I have my partner stand in natural stance. Standing in front of him and placing my right hand on his left shoulder I begin to push. I want him to absorb my push and transfer the energy into the ground thru his feet. As he gains confidence and is able to identify with the correct feeling more readily I can increase the amount of force I apply to his shoulder until I am pushing quite hard. At first I am careful to push towards his spine and slightly downward. Later I can vary the direction of the push while he responds dynamically to the changing force vectors.
I have described this exercise before, or variants of it anyway. The exercise is intended to point out the difference between absorption /resistance and to help my partner strengthen his center via increased loading. Nothing new here.
I can, however, change things up slightly and turn this exercise around so that I am the one being "tested" as follows. All is as before except that when I place my hand on my partners shoulder I do so very lightly with my elbow bent quite a bit. I'd like my upper arm and forearm to form an acute angle. Now when I push I do so not using my arm and hand, instead I use my center, pushing directly at his center, applying as little force as possible. At first my partner feels nothing; I wait and continue my "mental" push. My intention is to occupy his space (not literally, think metaphor). If I do this correctly, at some point his structure will break and he will move off his mark.
I suppose this is as close to competing as we get in our practice; for if I give him the slightest bit of physical energy he can absorb it, redirect it and maintain his ground.
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