Bret Hall

Bret K. Hall lives in Oxford, Michigan, where he has studied with Carol Yamasaki since 1989. He has participated in many yearly workshops with some of Professor Cheng’s most senior students, including Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo, Ed Young, and Maggie Newman. Most influential in his development was his study with Mr. Liu Hsi-heng in Taiwan.  Bret has taught in the Detroit area for years, and in London and the Netherlands for the first time in January 2018.      

“Training form and push hands with Bret is a fresh and unique experience - like traveling on the yin/yang symbol, where the practices and principles of each side are apparently different, but are inseparably conjoined.  Front/back, external/internal, sinking down/floating upward, body/mind and energy, all merge and become the Whole.  Bret’s rare push hands ability deeply informs his form teaching.  He brings a unique perspective and new practices to a sound traditional foundation.” - CAY

“Practicing the form can be a journey of self-discovery with an opportunity to free oneself through increasing self- awareness.  Push hands helps to expand this awareness beyond oneself.” - BKH

“My own experience of Bret’s approach to push hands and the form is a profound and functional non-doing. He is very adept at helping you to open and allow your partner’s force to move through you and return to its source. Practicing like this, we become aware of subtle obstacles that we put in our own way.  We discover lessons not just for push hands but also for life.”  R.E. (Redmond Entwistle hosted Bret’s  workshops in England and the Netherlands)