Thanks for the share! To address alot of the comments... I agree Push Hands alone will get you destroyed in a fight, you'd get your face punched and slammed on your face if you only do push hands haha but the purpose of push hands is to increase sensitivity, redirection, staying calm and developing good root and balance. This way of training is the long path, meaning learning this isn't advised if you want to fight right away or be aggressive. It's designed to build the skill sets you need to grapple without becoming to tense or confused with all the movement... It's a way to deeply embedd these skills because the forms are done slow and low and practiced constantly. I remember being taken to a jujitsu school with black belts and brown belts and no one could take me down, at that point I didn't know what else to do besides defend against takedowns which was neat I had the root and sensitivity to stop them. Since then I've been incorporating jujitsu/grappling. Its super important to understand that Taiji principles will give you the keys to adapt and flow within any format but also super important to understand you have to train other systems that solely focus fighting and combat if you wish to actually use Tai Chi to fight or grapple! Thanks everyone! 👍🏿👍🏿❣️
Most people don't understand that pushing hands is a cooperative exercise in fact. In this video, good to see the mma fighters having taken this spirit (how come, surprised here?). The aim is to practise listening skill and adapt as quickly as possible. I would argue that the aim of pushing hands is to lose in fact (exaggerating here, I just want to stress that you learn more by losing), because we need to give ourselves a higher standard each time and accept our mistakes (losing)
@@matthewmele764 Yes and no. The rule set should be made to work on a taiji principle. Perfect pushing hands is very difficult, that's why if you are engaging with the desire of winning, 99.99% of the time you are working on no taiji principle, that's why pushing hands competition for winning is not really meaningful.
I am a push hands instructor and taught at a MMA school. I taught my students push hands to add to their ju-jitsu training. The kids that combined ju-jitsu and push hands repeatedly won placed top 3 in the ju-jitsu tournaments. You learn from whatever works even if it is called shit, That is want my former instructor Lu Ping Zhang use to tell me.
Great demo! I love how Nico has mastered his footwork, perfecting his stances and showing the importance of controlling your center mass, which is basic physics.
@@user255 conserving energy, redirecting force, balance, strength training, sensitivity ... the list goes on. But really it's a training drill. Anyone who wants to compete in MMA needs to train MMA
Jason, Jan, and Shifu Nico's accounts are in the video description. I texted Lainel to see if he has a channel that he wants me to share. Extended version on TheDojo that I'm uploading now too. Talk to you guys soon, you beautiful chi masters with 8 black belts and sixteen registered underground matches XDDD
I’ve been in tai chi 5 years now, 31 y.o. My instructor in his 70’s lets 3 of us push on him and doesn’t budge. Glad to hear you coming around a bit to the subject. BTW mma guy footpads are sliding because he is not dropping his weight correctly. He is pushing forward instead of dropping down. Extremely difficult after 5 years I can take hardly any push at all
please share a little bit of technical details with me, what i am doing is calmly dropping, using the force of the surface of a balloon around me and grounding and feeling their force and countering. should i be doing something with my breath? is there something specific you do with your arms? i use half clinch on my right arm and overhook to control their neck cause i am trying to bring this into more of a wrestling environment
Push hands alone will not make someone a great fighter, there's a reason why it's supposed to be an exercise rather than the whole point of training something like tai chi, but being as skilled as Nico is at it is very impressive.
A fantastic video. I teach Wing Chun and practice Tai Chi but have also spent years boxing/kickboxing and grappling. Wing Chun and Tai Chi are not perfect combat styles, more ways of training the body "internally" that can be used in other styles. If you watch Nico move, he has a superb understanding of his own center of equilibrium and has extremely well developed sensitivity. This means he can perceive imbalance in his opponent before they can, and then use extremely soft energy to further disrupt it. This feels very weird to the opponent because Nico doesn't appear to be doing much, and the more they try, the more unbalanced they become. His opponents feel almost nothing when they try to push/pull, because Nico can disguise his center of equilibrium at will. It takes a long time to get good at this, but the effects are well worth it.
WTF is this crap? Anybody can do this with a bit of practice. Its a skill that you can learn without practicing that ridiculous form or any chi gung bullshido. Beating guys that haven't practiced this, doesn't prove anything.
I've noticed something interesting when Nico begins every round, he finds his own center of gravity or bends his knees to stabilize himself and can easily redirect any energy coming his way, or that's what it seems like to me.
Tai chi is entirely about centering yourself and rooting to the ground. With this and Correct posture and using your entire body simultaneously(picture like a snake) generates fulcom leverage that can’t be replicated by muscle. I love this stuff
Beautifull skill Nico has there, if he were to add striking and actual grappling into that ability to recognize where the force of his oponent is going and what to do with it, and it would be a very usefull tool for fighting.
Niko has been using these pads and knows how to balance himself on those pads from just training on them. If you practice with a tool you get better at it. Nothing special.
Great showcase of the missing ingredient in most MMA bouts. MMA gyms don't spend enough time on the kind of sensitivity development you get from tai chi or wing chun. You see good sensitivity from wrestlers and jiu jitsu experts on the ground, but it feels like they forget about it on the feet, habitually pushing and pulling too much when entering and exiting clinch because their opponents don't know how to capitalize on subtle mistakes.
@@uros2321 I'll bet he would not do well, unless he has trained some wrestling, muay thai, jiu jitsu, or perhaps some judo. Tai Chi and Wing Chun tend to under-emphasize full-contact application so even most masters would probably get rag-dolled in the octagon. But train someone with a full modern MMA arsenal, and then train them on an hour-per-day of push hands or chi sao, and you'd definitely see them pulling off some wild moves we've never seen in the UFC. It would change the game during transitions into and out of clinch.
@@gharm9129 Enough content is left even in the current ruleset for any effective martial art to succeed in MMA. Many types of Karate have done just fine in MMA, do you not count that? If you train to apply and spar, you'll be successful
Out of the five matches Nicco had at this tournament, the second to last bout he had was against a competitor using sumo. The man was about 5'6 300 lbs and won his other two matches. Nicco beat him 15-0 and also palm pushed him in thei mid section and sent him sliding ten feet. On his butt. It's more like Tai chi would be an excellent supplement for sumo.
