As was standard fair in the Chinatown martial arts community, challenges from other martial artists looking to test their skill level came regularly to Lucanus' weekly 3-hour Tai Chi class with Sifu Keith Tong in Chinatown's Forsythe Park, and Lucanus and his father regularly sought challenges. One day, while Lucanus was on set wrapping production for his NYU senior thesis film, "Justice-For-Hire", his class was challenged by former childhood chess champion Joshua Waitzkin, who had become a top student of the renowned Grandmaster William C. C. Chen and was in training for the Tai Chi Chung Hwa World Cup. The father/son duo decided to re-enter the U. S. martial arts tournament circuit together as a team in the sport of Tai Chi Push Hands to compete against Josh (pushing hands – also known as "t'ui shou" – as played in the Tai Chi World Cup, is a competition combining elements of throwing and grappling arts such as Sumo & Greco-Roman Wrestling, Judo, Aikido, and Shuai Jiao with the principles of Tai Chi). The father/son duo won several medals at the 2004 International Chinese Martial Arts Competition in Orlando, Florida in 2004, but the gold medals were swept Josh and his teammate Daniel Caulfield. After the tournament, the father/son duo was invited to join the first William C. C. Chen (WCCC) U.S. Push Hands Team coached by Josh. The team, consisting of Josh Waitzkin, Daniel Caulfield, Jan C. Childress, Jan Lucanus, Trevor Cohen, Irving Yee, Calum Douglas-Reid, Maximillion Chen, and Parichard Holm, took several trophies at the 2004 Tai Chi World Cup in Taipei, Taiwan. Jan's father took the Bronze World Cup for his weight class. Josh Waitzkin took the title of World Champion, and documented the experience in his book, The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance.
