Lee-style T'ai Chi Ch'uan - Sticky Hands

Sticky Hands

The Lee style also includes various interactive exercises, the most important of which is called I Fu Shou or 'sticky hands', similar to the pushing hands exercises we see in other T'ai Chi styles. Two people stand opposite each other making contact on the back of the wrist and move in circles gently testing each others balance. The emphasis is on sensitivity and yielding to force.

I Fu Shou is an exercise in which two people participate. Each person tries to upset the balance of the other whilst maintaining their own stability. Contact is through the arms and hands throughout the exercise. No matter what stance is adopted, there may always be a weakness in the balance of the body whether one moves left or right, backward or forward, upward or downward, and it is by taking advantage of these six directional weaknesses that the participants in I Fu Shou try to ‘uproot’ each other - to cause the other to lose their footing. The most difficult way to do this is to lift the other off the ground, but even this may be achieved provided that one has practiced diligently and developed a faultless technique.

A full description is available to read online on Chee Soo's publisher's website.

Read more about this topic:  Lee-style T'ai Chi Ch'uan

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