I bet you anything that Nico is a dancer. His movement, the jerky, rhythmic bobbing and swaying he is doing looks so much to me like those awesome dance videos you see on RUclips front page all the time. It looks very hip-hop influenced and is basically the epitome of "be like water". In a lot of ways, his movement also reminds me of those videos of birds keeping their head totally stable to spot prey while their body is bobbing all over the place, or those videos of the little birds dancing on the ground (to lure out prey) while their head stays stationary. It looks so natural when shown this way. He has such masterful control of his body and balance.
I followed my friends to a Tai Chi class, in college, as an above average-ish wrestler, out of high school. I handled the instructor's students fine (though two advanced ones I never got a piece of have me wondering). But the instructor himself had a background in a couple martial arts, and I was more helpless against him, than I even remembered being, getting thrashed by state champions. So I figured I'd listen. I ended up really liking what he added to my game. He has me looking for Greco-type slams more, if I'm ever in a fight, and I've brought home a lot of push hand medals, over the years. I still study with him, to this day, and I have a friend who joined a little after, pairing it with his Brazilian jiu-jitsu, who I've been meeting up with all the time to throw down, over the past 10-or-eleven years.
That was cool. Those foot pads are weird though, and I'd like to see more free stepping push hands. Too many people think that fixed step is all that push hands is, when really fixed step is simpler and safer so it's ideal for beginners but it's inherently pretty limited. With free stepping it's a lot easier for someone to get thrown, whether accidentally or on purpose. MMA guys might even do better with free stepping because it more resembles the grappling they're used to, so if the tai chi guy could still win it'd mean a lot. Just a thought
That depends what you’re trying to develop. The late Cheng Man Ching used to have his students push hands with one of them backed up with one heel touching a wall. That develops a skill like shown here that you might otherwise not develop if you rely too much on stepping away.
@@h.s.levine2932 yeah, that's a useful skill, so long as it's not a substitute for also learning how to do it with free stepping. If you can only win when your opponent doesn't move their feet, you're not really training to fight; but if you can win without moving YOUR feet, while your opponent is free to move freely, then that's great.
I think there's skills you can develop in push hands that would definitely carry over to other aspects of martial arts. If Tai Chi focused more on unrehearsed, live drills like this, it may have a better rep. Not to mention that outside fighting, this just looks fun in its own right.
Bruce lee had a saying used by Dan Inosanto, along the lines of, "Don't box with a boxer, don't kick with a kicker, don't wrestle with a wrestler." Relatedly, he also said something like, "There's a range at which boxing will counter Taekwondo; a range at which Wing Chun will counter boxing; a range at which Tai Chi will counter Wing Chun; a range at which wrestling will counter Tai Chi."
Yeah, but this isn't a full on Taichi/wrestling fight. This is literally a Taichi drill lmao, how can somebody expect the other guys to use their BJJ or wrestling here. It's like trying to use boxing while doing the Wing Chun chi sao (sticky hands) drill, the rules of the drill go against your boxing techniques lol.
@@jestfullgremblim8002 True dat. It's like RUclips challenges with crossfitters vs marines or gymnasts vs bodybuilders or whatever. The person whose discipline is on display is gonna win. So Tai Chi vs MMA in a free sparring match? I know who I'D bet on, lol.
The general idea is to relax and stretch the spine downwards. This lowers your center of gravity without bending too much. Eventually your whole body can be lowered into the ground without changing elevation. This type of coordination takes practice. The hard part is figuring out the stretch of the arms with the stretch of the spine. The shoulder is where the body holds the most tension.
It’s been years now, but I’ve never seen such risers used for Push Hands. Back in the 80’s there was Push Hands 🙌 Tournaments in the Great Bear Flag Republic of California. It’s was mostly though the Yang Family T'ai Chi Ch'üan, out of The City (San Francisco)
Ok, I see a lot of comments asking what the point is. In fact, there is theory that Tai Chi Tuishou is NOT a grappling technique, but rather for armed fight, especially when you are equipped with a sword and a shield. In other words, it's simulating the situation of ancient battlefield where soldiers attack in formations. You either use the sword to thrust/cut directly, or you use the shield to push your enemy down to the ground so that they are more vulnerable. That's why you are not allowed to grasp (using fingers) your opponent in Tuishou, because your hands are assumed to be occupied.
@PJ Rivera Indeed! And don't forget the fighting in formation part. It explains why most of these traditional styles have such stupid and clumsy footwork: it's unlikely to move around as freely as a modern boxer in the middle of a phalanx formation!
@@shizheliang2679 Great explanation and something to think about. When you think about stuff like Xing-Yi or BaJi, their footwork makes a lot more sense if you imagine ranks of troops moving in those static lines.
@@shizheliang2679 For Boxing footwork, look at old videos and Pancho Villa. Before Pancho Villa introduced a lot of footwork from Filipino Martial Arts, a lot of it was very flat footed. Greats like Muhammad Ali highly esteemed Pancho Villa and dominated his weight division using similar footwork. In other words, even modern Boxing was highly influenced by TMA to a good extent. Just look at the footwork of old videos before Pancho Villa. Very few fought like him.
Finally, this is proper Taijiquan, there is the structure, the suppleness, the form, explosiveness, all is there! If this is the first time you see it, well I am glad you discovered it, because now we can finally move on bullshido crap videos to more serious directions of refining movement, different kind of skillset, and most of all how to make it applicable. It's about time to stop bashing Taijiquan in general but search about those people who really represent the art. I 'll give you two hints. Tim Cartmel. Strider Clark.
Reading through the comments I see there are still a lot of negative/ignorant things said about this video, tai chi & the tai chi guy . If it wasn’t for TMA you wouldn’t have MMA
@@mrt445 if it wasn’t for the traditional martial arts there would be no mma Karate, Kung fu , tae kwon do , boxing ,judo, wrestling, tai-chi , bjj , aikido & so on .
