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Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.   Dec. 11th, 2012 05:34 pm (UTC)
Strength training more than stretch - or, at least, it might be
a stretch to beginners, but once you're more into it it's about
having the strength and stability to move in that space
usefully.  My primary art, Chen Taijiquan* does push hands at
that level. I really wish I'd gotten pictures of me doing it
with Shifu a couple seminars ago - I meant to - but since I
didn't, here's a short of Hong Yijiao (my master) doing fourth
level push hands with Chen Zhenglei (her master, and general
martial artist of stunning awesomeness).  Now, of course, push
hands is a training exercise (though a more useful one than a
lot of people realize, including a lot of push hands
practitioners.) When sparring, I don't drop into crouch stance
that often, but I do, sometimes, and I don't know if I've ever
locked my knee. (Maybe, possibly, when sweeping someone, but
then my low sweeps still kind of s