Tai chi tuishou in self defence

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Tai chi Tuishou (Pushing hands) begins as a gentle and cooperative two-person dual pushing exercise. Over time, it can evolve to include all ranges of armed and unarmed combat.
In this video the student gets to experiment with striking ranges and techniques for hands. In some cases she uses and imaginary dagger. in others she uses fists. The pacing is cautious, but progressive and the structure is maintained to encourage a degree of realism without endangering either her or the teacher.
This type of training is not appropriate for everyone, and requires a degree of preparation.

Tuishou training begins as a gentle, close-contact pushing and neutralizing drill. It is a sophisticated and varied training exercise, including mid-range and close range drills, with fixed step, restricted step, moving step, and free stepping. There are dozens of drills with two hands, three hands and four hands, as well as freestyle tuishou. Then applications are added, including strikes, throws, take-downs, joint control and pressure point manipulation. Then weapon drills are added. But these are training exercises. In self defence, no one will challenge you to a training exercise. The skills developed in tuishou are intended to be applied in all ranges, in all contexts. Also, we should not expect punches to be predictable, or standard. The strikes are multiple and varied, and often change direction at least twice.