He's balancing and locking from the hips down which mixed martial arts doesn't really emphasize. They mainly focus on balancing from the feet which is great when you are moving round but completely different when the whole point is staying still so you have to lock from the hips down and keep the top half fluid.
@@tonbonthemon like what happens when you sit, rather than split the pressure between your feet it goes straight down into your hips, if you train after a while you can actually feel in your hips there are points where it's locks depending on your positioning.
Thanks. I always considered you fair and honest, but was disappointed that all of the videos, of yours, that I saw, which had tai chi, only had bad tai chi. Although this master might not be able to fight, at least he can use real tai chi skills in push hands. Thank you again
7:01 that’s scapular movement also emphasized in aikido and aikijujutsu where you move your scapulas in a circular fashion in order to draw a lot of power without moving the upper body nor the hips. It is explained in this video, ruclips.net/video/t0HPf02nsFI/видео.html , at 6:07. It’s a deceptively strong force.
That scapular movement in tai chi is generated from the ground and steered by the hips. Body must work in unison while relaxed or you end up in this guys RUclips videos getting made fun of for trying tai chi lol
that is pretty cool. I was thinking about martial arts pretty cold and robotic mostly. like the faster you can overpower the opponent the better. tai chi seems like the opposite of my "rule" and it seems to shine in such competition.
Push hands is an amazing skill, I've only done a year of it, but when I took up Judo, I could usually stop even the brown belts from throwing me. Not for practical self defense unless it's a shoving match though.
The way they push hands in the second exchange is the whole point of fixed step. You’re supposed to be loose and feel where the imbalance comes. It gives a massive advantage to when it comes to them actually wrestling (or fighting for that matter). Nico pushing hands reminds me of one of my instructors from back in the 90’s (minus the dancing).
Wimg chun has helped me immensly with grappling the push hands drills helped me develop sensitivity gor the clich and pummel for underhooks and going for armdrags
it's interesting to see how only body mechanics is playing a big role, specially against the 2nd guy on white pants. straight forwarded hips X angle ones. straight force wins easyly - Nico's body structure is favouring put opponent out of balance....Jason's body is in disvantage/ out of good alignment just when he touches.
I think it would be interesting to see a contest against a seasoned Nak Muay, especially against a Muay Femeu or Muay Kao with a proper understanding of balance and center of gravity.
I admire these type of fight. When Boxing/Kickboxing/MMA fighter match with chinese kung fu, they often fight in the ring, with Boxing/Kickboxing/MMA rules. Fighting should also be done using chinese kung fu rules. Fixed Step Pushing hand is certainly one of these fighting rule.
Hey man love your stuff but could you point out fighters by their clothes or at the time in the scene pause and say the guy on the right and the guy the left is in this colour etc
My tau chi teacher asked me to bring four 6×12×16 inch blocks We used these at all orientations. When up at the 16 inch height extra muscle wasn't always the winner.
Push hands as competition is like barstool racing. You can do it, but it’s really not the point of the practice. Push hands is a training method, not created for competition.
This Nico is using the real tai chi. If he has learned it by oneself or from an actual master. What he has achieved is daily practice and meditation. From elderly masters you wouldn't even notice if they were using tai chi. You can actually see Nico not trying to overpower his opponent, but use the energy that they are applying against them. When it came to the second guy who is taller, notice that Nico was leaning towards him. He was already in position to knock him off balance ⚖️. All he needed was to feel the energy move and he could manipulate that energy in any direction.
This is a great introduction to taijiquan. However in terms of techniques this is still surface level in the fact that there are strikes from all parts of the body, single legs, double legs and arm drags.
This doesn't translate to anything else. Sorry, not sorry. Being good at push hands does not mean effective grappling or striking skill, it's just being good at push hands.
wow...it's almost like you can overpower a smaller guy with your bigger stature... the second guy wasn't anchoring himself to the ground, if he does + lean forward he wouldn't be able to be pushed around like rhat
@@FightCommentary ruclips.net/video/leuf-5pZaaw/видео.html This is video of him winning the 2004 Tai Chi World Cup. He also trains BJJ With Marcello Garcia, arguably one of the greatest BJJ practitioners alive today. He was a chess prodigy as a child, and wrote a fantastic book on his transitions between these disciplines called "The Art of Learning". There are some fantastic long form podcast talks with him & Tim Ferriss that are excellent to get an impression of his methods as well.
@@FightCommentary not much links, this guy is pretty famous. He's a BJJ black belt under Marcelo Garcia, also was a Tai Chi push hands world champion. Not to mention an Internation Master in chess. He was the inspiration for the movie "searching for bobby fischer"
What other Martial Arts or combat sports does Nico do? Does he have any fights under his belt? I'm just asking myself about the practical applications because this looked amazing.
It's a competition based an exercise for energy reading and sensitivity. Is a mugger gonna skip rope or hit a speed bal instead of attacking you? Think creative.
There have been a couple of tight ends in the NFL who had serious wrestling chops. It was blatant when tackles were being attempted and they lowered their hips and used force of the tackler to shed the hit. Many people wondered how they could keep going when standard football wisdom said they should go down. Instinctive (and trained) balance wedded with technique allowed the TEs to stay on their feet.
Out of the five matches niccos had on this competition, three opponents were heavier than him Including one who tried sumo and still losed 15-0. Which proves Tai chi is not a FAKE martial art.
@@ArmadusMalaysia If you watch the video showing the whole tournament.Nicco shows the bjj referee how Tai chi can be used in ground grappling. You could skip to the near very end of the video. It's " world series push hands 2022- orange county.
