Boulder Tai Chi Push Hands (Tui Shou) Practice Group

A weekly community gathering for internal martial arts practitioners in Boulder, Colorado and surrounding cities.

Join us Sundays at Scott Carpenter Park for free Tai Chi Push Hands (Tui Shou) in Boulder, and weekdays for indoor Taijiquan classes in Denver at the Staenberg-Loup Jewish Community Center. Serving surrounding cities like Longmont, Louisille, Lafayette, Arvada, Wheatridge, Westminster, Northglenn, Loveland, Fort Collins, Denver and more.

The Boulder Tai Chi Push Hands Group welcomes internal martial arts practitioners of all styles of Tai Chi, Baguazhang, Xingyiquan, as well as, other martial arts practitioners interested in two-man partner work. Weekly push hands/tui Shou practice develops balance, sensitivity, listening, rooting, structure, timing, and martial skill in a safe and cooperative environment.

This is a friendly non-competitive group of beginners and experienced push hands players that focus on improving their sensitivity and listening skills in Tai Chi push hands practice.

Tai Chi Push Hands practice group at Scott Carpenter Park in Boulder, Colorado

When and WhereWe meet on Sundays from         10:45 am til 12:30 pm                                  at           Scott Carpenter Park            1505 30th Street      Boulder, Colorado 80303
            Contact: Dr. Gray             970-443-4767 or             Call or text Miles at                 970-568-2727bouldertaichipushhandsgroup@gmail.com

There is no membership fee.

Dr. Gray will be returning to China from the 15th of July to the 29th of July, 2026.
Miles will be the contact person while Dr. Gray is in China. When able to attend the Sunday Push Hands Group in Boulder, Dr. Gray will stay after the group meets to teach Tai Chi Basics/Exercise and Tai Chi Stepping for anyone interested.
NOTE: PARKING ON SUNDAYS CAN BE DIFFICULT. THERE IS A HOME DEPOT JUST NORTH OF THE PARK ACROSS ARAPAHOE.YOU CAN PARK THERE IF THE SCOTT CARPENTER PARKING LOT IS FULL.
For any comunication issues call Dr. Gray or Miles at the numbers above.

How to dress: Loose casual clothing with flat sole shoes.
Most practitioners in the group just wear work out stuff.
Uniforms are not necesary but some practitioners enjoy dressing up in their favorite Chinese Tai Chi practice uniforms or t-shirts with Tai Chi logos.
The group will be meeting on the 19th and 26th of July!!!!!

What to Expect:

We are a non-competitive, cooperative group with practitioners mostly from the various internal martial arts, like Tai Chi, Bagua and Xingyi, but any and all martial arts practitioners are welcome.

Beginners are welcome.

Everybody loves teaching what they know to others who are wanting to learn and play.

Here are some of the things we work on during practice sessions
Single hand circular patternsBoth hands circular patternsFour corners with direction changes

Advanced Pattern Work

Fixed-Step Patterns: Standing still to isolate waist rotation and "kua" (hip) movement while circling.
Moving-Step Patterns: Coordinating the hands with footwork, including straight steps and cross-steps.
Large Roll-back (Da Lu): A four-corner exercise involving deeper stances and specific footwork to neutralize powerful pushes.
Silk Reeling (Chan Si Gong): Spiraling and twisting motions used to redirect force and

Free play

Foundational Energy Drills (The 4 Primary Gates)

These are the core movements found in most Yang and Wu style practices.

Peng (Ward-off): Testing structural integrity and "listening" to the opponent's center of gravity.
Lu (Roll-back): Learning to follow and yield to an incoming force without losing contact.
Ji (Press): Practicing the delivery of force through the limbs to penetrate the opponent's center.
An (Push/Settle): Directing force downward or forward with precision and light hands.

The Four Corner Energies

Cai (Pluck/Pull Down): A sudden, downward snapping motion used to break a partner's balance or uproot them. It’s like picking a fruit from a tree—quick and decisive.
Lie (Split): A simultaneous force in two opposite directions (like a pair of scissors). It is often used to unbalance a partner by moving their upper body one way and their lower body another.
Zhou (Elbow): Using the elbow as a striking or neutralizing surface. This is a "short-range" energy used when a partner gets too close for hand or palm techniques.
Kao (Shoulder/Body Strike): Using the shoulder or upper back to strike or displace a partner. This is the closest-range energy, used when you are "chest-to-chest" with an opponent.

Tai Chi Push Hands Videos

Tai Chi Push Hands Stepping

"Stepping" vs "Flower Stepping"

In many tai chi push hands circles, “flower stepping” (sometimes called hua bu, 花步, “flower step”) refers to footwork that is overly decorative, excessive, or disconnected from genuine listening and rooting. The term can be used both positively and negatively depending on the lineage and context.

