Taijiquan

The Yang-style Taijiquan (楊氏太極拳, Yángshì tàijíquán) Traditional Form consists of 113 movements. This sequence is the foundation to all of your Taijiquan practice. Beginners focus on stances, breathing, relaxation, mind, and energetic awareness. More advanced practitioners explore martial applications, direction of energy (氣, qì), and Taijiquan theory. After you complete learning the Taijiquan solo sequence, you should practice it very slowly, focusing on how to lead your Qi beyond the surface of the skin and deep into the bone marrow.For Level 1, you must perform Part 1 at slow speed. At a minimum, the testing panel looks for: memorization of the form with little or no pauses and basic structure of the postures. To receive a higher score, you should demonstrate proficiency in the following areas.

1. Body structure
2. Root / Stability
3. Softness / Fluidity of movements
4. Form Accuracy & Appropriate Speed
5. Sense of Opponent & Power

Additionally, the testing panel may ask you to perform a section of any part of the entire sequence.

Centering (自由推手, zìyóu tuīshǒu) is freestyle Pushing Hands with a particular focus on Central Equilibrium (中定, zhōngdìng). It requires the Taijiquan principles: listening (聽, tīng), understanding (懂, dǒng), sticking (沾, zhān), adhering (黏, nián), yielding (走, zǒu), neutralizing (化, huà), and leading (引, yǐn). These skills constitute the most basic skills in Pushing Hands. Unlike tournament settings, you must maintain a high stance so you are forced to use the waist, chest, and spine in their movements. The feet must not move.

The goal of this level is to build preliminary habits for correct body structure and defensive reaction. The primary attack used by the testing panel will be sealing your forearm towards your body. They will not push all the way through, but hold the position for up to 2 seconds to see if and how you react. You are expected to use your chest, spine, and waist to neutralize any attack while maintaining structure and avoiding Double Weighting as much as possible.

In Single Pushing Hands (單推手, dān tuīshǒu), you learn how to build up your sensitivity for yielding, leading, and neutralizing. This exercise includes 4 options for horizontal, upward, sideways, and downward neutralizations. You should understand how to push to the correct targets using your stances while keeping your elbows and shoulders down and fingers wrapped around your partner’s wrist. On defense, you should maintain Peng, shift back into Four Six Stance, turn the hips, and coil. Avoid Double Weighting as much as possible.

Requirement: Eyes closed

Double Pushing Hands (雙推手, shuāng tuīshǒu) builds off of the techniques trained in Single Pushing Hands. It includes the same 4 options for horizontal, upward, sideways, and downward neutraliazations, in addition to 2 new ones: repelling and sealing. You must use the other hand to seal your opponent’s elbow in all 6 options.

Common correction: your second hand should intercept the elbow with the palm facing up and turn palm down when the other hand coils.

Requirement: Eyes closed

Peng Lü Ji An (掤 lǚ 擠按, péng lǚ jǐ àn) is a popular international double pushing hands routine. The principles of péng (ward-off), lǚ (rollback), jǐ (press), and àn (push) should remain the same as in previous single and double pushing hands training. This level is trained without stepping.

Péng: neutralize upward
Lǚ: pluck the wrist and use either the palm or forearm to control the elbow
Jǐ: attack straight forward
Àn: push to seal towards to the body to either side (right or left)

Testing: You should demonstrate the ability to neutralize the àn (push) to either direction

(The character for lǚ cannot be displayed.)