Most so-called masters of Taijiquan regard single push hands as an entry into double push hands and usually push their students into double push hands long before they should even be thinking about it, or worse, by-passing single push hands altogether! The reason for this relatively modern trend lies in the reason now for doing Taijiquan. This reason is mainly for being good at push hands and not for why the art was originally invented, for self defense physically and internally. Masters and other teachers think that one's ability in Taijiquan is concomitant with ones push hands ability!
This could not be further form the truth. If one practices a sophisticated self defence art such as Taijiquan to be good at one of its training methods only, then this is like purchasing a Porsche motor car and leaving it in the garage! Push hands, single or double or Da-Lu is only a passing or continuing phase in our total training and should only ever be looked upon as an excellent training method to gain what it is that we are striving for in our Taijiquan training. If one wishes to only be good at push hands, then that is all he or she has to practice! You would never have to learn form or fighting methods, only push hands, but that is where you will stay forever, being good at push hands!
When I was first training, single push hands was the most important part of my initial training and I remember spending hours each day in its practice. Even when I was left alone to learn by myself using my own resources, it was single push hands that I would practice with my then students day in day out. Nowadays, when I am asked how I learnt about fa-jing (explosive energy strikes), I say that it is the amount of single push hands that I did in my earlier training. Single Push Hands also heals the mind and body, balancing the Yin and Yang Qi as well as giving tremendous internal power for fighting and healing. This is a new video covering how to perform small frame single push hands with particular attention to the fa-jing gaining area of this great training method.