A boxer will beat a muay thai guy in boxing, a taekwondo guy will beat a wing chun guy at taekwondo, a thai chi fighter will beat an mma fighter at... a "the floor is lava" competition
Nonsensical, it’s just a tai chi specific drill. It’s like a beginner doing chi sao with an experienced teacher, you can’t fight people with drills. It’s like one boxer saying to another “I’m better at skipping than you therefore I can beat you in a fight”. Let’s see the tai chi guy just do regular clinch sparring with the same guy, the results will be different. When you go to someone’s house and play their game of course they will shine. Push hands can give certain attributes that will enhance a clinch game but they certainly won’t make one…
Still can't handle that Tai chi is not a fake martial art. Put a sumo wrestler same size and weight as Nicco. Nicco will beat him. Bet my bottom dollar.
As a matters fact if you watch the video "world series Tai chi push hands match 2022- orange county" you',ll see Nicco go up against a practitioner who was about five foot six and three hundred pounds. He used sumo on other opponents and won. Nicco push him with one arm and sent him sliding on his ass. Skip to 4:00 on the video and you'll see.
@@alexisdominguez3133 Go " watch world series push hands 2022 -orange county. Skip to 5:05 near the end. The bjj grappling event referee tested him off the elevated pads and tried to tackle him. Same resullts . Nicco underhooked his arms and toppled him over.
![State of Play | September 24, 2024 [ENGLISH]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fVs0suPHAX8/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for the share! To address alot of the comments... I agree Push Hands alone will get you destroyed in a fight, you'd get your face punched and slammed on your face if you only do push hands haha but the purpose of push hands is to increase sensitivity, redirection, staying calm and developing good root and balance. This way of training is the long path, meaning learning this isn't advised if you want to fight right away or be aggressive. It's designed to build the skill sets you need to grapple without becoming to tense or confused with all the movement... It's a way to deeply embedd these skills because the forms are done slow and low and practiced constantly.
I remember being taken to a jujitsu school with black belts and brown belts and no one could take me down, at that point I didn't know what else to do besides defend against takedowns which was neat I had the root and sensitivity to stop them. Since then I've been incorporating jujitsu/grappling. Its super important to understand that Taiji principles will give you the keys to adapt and flow within any format but also super important to understand you have to train other systems that solely focus fighting and combat if you wish to actually use Tai Chi to fight or grapple! Thanks everyone! 👍🏿👍🏿❣️
Very true, very excellent and I'm glad to see this on a channel that actually gets views.
Most people don't understand that pushing hands is a cooperative exercise in fact. In this video, good to see the mma fighters having taken this spirit (how come, surprised here?). The aim is to practise listening skill and adapt as quickly as possible. I would argue that the aim of pushing hands is to lose in fact (exaggerating here, I just want to stress that you learn more by losing), because we need to give ourselves a higher standard each time and accept our mistakes (losing)
@@QuentinKLEau Well, any rule set is "cooperative" in a sense -- the degree to which push hands is cooperative depends on how you play it.
@@matthewmele764 Yes and no. The rule set should be made to work on a taiji principle. Perfect pushing hands is very difficult, that's why if you are engaging with the desire of winning, 99.99% of the time you are working on no taiji principle, that's why pushing hands competition for winning is not really meaningful.
_"I remember being taken to a jujitsu school with black belts and brown belts and no one could take me down ..."_
BJJ? Under what rules?
I am a push hands instructor and taught at a MMA school. I taught my students push hands to add to their ju-jitsu training. The kids that combined ju-jitsu and push hands repeatedly won placed top 3 in the ju-jitsu tournaments. You learn from whatever works even if it is called shit, That is want my former instructor Lu Ping Zhang use to tell me.
Bro please teach me
Good centering. Noticed how he just sunk straight down and grounded? Well done. All things have their place
no they don't! you have to wristlock everything ;)
Thank you! I worked a lot on my root!
No doubt the most impresive display of tai-chi grappling I have seen!
Much appreciated! I have trained a lot to remain relaxed and redirect force!
Very good but there's others. See the videos" Tai chi vs.wrestling( maybe Greco Roman angle 1 shadow xu" and Tai vs.freestyle Wrestling 2 shadow xu ".
Great demo! I love how Nico has mastered his footwork, perfecting his stances and showing the importance of controlling your center mass, which is basic physics.
Thank you!!! I did a lot of root practice and relaxation under pressure!!!
@@sifuniko hahaha i know your secret brother....but i will not say on here hehe
This is incredibly interesting. I never really took tai chi seriously, but it's undeniable that it has some usefulness in the clinch.
Oh you can pratice pam in Muay Thai.
@@jehutymortis6603 who's pam?
@@squirrelbong Clinch. Wrestling without attack on leg. Like the grco-roman style but with elbow and knee.
What is the use then? I have never seen fight situation where you cannot move your legs.
@@user255 conserving energy, redirecting force, balance, strength training, sensitivity ... the list goes on. But really it's a training drill. Anyone who wants to compete in MMA needs to train MMA
Nico definitely the guy who stands in the moving bus without support.
🤣 oh man, I love this comment. That is the goal of my life 🤣
Jason, Jan, and Shifu Nico's accounts are in the video description. I texted Lainel to see if he has a channel that he wants me to share. Extended version on TheDojo that I'm uploading now too. Talk to you guys soon, you beautiful chi masters with 8 black belts and sixteen registered underground matches XDDD
Thanks for posting this Jerry! Great times and great commentary.
I’ve been in tai chi 5 years now, 31 y.o. My instructor in his 70’s lets 3 of us push on him and doesn’t budge. Glad to hear you coming around a bit to the subject. BTW mma guy footpads are sliding because he is not dropping his weight correctly. He is pushing forward instead of dropping down. Extremely difficult after 5 years I can take hardly any push at all
please share a little bit of technical details with me, what i am doing is calmly dropping, using the force of the surface of a balloon around me and grounding and feeling their force and countering. should i be doing something with my breath? is there something specific you do with your arms? i use half clinch on my right arm and overhook to control their neck cause i am trying to bring this into more of a wrestling environment
Push hands alone will not make someone a great fighter, there's a reason why it's supposed to be an exercise rather than the whole point of training something like tai chi, but being as skilled as Nico is at it is very impressive.
