Tai Chi for Two: The Practice of Push Hands

Rating:
Summary: An excellent tuishou discussion--but not for beginners
Review: I like Paul's discussion of taiji tuishou (push hands) and some of the suggestions he makes for developing one's tuishou abilities. However, I would not particularly recommend this book for beginners for two related reasons: first of all, the pictures are dark, and its hard to see where the arms and hands go sometimes. An experienced practictioner can make it out, but I doubt most beginners could without feeling really frustrated. Secondly, it lacks what I would call "transitional pictures." A beginner can easily wonder how one gets from one picture to the next. Again, an experienced practictioner can figure it out, but most beginners won't have the knowledge base to get past this structural difficulty. The book would have been much better with at least double the number of pictures for each illustration.

That said, Paul's discussion of tuishou is very good, and reveals him to be both knowledgable in taiji tuishou and a mature individual. He doesn't especially blow his own horn, and also makes a point stressing the fact that tuishou is primarily a learning tool meant to develop one's taiji fighting ability and not a vehicle for competition in and of itself. To get hung up on tuishou is like Earnest Hemingway getting hung up on calligraphy and never writing a single story.

This is clearly one of the better taiji tuishou books out there. Hopefully one day they'll supplement the pictures.