Making practice complete

Attended the first of two workshops with Chen Zhenglei in Ontario. During this seminar he pointed out that for Taiji, practicing the forms is only one part of the complete system of Taiji. Partner practice through push hands (tuishou) is an essential second half.
He went on to outline what I had often speculated - through the forms you are learning about yourself while through tuishou you learn to extend your capabilities. With forms practice, as I've mentioned before on this site, you learn to coordinate your movements, you learn to relax, and you build Qi within your body. Practice with a partner, on the otherhand, requires you to extend that awareness out to the other person and to learn how to apply the coordinated movements to control them.
The third part of the Taiji system is the process of character development. While there is a sequence that these three follow, the boundaries are not hard and fast. As one part will feedback into and influence the others. But essential to this is the understanding that there is more to practice that simply the forms.