhhhhh Method
7. Continue to Play this game until you can easily hide your root/energy so well that an opponent can not find it and until you can easily find someone’s root/energy

The next post on Internal Push Hands will be a list of the training stages from beginning to quite advanced.

I have begun calling the primary Push hands method we practice Clear’s Tai Chi Internal Push Hands method. I originally learned the method from Ma Yeuh Liang when he was 95 years old. He and his wife (Wu Yin Hua) were the head of Wu Style Tai Chi and were the senior living Tai Chi masters by age, years of practice and knowledge in the world at that time.

Wu Yin Hua’s father and grandfather were both famous and her grandfather was Wu Chien Chuan the founder of the Wu Tai Chi system. Ma and Yin Hua were already married and famous Tai Chi practitioners in China in the 1930’s. When I learned internal Push Hands from Ma in 1994 I was told that Ma invented what he called NO STYLE Push Hands because he found that it was the fastest way to really build internal skill and ability. After 15 years of practice and working with this method I have come to understand why he felt that way.

First of all if I want to check the average person for how much real skill and ability they have I can play this kind of internal push hands with them for less than 1 minute without shoving them and know exactly what they have and what they do not have. In fact, most of the time when I play this with various Tai Chi folks they push themselves off of me while they are trying to move me. All I do is stand there and feel what they have and do not have. I have worked with the Internal Push Hands method long enough to find a lot of things not originally taught to me but that have come to me as a result of practice and analysis and research. So, over the long haul what I have done with the practice has made it mine. Stating this I must give all credit to Ma. Without him I simply would not have this level of ability today.

When Clear’s Tai Chi hosted Liu Ji Fa (one of the Wu lineage inheritors) here in Tennessee for 2 weeks in the fall of 2008 he told me that No Style was not the name of this method and that it is not taught or practiced publicly so in order to maintain the integrity and not mis-attribute something to Ma that is innapropriate on my part I will hence forth be using the name Clear’s Tai Chi Internal Push Hands Method for the name of this specific practice. I of course will always give credit to my sources of influence which obviously include Ma but also Don Ethan Miller and Uncle Bill (Willem de Thouars) amongst others.

It is my hope that this new name “Clear’s Tai Chi Internal Push Hands method” Internal Push Hands for quick reference will also help to alieve some of the confusion that I have received from so many serious Tai Chi students / teachers when they call me asking about learning real internal skills from me and I start talking about Push Hands. The word Internal is what I hope will set this apart as in all reality it is the primary difference between this and every other version of Push Hands that I have seen.

Here is a free video that gives some basic beginning instruction on this.

Here is a list of Tai Chi Push Hands Fighting Benefits:

1. Creates Iron Body -Ability to Withstand Hits (Only some versions)
2. Develops the Ability to Feel an Attackers Intent (Learn to Feel the Intent of Incoming Strike)
3. Develops the Ability to Hide Your Intent
4. Develops your Ability to Move Much Quicker
5. Develops your ability to Hit Very Forcefully
6. Builds your ability to really apply Tai Chi for self defense

* Push Hands is not Self Defense but it builds a lot of attributes that are highly desired for self defense in terms of understanding speed, strength, position, balance, breath, receiving, diminishing and diverting power and mental and emotional states under stress

Other Tai Chi Push Hands Fighting Benefits

• Develops tremendous Heavier Power striking ability
• Ability to direct your strikes deep inside the body of others
• Ability to receive heavy destructive strikes and dissipate them
• Ability to easily move or position an opponent
• Learn and Understand various speeds, positions, body types and power
• Sense/feel what the opponent is doing and quickly respond
• Better rooting
• Learn to Sense/feel energy
• Learning to Move energy

Learning how to achieve deep relaxation while engaging in an active and stressful physical activity

Let me add that the calmness while in motion has saved my life in traffic accidents several times now the last time being less than 2 weeks ago when my car hydroplaned into the middle of an intersection at 35 miles per hour on a road where the speed limit is 50 and there was oncoming traffic.

Also it goes without saying that Of course you really must have a knowledgeable teacher to work with and to put your hands on and feel to get the real understanding.

Tai Chi Push Hands for Self Defense is a bit of a controversial subject. Let me start by laying any fears you may have to rest by first stating that I do not mean that you should jump into your Push Hands stance or position and then wait for the attacker to get into exactly the right position before using your Tai Chi skills. You should be practicing your Tai Chi form and various ways and methods / positions with your Tai Chi Push Hands so that you can use your skills in any position that you might find yourself in. Please refer back to this post anytime you see me writing about Tai Chi Push Hands for self defense or any Tai Chi fighting applications.

So what do you have to do to learn how to to use Tai Chi Push Hands for Self Defense? You should really be learning the energetics and applications in a very very Freestyle Push Hands kind of way so that you are used to applying your art from and to all kinds of positions. You should also focus on learning and understanding the internal aspects of what is going on. This means at first that you go very very slow and only pick up speed once you have truly gained deep insight and understanding.

