Push Hands: Handbook for Non-competitive Tai Chi Practice with a Partner

Herman Kauz, acclaimed author of the best-selling Tai Chi Handbook, has been instrumental in advancing the practice of tai chi chuan in America. In this exciting new book, the companion to the Tai Chi Handbook, Kauz presents detailed instruction in push-hands, tai chi practiced with a partner.

The book begins with the thoughtfully reasoned argument that a cooperative approach to living-trying to accord with life's rhythms-is superior to a competitive one. The author advocates tai chi push-hands as a method of internalizing this philosophy. The text elucidates the meditative and athletic benefits of the practice. The nearly 100 photographs help to illustrate possible attacks and counterattacks. For anyone who has practiced tai chi and is interested in expert instruction in getting started with push hands, this is the essential handbook-private lessons with one of tai chi's most accomplished teachers.

This book amounts to a detailed private lesson in Tai Chi (with a non-competitive partner) by one of the most well-known experts on Tai Chi, Herman Kauz, author of "Tai Chi Handbook." Practicing Tai Chi with a partner amounts to a physical manifestation of a cooperative approach to living, a tangible way of experiencing balance and cooperative interaction. Unlike some of the more competitive martial arts like karate and judo, which can be actually stressful to some, Tai Chi with a partner, "push hands," is almost meditative and requires careful attention to one's own and to a partner's strength, weakness, position, balance--and even to a certain extent, state of mind--to help rather than overcome or beat one another.