Emptyflower® Internal Martial Arts - Taiji Bagua Xingyi: Emptyflower® Internal Martial Arts - Taiji Bagua Xingyi -> Back To My Roots

So a mate of mine comes over yesterday. I hadn't seen him in about two years; in which time he had been doing some BJJ, Wrestling and Boxing. I couldn't put any power into my strikes because of a neck injury he sustained, so we ended up doing a lot of wrestling and seeing what came of certain attacks and counters.

One thing I noticed which I hadn't thought about in a while was how useful my pushing hands training was. Not being able to strike with force ment that any shots that landed were so light they were either not noticed or completely ignored. This ment that a third of my game had been neutralized, and an accent placed upon stand-up grappling, locks, throws etc. It has been around 6 or 7 years since I have had consistant pushing hands practice, but the foundation I built over the 20 years before that has stuck with me. I found it interesting that all vigarous attempts to put me on the ground with locks, shoots, throws, head-locks and what not, really amounted to me falling back on my push hands training. The Ta Lu came in handy, with diagonal stepping and neutralizing pivots. Also just the act of being able to maintain central equilibriam managed to neutralize alot of throws. Very simple really.

Its funny though, I've spent a long time working on mobility, agility, four onces and all that jazz; but I really enjoyed something a little more grizzely. I think its just testing my root that is the appealing thing. Its a little nostalgic and good training.