By the same token you must take care to make sure that the way you are practicing Tai Chi Push Hands is a method / way that really impart skills. If you are practicing a poor method or without a real specific understanding right up front of how this or that particular Tai Chi Push Hands practice will translate into skill development then I recommend that you gain understanding of what you are after and trying to do first or simply find a more personally constructive aspect of Tai Chi to work on. I tend to approach it like a card game. I know how to play Go Fish and Crazy Eight and 5 card poker. If I go to play a new game of poker and I do not understand how to play then I certainly will not be putting any money on it and if the rules continually change to my disadvantage or after awhile I can not see any benefit then I stop playing that game and find a game I understand and can derive benefit from. Oh Yeah, just in case you want to know. Go Fish builds your memory. Crazy Eight builds a certain aspect of deductive reasoning flow.

As far as the external application of Tai Chi Push Hands for Self Defense there is a great big difference between an unskilled shove and a proper Tai Chi application of force and direction. You also want to develop internal power in your Tai Chi and learn how to apply that internal power. To do this you must practice with your focus on feeling and learning as opposed to moving or shoving the other guy.

Of course you really must have a knowledgeable teacher to work with and to put your hands on and feel to get the real understanding.

In the next post I will list a number of fighting benefits of Tai Chi Push Hands for Self Defense.

Following are Mind Body Spirit Health Benefits of Tai Chi Push Hands

Please post questions and I will elaborate in future posts.

Of course I must include that you really must have a knowledgeable teacher to work with and to put your hands on and feel to get the real understanding. This is even more true when working on the Mind Body Spirit Health Benefits of Tai Chi Push Hands and any Tai Chi for that matter.

Mind Body Spirit Health Benefits of Tai Chi Push Hands include:

• Better structural alignment
• Quieting the mind
• How to achieve deep relaxation while engaging in an active physical activity
• Better balance

• Learning and Understanding
• Learning and Understanding more about oneself
• Learning and Understanding more about others
• Body states under various conditions
• Mind and Mental States under various conditions
• Emotional States under various conditions
• Breathing
• Chi Energy flow
• The connection of the Mind to the Breath
• The connection of the Mind to the Body
• The connection of the Breath to the Energy
• The connection of the Mind to the Energy
• The connection of the Body to the Breath
• The connection of the Body to the Energy
• Learning how to influence the Mind, Body, Breath and Spirit
  of Self and others & really facilitate Deep Medical Intuition Healing

Of course there are more Mind Body Spirit Health Benefits of Tai Chi Push Hands. As I answer questions about the ones I have listed here I am certain that some of them will come to light.

Tai Chi Push Hands for Competition is a Tai Chi practice whereby two practitioners will make arm or/and body contact in some form and then attempt to push, pull or otherwise unbalance each other. There are many ways to play and many different reasons to play. Some versions of Tai Chi Push Hands are very structured with limited motion and play while other methods are very unstructured. In Tai Chi Push Hands the complexity of play ranges from very simple to quite difficult and complicated to learn.

Often Tai Chi Push Hands for Competition play involves stationary foot positioning. The winner of the Tai Chi push hands contest is the person who can keep their feet in the same place and does not get moved.

There are also stepping and moving versions of push hands and typically the winner and loser are determined by who can unbalance or move the other. The loss is determined by who gets unbalanced or moved in a way that indicates a loss of control.

Some Tai Chi Push Hands play is very competitive and is played in a tournament format. However, more often those who are serious about Tai Chi will play push hands for reasons and benefits other than competition.

At Clear’s Tai Chi we seldom play Tai Chi Push Hands for Competition and mostly focus on skill development and internal training.

At Clear’s Tai Chi we practice Tai Chi Push Hands for internal development and internal skill enhancement. We rarely play Tai Chi Push Hands for competitive purposes due to the fact that we mostly focus on skill development and Push Hands for internal development.

I have included a list here that will detail some of the reasons to study Tai Chi Push Hands for internal development and try to give some insight into the real benefits that can be obtained through a careful and deep study with willing and like minded partners. Of course you really must have a knowledgeable teacher to work with and to put your hands on and feel to get the real understanding.

1. Builds your Internal Body Structure, Integrity & Health
2. Helps you to Quiet Your Mind
3. Develops mind power and ability
4. Creates Iron Body -Ability to Withstand Hits (Only some versions)
5. Develops the Ability to Feel your own Energy
6. Develops the Ability to Feel Energy Inside Others
7. Develops the Ability to Feel an Attackers Intent  – Learn to Feel the Intent of an Incoming Strike
8. Develops the Ability to Hide Your Intent
9. Develops your Ability to Move Much Quicker
10. Develops your ability to Hit Very Forcefully
11. Enhances Mind Body and Spirit Abilities and is a prerequisite for more Advanced Training

There are more reasons than I have listed here to practice Tai Chi Push Hands for internal development. Please comment on these and ask me questions. After I have seen some posts and posted a response or two then I will add more.