Being Pushed

Part of pushing hands practice is to help your partner to learn too. So sometimes, you need to use a bit of brute force and resist, or become limp and let go, so that your partner has a chance to learn how to use these opportunities. This is especially so when your partner is still new and uses a lot of brute force himself. In order to draw circles with him, you may end up needing to use some brute force yourself; otherwise, the moment you sense his force, you end up using it against him and he doesn't get a chance to learn anything much. This is called 喂招 in Chinese.

My teacher is very good at this. He can draw circles with us, let us take the advantage but still neutralise whatever we can throw at him eventually. But because I am still not that good yet, if I give my partner some chance, I may not be able to avoid being pushed by him. But I guess that's still better than not giving him a chance at all; it becomes frustrating for him to be the one always being pushed.