Tuishou
推手
Paired exercise in taijiquan and other internal styles. Practitioners, in hand contact, try to unbalance each other and sensitively neutralize the other's pressure.
Quick Facts
Term typeTraining method
LanguageChinese
Formnoun
Pronunciation[tway shoh]
Alternative Namespushing hands
Readings and romanizations
Pinyintuīshǒu
Wade–Gilest'ui-shou
Word breakdown
推tuīpush
手shǒuhandDefinition
Tuishou (推手) means “pushing hands”. Two practitioners stand face to face, arms in contact, and in circular movements alternate pressing and yielding. The aim is to sense the partner's force, let it pass into emptiness and unbalance them without meeting force with force. Tuishou links the slow forms of taijiquan with work against an opponent. It is practised with fixed footing and while moving. Competitions are also held, in which the winner is the one who pushes the partner out of the space or makes them take a step.