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I tried out the strategy of maintaining a kind of “false impression of resistance” last time, with limited results. Half the time it very quickly became real resistance, which of course I’m trying to avoid. Other times I was able to “put up a shield” in place of my real self, from which I could retreat if I wanted to without letting my opponent know what was going on. The guys seemed to be more willing to push with me in this fashion, as it seems I am pushing more and giving them something to resist.
I made the mistake of trying to enunciate this to a fellow student, but it only resulted in a more-or-less complete failure in communication. In the future I plan to stop all such attempts and just nod in agreement when lectured on the subject by someone who has been practicing for a month. Who knows, maybe they know more than I do. Time spent practicing doesn’t really seem to have that much effect on how well someone can push. Some people just have an intuitive knack for it, whereas others, like myself, have a hard time getting their minds around certain concepts even after years of practice.
Lately I’ve been noticing a phenomenon developing at class; it seems that one of the more senior students is, on purpose or otherwise, forming a small subgroup within the larger group of students, another school of thought to tuishou. I like to think of their approach as the “tree root” approach, in contrast with the “intelligent water” approach I attribute Teacher Xu and students like Mr. You. The tree root approach is usually carried out by clasping your opponent in a grasp and slowly, inexorably forcing them off balance without moving very much yourself. I say forcing because it seems to take a lot of effort. Whereas the intelligent water approach is, obviously, more fluid. I suppose both approaches have something going for them, but I’d rather stick with the water-based concepts.
