The Xingyi push!

Anyone who has spent time watching DVD or VCD Xinyiquan demonstrations has seen it - the dreaded "Xingyi push". It occurs when an atacker comes too close to a Xinyi practioner and gets pushed violently backward. It is so prevalent that to the novice or uninitiated it might appear that it is the only technique in the style. Anyone who has performed this feat (meaning anyone who has done real Xingyiquan) knows that it is a simple matter of body mechanics that is exacerbated by a skillful off balancing of the opponent (or as the western martial artists used to say "using someone's force/weight against them") resulting in the opponent stumbling or in cases of perfect execution - flying backward. It takes practice and being able to read your opponent's movement to execute it in a manner which doesn't resemble two overweight junior high kids in a shoving match.
There are seemingly endless numbers of sub styles and routines within Xinyiquan and I enjoy watching different teachers and masters demonstrate their unique forms. But one thing that really annoys me is watching a demonstration and when it comes time to see real applications of the movements, it's usually the same - the push. It doesn't matter what attack comes the result is the opponent flying backwards and then regaining his balance. Now, from the perspective of someone who teaches Xingyiquan there are dozens if not more attacks and counters that garner more oohs and ahs from adoring viewers than simply seeing some guy get shoved around for the duration of a demo but interestingly everyone's just gotta do the push. Why is that? I did spend some time pondering this question recently.
First off, I know from experience that Xingyiquan, despite being an internal or soft martial art, is viciously brutal in execution. Many times my students get tagged suffering nosebleeds, overstretched tendons, and brusied ribs. Done full force, it doesn't take much effort to seriously mess someone up. This is one of the things that makes Xingyiquan ideal for the sucker punching agressor or bar fighting situations. It might be a matter of a master simply not wanting to risk hurting a partner while demonstrating a forceful and potentially dangerous technique full speed.
It could also be that the master is a bit lazy (some of them are pretty old) and just don't want to exert themselves much. It is a tricky technique to perform and mastery of it is evidence of many long hours of patient pratice. But to onlookers it can seem very redundant if not downright unremarkable.
Over the years there has been a tremendous misunderstanding about internal martial arts in general due to many factors which include but certainly aren't limited to:
1. Difficulty in Asian masters conveying information to western audiences.
2. Western instructors training in internal martial arts and then falling back on their westernized Karate training to understand or explain them.
3. Outright trickery on the part of Asian masters who wish to keep an aura of magic and mysticism around their styles.
4. The fact that not too long ago in western history practicing a martial art like Karate or Tae kwon do (let alone Xingyiquan, Baguazhang, or Tai chi) was considered rather funky.

Nevertheless there are a few great masters like Zhang Xigui that do actually show how to lay on the Xingyi smackdown but I could probably count them on one hand and still manage to pick a tune on a guitar with the remaining fingers.
Now that wouldn't be so bad in itself but this lack of understanding of the effectiveness of internal styles is what spawns macho talk as when MMA wanabes poke fun at us for doing "goofy animal forms" or people in general would rather take Tae kwon do simply because the instructor looks like he's actually doing something.
And in the end the push is not a great move if you want your attacker finished in a hurry. What innevitably happens is that he will regain his balance and, wary of your awesome pushing power come back in for another try.