Jan Childress vs. Timothy Hwang

This video came up in another thread, but I have been totally obsessing over it so I decided to put it in its own thread and let other people obsess with me.

http://youtu.be/InDLB1-o9mI

Seems to me Childress is totally owned in this contents. The notes say he has just gone up a weight class, so props to him for that, and he stays on his feet, which is a feat in itself. But, IMHO, he's totally outclassed by Hwang and for reasons that I think a bunch of people around here may recognize.

Things that stand out for me:

1:13 - Childress continually returns to this Judo-like position of hanging on his opponent--maybe okay if you're thinking 4-legged animal, but Hwang never does this -- he's always, as he is here, dead upright.

0:39 - Hwang a couple of times absorbs Childress' push with his upper body without ever losing his balance backwards--even when, as here, he has to hop a step backwards Childress can't follow up on it.

3:06 -- Look at how Hwang moves here--mostly you can't see it, but at this point he's moving directly away from the camera and you can see how he stays rooted with a bowed lower body.

3:22 - And just for fun, look at this. The first push, you can see how he uses his whole body as a whip--the second push, it's easy to miss because he hardly seems to move, but Childress goes flying.

Seriously cool stuff, IMO. What do 'yall see?

Timothy Hwang is truly a great tai Chi and Baji athlete.
His father asked me if I would be his push hands partner two years ago.

I wished I was 30 years younger. I would have gone for it. His father taught him well.
He was recently promoted to brown belt in Judo because he won black belt level competitions at a major Shiai in NY and at the Arnold Classic in Columbus, OH.

He is subtle and proves that good posture and relaxation makes one's art very efficient. He is also young and know he is still using too much strength. And he is humble about it.

Truly a rising star.

I'm not even sure outclassed is a strong enough term. They're doing completely different things out there.

The way Childress hangs on him, he's giving Hwang 4-legged animal any time he wants it and Hwang is toying with him.

You mention him absorbing the push and never get his balance pushed backwards. There are times that he just doesn't move, takes the push right to his feet and times when Hwang will let his shoulders get pushed back behind his center to absorb/deflect the force without giving Childress anything to connect to his center, pretty cool. More cool are the times where he actively uses the stretch from that push to come back in on Childress and uproot him, push him back, etc, like one of those pull-and-go toy cars.

Dr. Shie Ming Hwang uses two primary solo exercise drills to develop this skill.

1) standing in cat stance (90-98 % of weight on rear leg) and rotating the waist from side to side (knees and head remain forward facing). The arms swing relaxed at eye and shoulder level (resembling Yang style posture called "single whip".

2) standing in cat stance (90-98 % of weight on rear leg) and arching the waist to the rear(knees and hips remain forward).

Both of these drills burn the rear leg's quadriceps immensely as you relax (weight underside) causing your skeletal frame to sink and rise.

Then you do the same with non-resistive push hands patterns with a partner to build flow.

Then you allow the partner to push at will without pattern.