This is the first book in English that covers the many aspects of pushing hands in tai chi. It is also trying to answer the question, in the book title, what is pushing hands?
The book also covers the strategy of close combat as it is an essential part of pushing hands. Although it contains some practical advice, how to train pushing hands, its focus is more to explain the whole phenomena than being a tool for training at home, as his first book in tai chi was. Tai chi classics and some theory is discussed, the idea being in these books is to start without theory(as the first book), dig in deeper in theory until pure doing is left again, back to tai chi unity and wu chi.
Heikki Nousiainen is a professional tai chi teacher (even other martial arts) who also arranges wellnessweeks with tai chi in Italy, Croatia, Spain and in Finland both for companies and private persons. He has created a physical training method and a method for teamwork.
He won international pushing hands competitions in the age of forty but a car accident made it impossible to continue. His biggest interest in tai chi lies in self-defense and philosophy, nowadays also in wellbeing.