Much appreciated!!!
Man that was really cool. So rare to see actual applications of Tai chi
What application tho? This is the drill, not the application.
I appreciate it!
A fantastic video. I teach Wing Chun and practice Tai Chi but have also spent years boxing/kickboxing and grappling. Wing Chun and Tai Chi are not perfect combat styles, more ways of training the body "internally" that can be used in other styles. If you watch Nico move, he has a superb understanding of his own center of equilibrium and has extremely well developed sensitivity. This means he can perceive imbalance in his opponent before they can, and then use extremely soft energy to further disrupt it. This feels very weird to the opponent because Nico doesn't appear to be doing much, and the more they try, the more unbalanced they become. His opponents feel almost nothing when they try to push/pull, because Nico can disguise his center of equilibrium at will. It takes a long time to get good at this, but the effects are well worth it.
Yea i think few here understood what u said
I've actually seen this done to a good judo guy in a takedown contest in the kungfu school I used to go to. It's a real ability.Hope to see ore.
WTF is this crap? Anybody can do this with a bit of practice. Its a skill that you can learn without practicing that ridiculous form or any chi gung bullshido. Beating guys that haven't practiced this, doesn't prove anything.
Thanks for introducing me to Sifu Niko - what a dude!
I've noticed something interesting when Nico begins every round, he finds his own center of gravity or bends his knees to stabilize himself and can easily redirect any energy coming his way, or that's what it seems like to me.
Tai chi is entirely about centering yourself and rooting to the ground. With this and Correct posture and using your entire body simultaneously(picture like a snake) generates fulcom leverage that can’t be replicated by muscle. I love this stuff
Yes! You've got it!
@@cz4138 I LOVE THIS TOO! Dedicated a life time to this!
Beautifull skill Nico has there, if he were to add striking and actual grappling into that ability to recognize where the force of his oponent is going and what to do with it, and it would be a very usefull tool for fighting.
Thank you! I practice jujitsu and spar quite often! Using Tai Chi has helped my sensitivity and ability to flow and move!
Yes I agree, it help me alot conserving energy doing takedowns when I was competing in Sanda.
Niko has been using these pads and knows how to balance himself on those pads from just training on them. If you practice with a tool you get better at it. Nothing special.
WOAH! okay I'm impressed, there's some serious efficacy here. I'd take some classes from this guy :o
Great showcase of the missing ingredient in most MMA bouts. MMA gyms don't spend enough time on the kind of sensitivity development you get from tai chi or wing chun. You see good sensitivity from wrestlers and jiu jitsu experts on the ground, but it feels like they forget about it on the feet, habitually pushing and pulling too much when entering and exiting clinch because their opponents don't know how to capitalize on subtle mistakes.
I'd like to see how the tai chi guy would do in an actual grappling match ;)
@@uros2321 the result would be a tap out as usual
@@uros2321 Not very well, because they don't really focus on the important stuff.
@@uros2321 I'll bet he would not do well, unless he has trained some wrestling, muay thai, jiu jitsu, or perhaps some judo. Tai Chi and Wing Chun tend to under-emphasize full-contact application so even most masters would probably get rag-dolled in the octagon. But train someone with a full modern MMA arsenal, and then train them on an hour-per-day of push hands or chi sao, and you'd definitely see them pulling off some wild moves we've never seen in the UFC. It would change the game during transitions into and out of clinch.
@@gharm9129 Enough content is left even in the current ruleset for any effective martial art to succeed in MMA. Many types of Karate have done just fine in MMA, do you not count that? If you train to apply and spar, you'll be successful
I like this concept, it looks like a fun thing to do.
An ancient wrestling art that can function even in unstable grounds and environments really good for selfdefense.
I can't help but think what an amazing supplement sumo training would be for this type of push hands.
Out of the five matches Nicco had at this tournament, the second to last bout he had was against a competitor using sumo. The man was about 5'6 300 lbs and won his other two matches. Nicco beat him 15-0 and also palm pushed him in thei mid section and sent him sliding ten feet. On his butt. It's more like Tai chi would be an excellent supplement for sumo.
@@charlesbetancourt7337
I bet you anything that Nico is a dancer. His movement, the jerky, rhythmic bobbing and swaying he is doing looks so much to me like those awesome dance videos you see on RUclips front page all the time. It looks very hip-hop influenced and is basically the epitome of "be like water". In a lot of ways, his movement also reminds me of those videos of birds keeping their head totally stable to spot prey while their body is bobbing all over the place, or those videos of the little birds dancing on the ground (to lure out prey) while their head stays stationary. It looks so natural when shown this way. He has such masterful control of his body and balance.
I followed my friends to a Tai Chi class, in college, as an above average-ish wrestler, out of high school. I handled the instructor's students fine (though two advanced ones I never got a piece of have me wondering). But the instructor himself had a background in a couple martial arts, and I was more helpless against him, than I even remembered being, getting thrashed by state champions. So I figured I'd listen.
I ended up really liking what he added to my game. He has me looking for Greco-type slams more, if I'm ever in a fight, and I've brought home a lot of push hand medals, over the years. I still study with him, to this day, and I have a friend who joined a little after, pairing it with his Brazilian jiu-jitsu, who I've been meeting up with all the time to throw down, over the past 10-or-eleven years.
That was cool. Those foot pads are weird though, and I'd like to see more free stepping push hands. Too many people think that fixed step is all that push hands is, when really fixed step is simpler and safer so it's ideal for beginners but it's inherently pretty limited. With free stepping it's a lot easier for someone to get thrown, whether accidentally or on purpose. MMA guys might even do better with free stepping because it more resembles the grappling they're used to, so if the tai chi guy could still win it'd mean a lot. Just a thought
ruclips.net/video/B16EDbq8PqY/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/VNXnxCpjUNM/видео.html
That depends what you’re trying to develop. The late Cheng Man Ching used to have his students push hands with one of them backed up with one heel touching a wall. That develops a skill like shown here that you might otherwise not develop if you rely too much on stepping away.
