This Tai Chi Partner Work Will Deepen Your Practice I Tui Shou "推手"

👇Click the link to join our 7-Day Tai Chi & Qigong challenge👇 https://www.skool.com/rootedalchemy 📥 Business Inquiries [email protected] 🌱 Today's Practice: We explore Tai Chi partner work, often called Push Hands (Tui Shou) — a cooperative practice that deepens understanding of Tai Chi’s body mechanics, balance, and responsiveness. We begin by discussing how partner drills bridge solo practice and martial application, helping practitioners learn to yield, root, and move from the center without tension. The first half of the session focuses on yielding exercises based on the elements — water, earth, and fire — to teach relaxation, grounding, and awareness under pressure. The second half introduces single-arm circle drills, where partners coordinate advancing, retreating, and turning while maintaining constant, light pressure. We learn about leadership and following roles, the importance of consistent speed and pressure, and how to integrate these cooperative drills into solo Tai Chi practice. The video ends by emphasizing mindfulness, body connection, and how partner work strengthens both technique and sensitivity. 0:00 – 2:01 What is Partner Work? 2:02 – 6:05 Partner Work 1: "Yielding" 6:06 – 8:12 Solo Drill: Yielding Flow 8:13 – 13:04 Partner Work 2: "Single Arm Circles" 13:05 – 13:51 Partner Work 2 - Variation "Living Step" ☯️ Who Am I: “Student Always, Teacher Sometimes.” This mindset sets the tone for my lifelong journey in Chinese internal arts. I am a Tai Chi/Qigong practitioner and teacher with over 15 years of dedicated study, beginning in Southern California with Praying Mantis Kung Fu and Yang Style Tai Chi, and later continuing in Seattle under Andrew T. Dale, where I immersed myself in Chen Style Tai Chi, Bagua Zhang, and the internal principles that still guide my practice today. In 2007, I moved to Beijing, China, spending eight years training intensively with masters Zhang Wei Dong and Liu Zu Guang, refining my Tai Chi, Bagua Zhang, internal body mechanics, and traditional training methods while also studying Shuai Jiao and Da Bei Quan. During this time, I became the first foreigner awarded a Shuai Jiao Coach’s Certificate in China and co-founded the Guang Wu Shuai Jiao Association to help spread traditional Chinese martial arts internationally. My teaching emphasizes authentic Tai Chi and Qigong—rooted in structure, breath, intention, and internal alignment—to support sustainable practice, real skill development, and long-term vitality.