The Art of Effortless Power: Peter Ralston Push Hands in Jasnieres
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- Опубликовано: 15 фев 2010
- www.ChengHsin.com
Peter Ralston plays some push hands at the gathering of T'ai Chi practitioners in Jasnieres, France. He is playing with Rob van Ham of Holland. You are invited to notice the relaxed, fluid motions of the two players. 
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I took classes at Peter's studio in Berkeley in '91. I have very fond memories of 6 months in Northern California, looking for interesting outlets that were not around in the Northeast, which is where I'm from. The most memorable thing was a private lesson with Peter and meeting THE Peter Ralston was something I think about still, all these decades later. I last saw Peter at his ranch in Texas like 13 years ago. Cheng Hsin is THE coolest thing out there, although I remember when he was teaching the compression punch, at my first class, my first thought was, wow, who's gonna pay money to learn this? And the reason WHY I thought that was because it's the opposite of what a young surly 21 year old, who would want to start trouble or worse, would ever put any time into learning. His art takes a certain type of person and that's the type of person you want to be, interestingly. He's still teaching. People should be there, because aikido class and karate are great, but you might as well be in a shack, arm wrestling, if you can still learn from Peter.
I studied with Peter at the Telegraph school from 1993-95. Changed the very course of my life. There aren't many people alive today who are true embodiments of a Master, and I know of no other individual alive today who's even remotely close to the realm Peter inhabits. Namaste Peter.
My teacher studied with Peter and the one time she humored me and let me do this with her she stepped between my feet, did that elbow grab and just put me on ground like that. It was SO COOL
Really, very nice!
Thanks for posting.
Im enjoying reading all these different comments and points of view. Having read The Art of Effortless Power a lot of the comments reveal how we perceive our experience and leverage off that to deal with whats occurring. Our perceptions on what we think of as a "real life situation" or how to "win" have a negative impact on how we deal with whats actually happening and therefore are responsible for inappropriate action in the moment. Personally I have found that watching a lot of RUclips videos on martial arts also has a negative influence on us because we use that as a goal for what our actions ought to appear like in our self perceived "real life" situation. All in all any perception of the future or technique in our mind will hinder our development in the present moment and therefore our actions wont be appropriate to whats occurring.
Stop and think about it...how often do you try and do a technique in the moment that ends up feeling you used all your strength to do so? Thats an example of how we try to project ourselves a little too far into the future and in the meantime forget about what the other person is trying to tell us. This all happens so fast and so often that its not easy to perceive and very difficult to change in the process.
Dont worry Peter, I gotcha back mate ;)
although i know nothing of martial arts i can say that i cried watching this.
Nice energy, continuous waves of relaxation.."sung.." heng hao
lol he keeps his hat on.
Good stuff.
They seem like separate entities. But clearly they are not.
Very interesting balance, looseness and sensitivity. Appears somewhat similar to John Perkins' Guided Chaos but without the hitting. Would love to work out with some Cheng Hsin practitioners. Any in the NYC metro area?
@danielskipp1 my comment was not so much meant to be arrogant, more as something to think about of how to provide more info te the viewer on what he is actually watching. Cause clearly we aren't all insiders who immediately grasp the greater meaning behind this elegant display ^ ^ I do understand you now. I still don't think that my comment was that provoking though. Nevertheless have a Merry Christmas ^ ^
there's a very interesting shift in peter in the middle
at 4:57 rob looks at peter and peter looks down. this obviously bothered peter since it's a very closed and unopen reaction to someone looking at you which is the opposite emotions of freedom and joy, at least that's how i would feel if myself had reacted the same way.
so he looks straight back up but realizes immediately it's not the appropriate solution
to me the next thing he does is the biggest tell to this shift, he looks away
after a few a seconds his face suddenly wears the feeling of clarity and subtle joy as he probably realized what's bothering him and figures out how to let go 5:10. he even smirks a bit which i find awesome and hilarious
from that point onward peter is more like water flowing through,
as before he was more like air, gliding above it all, not reacting at all, free and gentle on his own
really a RADICAL change that happens in the span of just a few seconds.
very interesting to see these kind of changes that happen to us as humans.
have a good day
lol you sure you aren't overthinking things?
@@rasmus7400 I laughed my ass off , reading your comment
@korndollmind What you are watching is effortless power. Might seem contra intuitive, but the better you are at soft touch and barely moving the opponent, the more intense you can be. You see an example every now and then, he does a very small movement and the guy is moved very quickly. Just a little more and something would break or he would go flying, more likely flying as the true art it to keep the whole body involved in the attack, not just a part that might break.
wow Peter looks really youthful in this clip.
Who is the guy pushing hands with peter ,is it one of his students?
@danielskipp1 the way you say: "i bet you do better" makes me already not see the point in even replying. It means you're probably a kid or either an adult with an immature way of thinking. An adult is supposed to value critisism and evaluate it, not get all emotional by it. However i simply commented on the video, commented on what i saw and gave a respectful opinion to that. I didn't do research on this man neither do i have the intention of doing further research. Anyway, have a nice day.
Peter would be great in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
He actually had a black belt in it at 19
Well, Jiu jitsu. Maybe not "Brazilian"
I would think more aggressive would be too easy, here we see soft which is harder to tune into like the old Tai Chi story of the bird trying to take flight off the masters finger but couldnt because every time it tried to push off, the master yielded and neutralized its force. Same thing here, tuning into the subtle energy. Explosive energy is too easy to see and feel.
The guy on the left is not bad at what he does. However i would've loved to see a more agressive opponent on the right. Nice display though.
@korndollmind
Hahahaha! LOL! Yeah... he's "not bad". No rules world champion decades ago but I bet you do better, eh? ;D
The reality is that only one of the two was more servient ..thus giving a false example .. equal play throughout the movements and the ability to experiment either through push, pull, submit or whatever..I didn't really see it..
You know, I actually liked his book. But this stuff will get you killed in real life. Sorry.
+Tracker Buckmann
You're right in that this is a training exercise. In my opinion the skill it can help develop would be very useful in sport or self defense (two very different things). Do you disagree?
mj137jm
I'm sorry, I disagree. I believe this exercise would be about as beneficial to preparing for a real life combat situation about as much as ballroom dancing lessons would.
I'm not trying to seem like some arrogant Internet expert. I've been shot, stabbed, beaten. It's not fun and games. The world is basically a piece of shit. This won't help.
+Tracker Buckmann Why are you sorry to disagree? You are entitled have your opinion as is every else. I am glad you compared this to ballroom dancing; it gives me at least a little idea of why you think this exercise is useless for self defense. I will start by saying this; the exercise shown here is nowhere near the best training for self defense, in my opinion, for many reasons. However for those with some understanding of criminal assaults and a bit of imagination it can be very useful.
This exercise is very different than ballroom dancing. For one thing in ball room dancing the partners are cooperating, so, they do not develop much tactile sensitivity. Another difference is in ball room dancing the posture is such that the center is held high, so, the balance is not good for self defense. If you hold you center high, in this exercise, against some one with a bit of skill, you will be in trouble. So this training helps develop good balance.
In addition, there is normally no striking in ballroom dancing, but, there are many hard to see strikes here. The first one that I see occurs around the 24 second mark. Ralston strikes the partners throat, with no power and then instantly turns it into a push. Slow the video down and watch is a few times. You'll see a lot.