How, historically, did American push-hands get so restrictive in comparison to Chinese push-hands?

Question

In tai chi circles outside of China, push hands competitions are noticeably more restrictive in their rules and format:

• Many competitions use "fixed-step" rules (for example, this British event and this Canadian event). In these events, such as in this clip, points are scored for merely getting the opponent "off balance".
• As documented in "Pushing the Issue", several American events have rules against "charging" or clashing, using any substantial grip, and even "throwing" or simply using force.

Not all European and American events have these restrictive rules, but it seems very common.

In contrast, Chinese events seem to be much more free-form, as a rule. There are no such restrictions on stepping, far fewer on grips, clashes are only separated in the case of stalling or lack of action, and throws and force are absolutely encouraged.

For example, this Chen village push-hands tournament clip shows participants fighting for grips and throwing with vigor. This tournament in China showcases many big throws and multiple instances of force. The same is true of this tournament, and seems to be true in everyday practice in the park in addition to competitive events. Points are scored for knocking an opponent down, throwing them to the ground, and pushing them out of the competition area, not for merely getting someone "off balance". We see that Chinese tournaments seem much closer to vigorous wrestling than a calm drill.

Why the distinction? When and how did these two paths diverge?

Answer 1

First off, the Chen village invented push hands, so what you see there is the way it is supposed to be played. I've pushed with some guys from Chen village, and real push hands is a lot closer to a combination of judo and sumo. Why do people have such a hard time accepting this? I suspect because its actually hard, and its a lot easier to spend your life playing softly and cooperatively without developing any real technical skill, all while avoiding hard physical training.

Taijiquan is heavily influenced by shuai jiao, and this shows in Asian push hands tournaments. Many tui shou players cross train in shui jiao and vice versa. Don't forget taijiquan is a martial art first and foremost. The shuai jiao skills are mostly absent in America, most likely due to the influence of cheng man Ching whose style of tai chi and push hands was unusually soft. And if you expect some old man to be controlling people with one finger, sending them hopping around the room, then you probably will be disappointed when you see what it looks like without all the bs...it's just grappling.

When I look at these push hands players from Chen village, I am impressed, not appalled. To me, it shows real skill and technique to be able to handle an uncooperative opponent. When I hear someone criticize this it always makes me question if they really train taijiquan as a martial art, instead of just theoretical and hypothetical practice against a cooperative opponent. In my opinion, if you are not training how the founders intended the art to be trained, or how they currently practice it at its origin, you are doing something other than taijiquan.

Ying and yang...hard and soft. Taijiquan is not yin. It's not all soft. That gets you plowed. Sometimes you are forceful to bait someone to resist you, sometimes you are soft. You must maintain peng to keep the structure. This is taijiquan 101. If you don't see this in the Chen village matches you simply don't know what you are looking at, probably because you have never trained that way.

Answer 2

Well, let me preface everything I am about to say with "this is just my personal opinion" - I have only been practicing taijiquan for past 10 years and although this is enough to give me some insight to the art, it is certainly not enough to have any claim of accuracy on the more general history that has brought us where we are now.

First of all, let me start out by claiming that big part of the more restrictive set of rules and adherence to these restrictions is largely motivated by a wish to make competitions safer for participants and by extension to the organizers who do not have to worry that much about any potential of serious injuries.

Another reason is the difference of focus and motivation of the push hands practice. The Chinese in the videos were not all that bad (well, with the exception of the guys pushing in the park).

While for the Europeans I've pushed with, the exercise of push-hands is one of sensitivity and skill in listening and following and of duifang's energy, for the Chinese in these videos, the focus is on the goal of actually defeating the opponent. The skill is still there, if you know what to look for, but the execution of the techniques is fast and precise and executed with perfect timing (well, not in the video that was made in the park).

I would claim tat the approach of Chinese is much more martial than that of the Westerners, who are more of the "academic" in their pursuit of idealistic perfection - that in their practice as well as in the way the competitions are ruled.

Answer 3

Fixed step flows into moving step and moving step into free sparring. Chen Village competitions are displaying the free sparring wrestling aspect which has always been the objective. Even other martial arts such as Judo, Shuai Jiao and Sambo have similar principles such as staying relaxed, transferring weight and regulating force with the waist, breathing correctly, and so on.

In one of his few interviews Chang Yui Chun, a student of Yang Shou Hu, said training with his teacher was brutal and that it wasn't uncommon to leave a session with a bloody nose or other injuries. This gives an idea of a very different style of Tai Chi Chuan to what many students practice today; according to him, they called it loose boxing at one point. Obviously, the boxing and wrestling elements were still quite strong back then.

Answer 4

After watching a few Chen village comps I was pretty disappointed in their view of push. IMO the point of push isn't to overpower or butt heads but to bring about unbalancing through subtlety.

I'm guessing, but I'd attribute it to wanting to be a competition of graceful mechanics rather than outright grappling. Is subtlety important in grappling? Of course, but I think in a different way.