See the video " Tai chi vs. wrestling maybe Greco Roman angle 1 shadow xu".
@@h.s.levine2932 yeah, that's a useful skill, so long as it's not a substitute for also learning how to do it with free stepping. If you can only win when your opponent doesn't move their feet, you're not really training to fight; but if you can win without moving YOUR feet, while your opponent is free to move freely, then that's great.
That was a beautiful display of skill!! And respect between competitors! Thank you very much for sharing
Thanks a ton!
I think there's skills you can develop in push hands that would definitely carry over to other aspects of martial arts. If Tai Chi focused more on unrehearsed, live drills like this, it may have a better rep. Not to mention that outside fighting, this just looks fun in its own right.
Def! I do jujitsu and spar quite often with Tai Chi principle! It is super helpful!
One day when you're 50 and walk with a limp for the last 30 years of your life from wrestling injuries, you'll understand why people do Tai Chi forms.
Bruce lee had a saying used by Dan Inosanto, along the lines of, "Don't box with a boxer, don't kick with a kicker, don't wrestle with a wrestler." Relatedly, he also said something like, "There's a range at which boxing will counter Taekwondo; a range at which Wing Chun will counter boxing; a range at which Tai Chi will counter Wing Chun; a range at which wrestling will counter Tai Chi."
Yeah, but this isn't a full on Taichi/wrestling fight. This is literally a Taichi drill lmao, how can somebody expect the other guys to use their BJJ or wrestling here.
It's like trying to use boxing while doing the Wing Chun chi sao (sticky hands) drill, the rules of the drill go against your boxing techniques lol.
@@jestfullgremblim8002 True dat. It's like RUclips challenges with crossfitters vs marines or gymnasts vs bodybuilders or whatever. The person whose discipline is on display is gonna win. So Tai Chi vs MMA in a free sparring match? I know who I'D bet on, lol.
I would love to try this type of comp. Awesome vid.
It is def a great time and good way to train sensitivity, balance and root!
The general idea is to relax and stretch the spine downwards. This lowers your center of gravity without bending too much. Eventually your whole body can be lowered into the ground without changing elevation. This type of coordination takes practice. The hard part is figuring out the stretch of the arms with the stretch of the spine. The shoulder is where the body holds the most tension.
I wanna copy paste this everywhere. It's very understandable.
I noticed that
Does Nico also competes in tuishou? I want to see more of his grappling ability
It’s been years now, but I’ve never seen such risers used for Push Hands. Back in the 80’s there was Push Hands 🙌 Tournaments in the Great Bear Flag Republic of California. It’s was mostly though the Yang Family T'ai Chi Ch'üan, out of The City (San Francisco)
the foot pads actually look very useful for training! can you tell me where to get them?
I made them by hand for this event, but now you've given me an idea to sell them.
Great breakdown, history in the making!
Thats the plan, I want to show people true Tai Chi!
The steps look like something you would put under heavy furniture to slide and move easier.
Ok, I see a lot of comments asking what the point is. In fact, there is theory that Tai Chi Tuishou is NOT a grappling technique, but rather for armed fight, especially when you are equipped with a sword and a shield. In other words, it's simulating the situation of ancient battlefield where soldiers attack in formations. You either use the sword to thrust/cut directly, or you use the shield to push your enemy down to the ground so that they are more vulnerable. That's why you are not allowed to grasp (using fingers) your opponent in Tuishou, because your hands are assumed to be occupied.
@PJ Rivera Indeed! And don't forget the fighting in formation part. It explains why most of these traditional styles have such stupid and clumsy footwork: it's unlikely to move around as freely as a modern boxer in the middle of a phalanx formation!
@@shizheliang2679 Great explanation and something to think about. When you think about stuff like Xing-Yi or BaJi, their footwork makes a lot more sense if you imagine ranks of troops moving in those static lines.
@@shizheliang2679 For Boxing footwork, look at old videos and Pancho Villa. Before Pancho Villa introduced a lot of footwork from Filipino Martial Arts, a lot of it was very flat footed. Greats like Muhammad Ali highly esteemed Pancho Villa and dominated his weight division using similar footwork. In other words, even modern Boxing was highly influenced by TMA to a good extent. Just look at the footwork of old videos before Pancho Villa. Very few fought like him.
This was so nice to see. Thank you for posting.
Now that was super interesting!
Finally, this is proper Taijiquan, there is the structure, the suppleness, the form, explosiveness, all is there! If this is the first time you see it, well I am glad you discovered it, because now we can finally move on bullshido crap videos to more serious directions of refining movement, different kind of skillset, and most of all how to make it applicable. It's about time to stop bashing Taijiquan in general but search about those people who really represent the art. I 'll give you two hints. Tim Cartmel. Strider Clark.
Reading through the comments I see there are still a lot of negative/ignorant things said about this video, tai chi & the tai chi guy . If it wasn’t for TMA you wouldn’t have MMA
The brainwashed by MMA promotors & media
Duh! Because everything was invented in the West. 🙄 China sucks! 😈
Tai Chi isn't used in MMA so you're talking nonsense
@@mrt445 if it wasn’t for the traditional martial arts there would be no mma
Karate, Kung fu , tae kwon do , boxing ,judo, wrestling, tai-chi , bjj , aikido & so on .
@@bobafatt2155 traditional technical martial arts didn't create boxing or wrestling. Not to mention that kungfu isn't even effective as a martial art.
Why don’t you do the throat singing intros no more man that was golden please bring em back👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👌🏻👆👆
Nico was born and raised by a Tai Chi master. He lives it all day every day.
His dad is his coach?
Super interesting. I would love to see how it translates to actual fighting
If we had been fighting on a rooftop or a ledge or a dock Niko would have killed us all.
@@WSOJJ lol
So basically in 0.001% of situations this man is a god
It doesn’t , a collegiate level wrestler would smash this tai chi guy
@@bougeac But a bjj black belt can't?
