Tai Chi: Sensing Hands (Chen Kung's T'Ai Chi Series) (Paperback)

~ Stuart Alve Olson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This book presents for the first time in one comprehensive volume a complete record of Yang style tai chi tui shou (also known as "push hands" or "sensing hands") techniques. Although most tai chi practitioners are currently familiar with three or four of the main tui shou techniques, there are a variety of other "hidden" tui shou methods that previously have not been presented to the public. Much of the information in this volume has never before been available in the English language, and is held so secret that much of the tai chi community is not aware that these methods exist.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Unique Publications (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892515156
• ISBN-13: 978-1892515155
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #953,749 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for advanced Tai Chi Chuan students, August 22, 2000

By A Customer

Tai Chi Sensing Hands assumes the reader has some knowledge of Tai Chi Chuan and is able to apply the forms correctly. The basic sets of push hands are presented and then expanded with variations on these techniques designed to enlarge the sensitivity and responsiveness of the student. While not all different push hands styles are covered, the variations can be adopted to almost any style of push hands to challenge the players to new levels of expertise. The pictures and the text work together to lead the student to explore each technique, if the student has the ability to perform Tai Chi well. Without the ability to perform Tai Chi, this book is best left on the shelf until the reader is able to move according to the instruction.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Still a basic book on sensing hands, June 7, 2001

By	Marco Morena "Mormarc" (Italy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is very well written especially in the introductive chapters. The author considerations about the exercise are really great. Unfortunately, as a Tai Chi instructor, I was looking for something much more advanced in sensing (or most commonly "pushing") hands. Even though the work has been very well done, the pushing exercises are still introductive one. The use of the waists and the application of the "chan su shin" movement to the exercise are neither explained nor mentioned. As any Tai Chi person knows this is the key and the most important tip on sensing hand and generally speaking on all the tai chi movements. Anyway this book is the first one completely dedicated to the item and I really appreciate the author effort on approaching the sensing hand explanation in this work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the Beginner or Advanced Taiji practitioner, November 9, 2007

By	James G. Snyder "taiji dreamer" (Albuquerque, NM USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an excellent book on the deep principles behind the two-person reactive training usually called "pushing hands". I disagree with the reviewer who took issue with this book title since the actual translation of tui shou would be "connecting or bridging hands". The western approach of calling this practice "push hands" is possibly one of the main reasons that it is so poorly practiced as something more like vertical wrestling in most taiji tournaments.

Stewart Olson does not delve deeply into all of the advanced sensing hands exercises taught in the various taiji forms, but he does present the exercises that the original master of his lineage taught in the U.S. I think that this is very appropriate and that most of the more advanced two-person exercises need to be directly taught by an instructor knowledgeable in them. He does do an excellent job of transmitting with words and exercises a topic that is difficult to communicate face-to-face and hand-to-hand to students.

It is wonderful that taiji has become so popular in the U.S. that an interested student can find someone who teaches the form at most every college, continuing education center, gym, or martial arts studio. Unfortunately, finding a teacher who can instruct more advanced topics such as sensing hands is much more difficult. For the novice student this creates the difficulty of determining if their instructor knows what they are talking about or is just faking it. This book can help such a student because while the training exercises in this book by themselves may not guarantee a correct understanding of push hands, they can identify incorrect teaching. Further, for students that have a good instructor and want a text written by a master level practitioner this book has exercises that can deepen your skill. This author has several other books addressing the deep aspects of taiji and qigong that are also very high quality.