Staying Calm

It is actually very important to remain calm, even in the midst of action. This was the lesson that I learnt today after reflecting on my actions during pushing hands.

Usually, when I push hands, I don't seek to push away my opponents. Once I am able to neutralise their attacks and get within their defences, I usually stop without going through with my own counterattack. For example, once I peng away my opponent's attack, and manage to get my hand on his torso, I will stop, instead of pressing on and pushing him away.

What really got me all worked up today was when I did this, my opponent kept resorting to brute force to counter. His brute force attacks became very fierce, and that really got me worked up. In the end, I lost my cool, and went down the slippery road of trying to win (by pushing him away). My mind became pre-occupied with pushing my opponent down, rather than relaxing and countering his attacks. Thus, there were occasions when I countered brute force with force, or when my responses to his attacks were very rough (bordering on trying to break arms...)

I actually lost the essence of taiji. I was trying to win, when taiji is not about winning. I should have stayed calm, continue to relax and listen to his force. Instead, I was trying to push his away, and ended up with a few times when I used brute force too. I feel like I have lost everything that I have learnt, because using brute force is NOT the way, relaxing, listening and then countering is the way. I thought it was because I was unable to listen and react quickly, so my actions became very rough. On reflection, it was not. I became rough because I was out to win. And that is the one thing that I should not have done at all.

So, from now on, I will keep telling myself to relax, listen, counter. And if my opponent uses brute force and I am unable to react in time, I will just let him push me.