He's balancing and locking from the hips down which mixed martial arts doesn't really emphasize. They mainly focus on balancing from the feet which is great when you are moving round but completely different when the whole point is staying still so you have to lock from the hips down and keep the top half fluid.
Can you explain what you mean by locking from the hips up?
@@tonbonthemon meant locking from the hips down.
@@SThrillz Sorry, my typo. Still wondering if you could explain that.
@@tonbonthemon like what happens when you sit, rather than split the pressure between your feet it goes straight down into your hips, if you train after a while you can actually feel in your hips there are points where it's locks depending on your positioning.
@@SThrillz Do you mean stiffening in the hips? Edit: it doesn't seem possible to remove the weight from the feet like when sitting.
If you combine this kind of sensitivity with wrestling, I can definitely imagine that this can work.
This is cool. I would suggest during striking instead of pushing then you can see wingchung work here
Thanks. I always considered you fair and honest, but was disappointed that all of the videos, of yours, that I saw, which had tai chi, only had bad tai chi. Although this master might not be able to fight, at least he can use real tai chi skills in push hands. Thank you again
7:01 that’s scapular movement also emphasized in aikido and aikijujutsu where you move your scapulas in a circular fashion in order to draw a lot of power without moving the upper body nor the hips. It is explained in this video, ruclips.net/video/t0HPf02nsFI/видео.html , at 6:07. It’s a deceptively strong force.
That scapular movement in tai chi is generated from the ground and steered by the hips. Body must work in unison while relaxed or you end up in this guys RUclips videos getting made fun of for trying tai chi lol
@@cz4138 a
There's a lot going on in Tai Chi. Nico has a good root and is relaxed. Then comes the power and direction. Is this from Brazil?
that is pretty cool. I was thinking about martial arts pretty cold and robotic mostly. like the faster you can overpower the opponent the better. tai chi seems like the opposite of my "rule" and it seems to shine in such competition.
Were there any weight classes? Wish I knew about this tournament earlier
No weight classes, but probably in the future there will be.
Push hands is an amazing skill, I've only done a year of it, but when I took up Judo, I could usually stop even the brown belts from throwing me. Not for practical self defense unless it's a shoving match though.
The way they push hands in the second exchange is the whole point of fixed step. You’re supposed to be loose and feel where the imbalance comes. It gives a massive advantage to when it comes to them actually wrestling (or fighting for that matter).
Nico pushing hands reminds me of one of my instructors from back in the 90’s (minus the dancing).
Really cool
As taichi fan and practitioners i happy and very excited to watch this kind of clip
this is super cool
Watching the MMA guy here I noticed that his feet are planted too far apart. That makes him easier to knock off the pads.
Gods be good that pratfall i almost spat my coffee
Wimg chun has helped me immensly with grappling the push hands drills helped me develop sensitivity gor the clich and pummel for underhooks and going for armdrags
it's interesting to see how only body mechanics is playing a big role, specially against the 2nd guy on white pants. straight forwarded hips X angle ones. straight force wins easyly - Nico's body structure is favouring put opponent out of balance....Jason's body is in disvantage/ out of good alignment just when he touches.
jeder Kampf der vermieden wird, ist ein gewonnener!!!
I’d like you to stop by n check out viper jkd it’s super heavy hitting and Snake Crane interception WING CHUN 🤘🏻
I think it would be interesting to see a contest against a seasoned Nak Muay, especially against a Muay Femeu or Muay Kao with a proper understanding of balance and center of gravity.
There's a video. " Push hands world champion Cheng Chi Cheng vs.muaythai champion Ian Morgan Jan Lucanis sport push hands Tai chi. Check it out.
I admire these type of fight. When Boxing/Kickboxing/MMA fighter match with chinese kung fu, they often fight in the ring, with Boxing/Kickboxing/MMA rules. Fighting should also be done using chinese kung fu rules. Fixed Step Pushing hand is certainly one of these fighting rule.
Hey man love your stuff but could you point out fighters by their clothes or at the time in the scene pause and say the guy on the right and the guy the left is in this colour etc
man, tai chi is hard!
Oh my that ankle pick is crying out. Why didn't the BJJ guys level change?
I think this is a bit like arm wrestling. The nuances of placement when setting up is everything.
My tau chi teacher asked me to bring four 6×12×16 inch blocks
We used these at all orientations.
When up at the 16 inch height extra muscle wasn't always the winner.
who is Nico's Sifu?
He's here: ruclips.net/channel/UCBwTBZm7-vqz0pUOGkekgTQ
is it me or the black step have more grip....
Push hands as competition is like barstool racing.
You can do it, but it’s really not the point of the practice.
Push hands is a training method, not created for competition.
This Nico is using the real tai chi. If he has learned it by oneself or from an actual master. What he has achieved is daily practice and meditation. From elderly masters you wouldn't even notice if they were using tai chi. You can actually see Nico not trying to overpower his opponent, but use the energy that they are applying against them. When it came to the second guy who is taller, notice that Nico was leaning towards him. He was already in position to knock him off balance ⚖️. All he needed was to feel the energy move and he could manipulate that energy in any direction.
Nicco first learned Tai chi from his father, who learned it from yang style Tai chi master Aun Jun.
@@charlesbetancourt7337 ah yang style
best video ❤
This is a great introduction to taijiquan. However in terms of techniques this is still surface level in the fact that there are strikes from all parts of the body, single legs, double legs and arm drags.
Def that's why I do jujitsu and blend them together seamlessly!
@@sifuniko Nice combination! I find those two to be very similar!
@@sifuniko What belt. rank do you have in jiu juitsu?
this tai chi guy is really good ,for once
No he’s not
@@bougeac why do you say that?
I will keep practicing!
This doesn't translate to anything else. Sorry, not sorry. Being good at push hands does not mean effective grappling or striking skill, it's just being good at push hands.
wow...it's almost like you can overpower a smaller guy with your bigger stature...
the second guy wasn't anchoring himself to the ground, if he does + lean forward he wouldn't be able to be pushed around like rhat
See all 5 matches that he had at this. event. There were guys bigger than him and he still beat them 15-0.