The Negative Meaning: “Flowery” Movement

Most commonly, when teachers criticize “flower stepping,” they mean that a practitioner is:

Taking unnecessary steps to avoid pressure.
Dancing around instead of maintaining structure.
Using footwork to escape rather than neutralize.
Breaking contact whenever challenged.
Prioritizing appearance over function.

For example, in push hands, a student may continually circle, spin, or retreat to avoid being uprooted. They may look skillful because they never lose balance, but they are actually avoiding the moment when they would need to absorb and transform force.

A teacher might say:

“Don’t use flower stepping. Listen first.”

The criticism is that footwork is being used to compensate for a lack of Ting Jin (listening skill) and Hua Jin (neutralizing skill).

The Positive Meaning: Mobile Push Hands

In some traditions, “flower stepping” simply refers to moving-step push hands, where practitioners are free to walk, circle, and adjust position.

Here the stepping is not decorative but functional:

Maintaining advantageous angles.
Protecting the center.
Following changes in force.
Preserving root while mobile.
Creating opportunities for neutralization and issuing.

The feet move like petals opening and closing around a center, which may be where the imagery of “flower” originated.

Relationship to Ting Jin

A common progression is:

Fixed-step push hands develops sensitivity.
Moving-step push hands develops sensitivity while mobile.
Free push hands integrates sensitivity, stepping, and application.

If Ting Jin is weak, stepping tends to become evasive.

If Ting Jin is strong, stepping becomes economical and purposeful.

The best practitioners often take surprisingly few steps. They move only when movement is necessary.

Good Stepping vs. Flower Stepping

Good Stepping

Maintains root.
Preserves body connection.
Responds to actual force.
Improves position.
Keeps listening intact.

Flower Stepping

Reacts out of fear or anticipation.
Loses structure.
Creates unnecessary movement.
Breaks connection.
Hides weaknesses.

A useful test is:

Did the step arise because I genuinely felt a change through contact, or because I guessed trouble was coming?

The first develops push hands skill. The second often becomes a habit of avoidance.

The Advanced View

At higher levels, stepping itself becomes part of listening.

You are not merely sensing through the hands. You are sensing through the entire body:

The feet feel pressure changes through the floor.
The hips feel shifts in the partner’s center.
The body adjusts position before force fully develops.

At that stage, stepping and listening are no longer separate skills. The feet become another expression of Ting Jin.

A traditional principle is:

“The hands arrive because the body arrives; the body arrives because the feet arrive.”

In good push hands, the feet are not wandering independently. They move as a natural consequence of what the whole body is perceiving and doing. That is very different from “flower stepping” in the pejorative sense, where the feet are simply running away from pressure.

Dr. Gray would like to have the players focus on sensing pressure, listening skills (ting jin) and coordinating Tai Chi stepping with four hands and Dalu patterns while down playing the low level tussling that frequently occurs when push hands groups meet.

For a discussion of Tai Chi stepping vs "Flower Stepping' see the collapsible group above.

When Dr. Gray refers to "Flower Stepping" he is referring to it in a positive and optimistic way so that that practice incorporates proper listening and response to pressure while learning how to coordinate this with stepping. If you keep an open mind you will find that it is difficult and tedious but rewarding effort.

Interesting Note: Dr. Gray just got back from China and enjoyed working with multiple different groups, while frequenting the many parks in Guangzhou. Many groups in China, both those just doing dance routines and those practicing Tai Chi forms, often wear Tai Chi uniforms and group indentifying uniforms even when doing their daily practice. At least in southern China this is very common and seems to be a way of showing sincerity and respect to the teacher and others in the group. This is especially true when groups are practicing to give performances or compete in tournaments.
Another interesting difference in the group practices in China is that they frequently give performances and travel to compete. It seems like this greatly increases the intensity of daily practice by creating pressure to put in a lot of effort for improvement.
There is a high level of emphasis on structured coordination and cooperation with others in the group.
Synchronizing ones movements with others in the group is actually quite difficult but really rewarding when the group moves together like single organism.

Looking for Tai Chi classes? John Stephen Gray, MD, MPH teaches a weekly Tai Chi class at the Staen-Loup Jewish Community Center at 350 S. Dahlia Street, Denver, Colorado 80246. Dr. Gray is a longtime practitioner of Tai Chi and the internal martial arts. He is also a practicing physician, bringing four decades of professional experience to a relaxed, welcoming, and safety-conscious learning environment.

Page updated

Report abuse