Wing Chun Sticky Hands - Tips to improving your Chi Sao

1) Your hands are only as good as your stance

Let's start of with probably the most important thing before you get into chi sao. If you want to improve your chi sao significantly then make sure you've got a solid YGKYM.  All to often, I see people jumping into chi sao, when they can't even find there own center of balance. Thus, imagine one of those huge red wood trees, in Return of the Jedi, how strong would that tree be, if its roots were decaying? Obviously, it wouldn't take that much force to knock it over. There are several ways to test your YGKYM stance.  The first being just sitting in your stance for about 45 minutes, if you can last an entire 45 minutes without any aches or pains anywhere, then you'll know you've found you center. The 2nd way is have a partner push against your chest slightly and see whether or not you can actually root against the force. If you can't handle a light push, then you aren't going to be able to handle the oncoming force with your stance during chi sao.

2) Recipe for tan, bong, fok?

Tan, bong, fok sau oh my.  These are the main ingredients when doing chi sao, thus its key to know how to do these moves correctly, and to understand how they are put together structurally. Now, I'm not going to dive into detail about each one, coz that would be an entire article on its own.  But keep in mind some simple rules.  Tan sau should be flat, do the test for yourself and see if you can feel the difference between a flat tan and one that isn't. Imagine a tan being a bridge between you and an opponent, can a bridge connect 2 points being up. Of course not! Bong sau, key thing is make sure your elbow is higher than your wrist and make sure that the hands/fingers continue in the direction of your forearm. Finally fok sau, probably the most difficult one of the 3, be aware of the point of contact.
Why is it important for you to know the structure of each of these moves? Imagine them to be your TV antenna, if the antenna is just slightly off, your reception won't be that good. If you tan isn't in the right position, then that will decrease your level of sensitivity.

3) I'm ready to fight?

Ah, jumping ahead of ourselves once again.  Before you get into those prodigal son battles, make sure first and foremost, that your roll is decent. While chi sao may seem like 2 guys facing each other working a steering wheel, it is in fact a constant forward motion, instead of what appears to be a circular movement.  What's the difference? If you have a circular movement and force is pushed slightly against it, if you remove the force, your hand will remain in the same position and continue its circular movement. On the other hand, imagine your hand as a spring, waiting for the pressure to be removed. Once the pressure is no longer there, the hand will automatically move forward. Thus, you won't even have to think when to attack. Key note though, is that the forward pressure doesn't need to be initiated by you, if your structure is correct for tan, bong, and fok, the structure along will maintain that forward pressure.  All to often people, either have no forward motion or over emphasize it too much.

4) Equality for both sides

In the beginning when doing chi sao, picture it as if you were doing push ups against the wall. Notice in order to keep your body square you need to push equally on both sides of your arms. Well, when you start doing chi sao its sorta like the same thing. You want to be able to maintain equal energies on both sides when your rolling. Literally, regardless of what position you are in:
inside gate - bong sau and tan sau
outside gate - double fok sau
chi sao - tan sau and fok sau or bong sau and fok sau - thus being in both inside and outside when rolling
The wrist for the most part are lined up with each other for both arms. The importance of equal energy, well its because of the inequalities of the forward drill when doing chi sao, that your opponent can use that to his advantage.

5) Tension vs. Energy

Mommy, what's the difference between tension and energy? One of the most recurring problems when doing chi sao, is differentiating between tension and energy. When you use tension it involves muscle, which reduces your sensitivity significantly. Thus, have you ever rolled with someone who was really tense, then all of a sudden just pulled your arm away from his. You'll notice when its tension the hand just stays there doing nothing at all. But if it was energy, the hand automatically shoots out towards you. That's the difference between the 2, and how you can tell one from another.

6) Where's my center?

I'm sure everyone has done this before. Have someone do a bong sau and place it perfectly into the correct position, and then press against his bong sau. What you'll notice is how much force that the bong sau can take, with the guy/gal putting very little effort in dealing with the force. Now offset that bong by either moving it slightly left or right, let's just say about 1% of the center line. And see the huge difference. Notice how easily it is to collapse his bong sau with very little pressure at all. Well, in chi sao its key to be aware of the centerline for everything that you do. Thus, if your in inside gate, you need to make sure both your tan and bong are in the proper position, if your just slightly of, just like in the example above, your opponent can take advantage of this.

7) Fok sau woes

Probably the most difficult thing in the beginning to deal with is that of fok sau.  The most difficult thing is maintaining forward pressure upon the roll, and the most common mistake is pressing downward with the fok sau. Notice the Siu Lim Tao is the blue print for the motions of all the moves, and if you do 3 fok sau's in SLT, you'll notice that this is the CORRECT motion that you do when chi saoing as well. The best way to deal with the downward press, is to adjust the elbow. Remember, that elbow leads the motion, thus if the elbow is raised and is almost on equal level of the wrist, the downward pressure will occur, if you sink the elbow, this will fix the problem.