Systema has its own way of push-hands, too. It's really something. I couldn't get anything on my teacher.........ever. ha :)
true taichi
Get Josh Waitzkin in here
Please show me some links! I'll check it out!
@@FightCommentary ruclips.net/video/leuf-5pZaaw/видео.html
This is video of him winning the 2004 Tai Chi World Cup. He also trains BJJ With Marcello Garcia, arguably one of the greatest BJJ practitioners alive today. He was a chess prodigy as a child, and wrote a fantastic book on his transitions between these disciplines called "The Art of Learning". There are some fantastic long form podcast talks with him & Tim Ferriss that are excellent to get an impression of his methods as well.
@@FightCommentary not much links, this guy is pretty famous. He's a BJJ black belt under Marcelo Garcia, also was a Tai Chi push hands world champion. Not to mention an Internation Master in chess. He was the inspiration for the movie "searching for bobby fischer"
good clips with him and tim ferriss
Better yet let Xu Xiadong try him at this since he's a nonbeliever.
Next demonstration : free sparring on wobble pole field ))
It's a competition not a demo.
What other Martial Arts or combat sports does Nico do? Does he have any fights under his belt? I'm just asking myself about the practical applications because this looked amazing.
@@Jenjak Cool, thanks. So he does other stuff, too. That's so cool.
L love it
What is this??
R we going to hold each other's hands before a real fight?
What are you comparing this style with???
Maybe dancing???
It's a competition based an exercise for energy reading and sensitivity. Is a mugger gonna skip rope or hit a speed bal instead of attacking you? Think creative.
There have been a couple of tight ends in the NFL who had serious wrestling chops. It was blatant when tackles were being attempted and they lowered their hips and used force of the tackler to shed the hit. Many people wondered how they could keep going when standard football wisdom said they should go down. Instinctive (and trained) balance wedded with technique allowed the TEs to stay on their feet.
@@youtubeuser206 I do appreciate a slim waisted lady. Thanks for asking.
Niko is much way more realistic and greater than 王戰軍 or 王占海
These are theatrics. Let them start with hands to the sides and the results would differ. Same way if a Wing chun guy and a wrestler had to chi sao.
See the video " Tai chi vs. wrestling ( maybe Greco Roman) angle 1 shadow xu".
Awesome, though I think the Tai Chi guy was clowning around.
Ok now let’s see how tai chi guy does against mma guy in bjj or mma match and not on some dumb blocks
It's somewhere impressive but can he also dodge a punch or two or take a few lowkicks?
pick on someone your own size
Out of the five matches niccos had on this competition, three opponents were heavier than him
Including one who tried sumo and still losed 15-0. Which proves Tai chi is not a FAKE martial art.
胖子脚下有根，腰肩胯都松开了，身体的整体性非常好！难得一见。对于没有中华文化的异族人来说，能练到这个水平，已经非常优秀了！
请发一些链接。给我分享一些有中国文化的大师。
First comment
bruh
Pretty sure we can use that balancing skill in MMA. This is what MMA should be about.
Tai chi will make you better at everything you do if you put time in, guaranteed
@@cz4138 Nice! Will it make me better at doing the Gogoplata like Nick Diaz?
@@ArmadusMalaysia If you watch the video showing the whole tournament.Nicco shows the bjj referee how Tai chi can be used in ground grappling. You could skip to the near very end of the video. It's " world series push hands 2022- orange county.
This proves what?
That Tai chi is NOT a fake martial art.
Dudes bigger and heavier than the other. Course, head to head, he's going to win. Plus little guy looks TOTALLY out of his element...just saying.
Out of the 5 bouts he had in this competition 3 of niccos opponents were heavier than him. He still beat them 15-0.
No you have not this is low quality grappling
A boxer will beat a muay thai guy in boxing, a taekwondo guy will beat a wing chun guy at taekwondo, a thai chi fighter will beat an mma fighter at... a "the floor is lava" competition
@@kevinsargent shout out to Lawrence Kenshin.
Tai chi also beat MMA fighters in moving step competition. In other words a takedown contest where you could move around on the floor.
Nonsensical, it’s just a tai chi specific drill. It’s like a beginner doing chi sao with an experienced teacher, you can’t fight people with drills. It’s like one boxer saying to another “I’m better at skipping than you therefore I can beat you in a fight”. Let’s see the tai chi guy just do regular clinch sparring with the same guy, the results will be different. When you go to someone’s house and play their game of course they will shine. Push hands can give certain attributes that will enhance a clinch game but they certainly won’t make one…
Just for starters see the video " Tai chi beat down Chen style Tai chi fight commentary analysis"
@@charlesbetancourt7337 How that differs from judo?
The last one is the guy you see in the matches I mentioned.
@@user255 For starters " kao" or shoulder strike. You rarely if ever see that in judo. The commentator explained it.
@@charlesbetancourt7337 Shoulder strike is different thing, that is shoulder push and it is common in wrestling.
push hands won't stop you getting punched in the face.
Feel insecure?😭
Like sumo but worse
Still can't handle that Tai chi is not a fake martial art. Put a sumo wrestler same size and weight as Nicco. Nicco will beat him. Bet my bottom dollar.
@@charlesbetancourt7337 the floor is lava.
As a matters fact if you watch the video "world series Tai chi push hands match 2022- orange county" you',ll see Nicco go up against a practitioner who was about five foot six and three hundred pounds. He used sumo on other opponents and won. Nicco push him with one arm and sent him sliding on his ass. Skip to 4:00 on the video and you'll see.
@@charlesbetancourt7337 world champion of the floor is lava.👍🤣
@@alexisdominguez3133 Go " watch world series push hands 2022 -orange county. Skip to 5:05 near the end. The bjj grappling event referee tested him off the elevated pads and tried to tackle him. Same resullts . Nicco underhooked his arms and toppled him over.