Yao brothers about Yiquan tui shou competitions

A conference commemorating great yiquan master - Yao Zongxun was organized by Beijing Yiquan Study Association of Beijing Wushu Association, with support of Hong Kong Yiquan Society, 30-31 March 2002 in Beijing. There were more than 500 participants. There came: president of Chinese Wushu Association - Li Jie, vice-president of Asian Wushu Federation and president of Hong Kong Wushu Association - Huo Zhenhuan (Ian Fok), director of Beijing Wushu Institute - Wu Bin, secreteary of Beijing Wushu Association - Mao Xinjian and old master from Beijing wushu circles. The conference embodied the spirit of scientific attitude and was pronounced a success.


During this conference experimental yiquan tui shou competition was organized. We could say about some success in this regard, but at the same time many were revealed. Now, a few months after the competition, we want to point them out:

• yiquan tui shou competitions need to have yiquan contents and characteristics,
• the competitors need to work hard on developing lacking skills, using them in appriopriate way within the accepted competition rules,
• to guarantee high level of yiquan tui shou competitions, the participating organizations should choose two best competitors in each category by the way of inside school/organization competition, and only they could participate in higher level tournaments,

Several points need to be taken into account:

• the competitors need to have serious yiquan basics, so they can use the tui shou skills in competition, and not just push and pull, they need to be able to use methods and principles characteristic for yiquan in confrontational situation,
• competitors with good fitness level, good psychique and strong yiquan basics should be chosen to undergo specialistic training. This is important for the development of yiquan tui shou competitions.
• bigger number of competitors should be trained, putting stress on both theory and practice. Support of educations structures is needed. It would create basis of further development of yiquan.
• the competition rules must be modyfied and improved,
• referees who would understand the rules must be trained, so the competitions can be fair. Only after exam they could be enlisted as yiquan tui shou referees. Others could not be referees. The referees must master using the principles of giving points and penalties, so they don't help to win the competitor without proper skills, who is trying to win by any means, including those who could create risk of injury.

The main conlusions after the experimental competition:

• the range of awards and penalties must be bigger. Actions going agains rules should be strictly penalized. Clear beautiful actions should be awarded. It will help in yiquan development.
• when competitor has not appriopriate skill, in some cases having no proper yiquan training, he frequently is doing pulling actions, including grabbing and pulling clothes, he is breaking contact and using grappling techniques,
• when the referee comes from an organization where they don't do yiquan, it is difficult to avoid situations of not understanding questions related to yiquan,
• when the referee is not judging precisely, and the competitor acting against rules in not penalized, it is with harm to the one who is obeying rules,
• it is important to educate our own referees, so competition would be more fair, 
• presently in the work of Beijing Yiquan Study Association the stress should be put on developing tui shou competition, improving rules, educating referees.

Popularization is important, stress should be put on basics. When there is lack of people presenting solid basics, how could we talk about development, about research, how to do the competitions? For ourselves it would be difficult task. So we expect that others will join disscussion and share their opinions. We are also thinking about how to combine tui shou and san shou in the future, giving yiquan it's original characteristic back. As yiquan great master Yao Zongxun used to say: "Tui shou is serving san shou". Improving san shou level must be connected to tui shou. Those are our thoughts. To develop something to high level, you need go step by step.

Yao Chengguang and Yao Chengrong
Beijing, 2nd July 2002

Translated from Chinese by Andrzej Kalisz