8) Tag your it

Have you ever seen this happen. Your chi saoing with someone and he gets a good hit on you. So your ego's all bruised and your like, "bitch I'm going to force a hit no matter what." Next thing you know you have 2 idiots using muscle, zero structure, and just hitting each other back and forth. What's this called? Its called a waste of time.  In the end what your developing is bad habits. Remember, chi sao helps you to develop so many things, from timing, to energy, understanding the distance, to learning how to stick. If you break the rules of chi sao and fail to learn from it, your wasting time. The reason you got hit, is because your structure sucked, eat the humble pie, and work with your partner to recreate the scenario again, and learn how to deal with the oncoming force.

9) More defense

Any idiot can attack, every art has deadly moves. But the test of your true skill is how good your defense is. Allot of times when I practice, I literally just allow the opponent to attack one after the other. It truly is a test of skill to be able to take whatever he throws at you and redirect it constantly.  Remember, attacking is a simple skill that doesn't take that long to develop, on the other hand defense is something that really can impress others. Spend more time working on your defense when chi saoing.

10) Control

Man, there's nothing like getting a good solid hit on your partner, right? The fact is your partner is your best friend, and without a partner you can never get better in wing Chun. Thus, if you decide your ego needs a boosting by smacking him down, what your displaying is such a low level of wing Chun.  The fact is, every attack you do when chi saoing should be controlled. There's nothing more impressive, than going full speed with an attack and stopping just inches away from your opponent.  That my friend is skill.  Wing chun is all about control, if you can control yourself, then you can control others

Four Rules to Master Wing Chun

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. 
Confucius

1) Learn One Thing at a Time.

It is better to learn one thing well than to half-learn two things. For teachers, the reverse is, teach one thing at a time. I never do this – sorry students! I'm way too talkative. Pick one problem area or new skill and train it diligently before moving on to the next thing. This is what the pro athletes do. Focus and plan.Pick out one weakness or new skill and work on it. Then pick another one.Repeat.

2) Quantity Before Quality

Everyone is awkward at first. No one does a new skill perfectly right out of the gate. In fact, if you already know how to fight, when you train a new approach, you will start by becoming worse. This is because fighting is all about developing reflexes. If you start putting in new reflex actions, at first, your body will be confused how to react – the old way or the new way. Press on until the new reflex is ingrained.

You'll continue to have revelations about movements and techniques and principles throughout your martial arts career. I've been training Wing Chun since 2000, and I still have new realizations about the system all the time, even about basic concepts like the stance or turning, which you learn the first day.Learning happens not all at once but by a slow process of accumulation and removal, as with sculpture. A little goes on and a little comes off and it slowly looks more and more like the ideal form (but its never completely there).

3) Watch and Visualize

This is an under-rated aspect of learning outside of professional sports. You must watch your teacher closely. Learn by watching. Then imagine yourself moving as your teacher moves. Go through the motion in your mind as you execute the move perfectly. Visualization is the secret Sports Psychology “sauce” that separates the good from the great.

4) Find a Training Partner

This is key in Wing Chun. Its a two person fighting style. No one ever became great just playing the wooden man and the pole. It sucks, if you are not that social, but you will never really advance to the higher levels of skill until you find someone to work with who can sign on to a cooperative, mutually-beneficial relationship of training. You need to help one another. If your partner always catches you with a certain technique, they should be willing to help teach you how to beat that technique. It must be a win-win relationship. If you are really lucky, you are in a school where you have multiple training partners who follow this philosophy.

by Steven Moody.

. Chum Kiu form of Wing Chun

                                                 

Literally, Chum Kiu when translated is the method of how to deal with the opponent’s wrists once in contact. In other words, Chum Kiu is the form applicable to fighting. If the theory of Chum Kiu is analysed carefully, it is found that it has reached the acme of perfection.

Chum Kiu is to utilize the body weight of a person as the source of energy and combining the moves of Siu Nim Tau to create a skill that can apply force in different directions. As a result, the opponent will find it difficult to tackle these kind of moves because his centre of gravity has been affected and will be easily toppled over. Hence, your chance to win in fighting is increased.

The theory of Chum Kiu can be grouped as follows:

1. The application of “two-way” force;
2. Using the centre of the body as the source of energy;
3. Using the mind to control the movement of the body;
4. Using the simultaneous attack and defence movements.                                                                   

               1. The Application Of “Two-Way Force”

The majority of the moves in Chum Kiu is to apply the force moving in two different directions to contact with the wrists of the opponent. Although it is called the “two-way force”, yet, if analysed in more detail, it is found that it consists of skill of applying the force pointing from more than two directions.

The turning stance of Chum Kiu is a two-dimensional turning, i.e. turning on a surface. When the turning stance is combined with use of Tau Sau, Bong Sau and Fook Sau of Siu Nim Tau at the same time, every move of Chum Kiu will comprise the effect of having a force pointing from two different directions. Thus, the opponent will find it difficult in dealing with these kind of moves.

               2. Using the centre of the body as the source of energy

In practising Chum Kiu, one must use the centre of the body as the source of energy. The purpose is to maintain the body weight as an unity and then every move will contain the weight of the whole body. When the opponent is in contact with any part of your body, he will then have to suffer an attack from your whole body weight.

