Saturday, August 16, 2014

Respect Your Opponent, Revisited

I am revisiting my thoughts, not because there is nothing new to learn, but rather because some things are important enough for me to want to constantly remind myself.

After the incident yesterday, when my opponent fell over and hit his head, I am reminded again on why I act the way I do when I practise pushing hands. My opponents are my training partners, and I treat them with respect. They help me to learn my weaknesses. They are not people to conquer, people to beat.

And that is why when I push hands, I try not to cause my opponent to fall. I just try to use his strength against him to upset his balance. My aim is to make him realise that it is his own force that is being used against him to cause him to lose his balance. It is sometimes difficult, because my opponent may lose his balance, regain his balance and come back even fiercer. Then it becomes a vicious cycle. Things may reach a stage in which his force is so strong that he may fall. I usually try to avoid that happening by letting him push me away to put an end to things and start afresh. But sometimes, his force may be too strong, too sudden, and when it is used back against him, I may not be able to control how much to return and cause his to fall.

When that happens, I feel bad. Because it means I still have not reached the stage when I can control the force that I return. It means I have some way to go. And I feel bad because I risked injuring my training partner.

I always remember what my teacher said. Don't push all the way, don't commit all your force, don't use 100%. Use 70%, leave 30% behind. When you do that, you are not just leaving your opponent a way out, you are leaving yourself a way out.

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