3. Using the mind to control the movement of the body

The purpose of using the mind to control the movement of the body is to generate the whole body weight without using any unnecessary muscular force. Thus, every move you are using will contain the weight of the whole body.

4. Using the simultaneous attack and defence movements

Practising Chum Kiu has entered into the stage of body contact with the opponent. This means that Chum Kiu is the form which will comprise of the combating skill. Hence, every simple move of Chum Kiu contains a common structure which is fit for attack or defence. Apart from having the speciality of Wing Chun (i.e. not to waste energy), every move will contain the scientific structure for combat, allowing the fighting skill to show up when facing the opponent.

                     Copyright ©2001 Wing Chun Kuen by Chu Shong Tin, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Thoughts on footwork & Chi Sau

Many people  today  practice Wing Chun, Chi Sau (sticking hands). However, they only stand in the same position and they do not move their feet. In this way it is very easy to lose a lot of energy, because when your opponent is very strong and they are attacking you, you cannot move to avoid their power.

The most common way we do to avoid an opponent’s power is to change your technique such as changing from the Bong Sau to Tan Sau or the other way round. Of course, there are other techniques you can use by yourselves but because you do not move your stance, you have to use more strength. Therefore we see many people, who do Chi Sau just like they are fighting. With this kind of skill, only the stronger and bigger guy will win  easily. Even if you beat up your opponent, you can also suffer injury, so this is not the best way for Chi Sau.

In many Wing Chun training sessions we will train Juen Ma (turning stance). This is about turning your feet and your body 45° by rotating on your heel. If someone tries to attack you, you should turn your body to 45° to avoid their attack. Technically it is very correct, but if somebody who is really strong attacks, turning 45° is not enough so that is why Juen Ma is very good. However, if the energy is too strong, then some more footwork is required.

Personally, I believe that in Wing Chun skills, footwork is actually the most important. Many people studying Wing Chun spend so much time on hand techniques such as Lap Sau (pulling hand), Pak Sau (slapping hand), Gau Cha Sau (crossing hand) etc, that they forget working on their footwork. Footwork is the way to bring the right position in the right place. Without good footwork, even good hand skills would not work.

If you hit someone who does not move, then it is easy. However, if he moves, you will miss him. It is the same if someone wants to hit you, you can move to avoid the attack. Therefore footwork is very important for attack and defense. I have
seen so many people keep the same position in Chi Sau and only leaning back to avoid the opponent’s attack.

Actually, this is wrong because Wing Chun does not allow the body lean forward and backward. The body should be straight all the time. That will make all the energy in your body balanced. Also leaning backwards or forwards makes our backs stiff and also you will not clearly see your opponent attacking you. Even if you can block it, the opponent’s next movement will not be clear to you. That is why stepping back is the best way to defend against a strong opponent’s attack. Your back will be straight and your vision and energy will be clear, and you will be able to read you’re your opponent’s energy correctly.

For training the good footwork, we must keep our stepping in accordance with Wing Chun training and be ready anytime for Chi Sau and defend yourself. Always be aware of the distance of the width of your feet and make sure that they are the same as your shoulders width. Wing Chun stance is always shoulder width. That is the fastest and most effective footwork. When we are walking we can walk as Zen Ma (Forward Stance), with every step we walk being in the Wing Chun Stance. No matter whether we walk fast or slow when

we stop, the stance should always be shoulder width. When we walk as Teu Ma (Backward Stance), the footwork is still in the Wing Chun Stance, which is shoulder width. It is the same even when we walk to the side or in a circle. Good footwork is not difficult, we only need more practice which will bring us perfection. Just always be aware of the distance of your footwork, make it a habit, then it all happens without thinking.

Actually Wing Chun skills are about using the whole body. You cannot just move one part of the body without connecting it with the rest. This means your hands, legs, body and head should be all connected and cannot be separated. For example, when we punch, we should punch with the footwork in unison with the punch. If we just punch from the arm, without using the footwork and whole body, then this will damage the body every time you punch.

You should consider how your feet move, how your waist turns, and how the body connects and how the other hand balances what the other hand does. We should not just think about the one punch only. A student sometimes will ask me why we only move the hands and not the feet in the first form, Siu Lim Tao. This is because, just like in languages, students learn the vocabulary first not the grammar and sentences.

It is in the second form, Chum Kil, and the third form, Bil Jee, and the wooden dummy technique, that the whole body moves. So therefore, in Wing Chun technique, footwork is very important because it gives the correct angle for our hands and also allows clear vision and sensitivity. If you spend more time in footwork training than on the hand technique training, then this will give you a high level skill of Wing Chun.

Wing Chun philosophy is similar to our lives. We always think about yourself and how much benefit we will have if we do this or that and forget to think about other people. Actually, the other people are just like the rest of our bodies. If you can have a good relationship with the people around you, then you will be balanced with everybody and you will benefit from them and at the same time they will benefit from you as well. At the end, you will have a better life so always be friendly with the people around you instead of making enemies. This is the principle of Wing Chun.