Skills for Close Range Combat Chi Sau, or ‘Sticking Hands’, is a Wing Chun training exercise designed to develop close range combat skills. In close range combat, your ability to see an incoming strike a punch and react by reflex is greatly diminished, which is where the skills developed through Chi Sau apply.
The aim of Chi Sau is to learn through touch any shift in an opponent’s body position which indicates an eminent attack. Training the arms to have ‘a mind of their own’ allows a Wing Chun practitioner to instinctively break an opponent’s structure and remove their ability to apply force.
Benefits of Chi Sau
Correct training in Chi Sau offers many benefits including:
Improved hand speed;
Shorter reaction time;
Heightened sensitivity, allowing one to find a hole in an opponent’s defence instantly;
Better balance;
The ability to control an opponent at all times; and
The ability to apply the strongest structure against the weakest structure of the opponent.
How it is Practiced.
The arms are moved in a continuous, circular motion involving movements known as Tan Sau, Dai Sau, Fook Sau and Bong Sau. Using the concept of a circle, the Wing Chun exponent’s arms are constantly repositioned or ‘rolled’ while searching for or creating an opening in the opponent’s defence so that the Wing Chun exponent may strike through.
The aim of the exercise is not to ‘Score Points’ but to learn about the partners sensitivity and movement and using this to expose the opening. By practicing in this manner chi sau becomes a Learning exercise and not a competition. One practitioner learns to learns to ‘Feel the Gap’ while he partners learn how to ‘Field a Counter’.
The 6 Stages of Chi Sau.
The six learning stages or phases of Chi Sau is a s follows:
Dan Chi Sau (single sticking hands)
Poon Sau (double sticking hands)
Jeung Sau (changing hands)
Dok Sau (analytical hands)
Gor Sau (free applications)
Chi Sau Lye Bye Muk (blindfolded chi sao)
Dan Chi Sau (single sticking hands)
Praticed in the Wing Chun training stance Using one hand the two practitioners alternate between striking and defending through some of the basic hand techniques of the wing chun system. Practitioners try not to get into a predictable rythm and will both vary the speed of the drill randomly to ensure that they are maintaining an acute awareness of their partners movement.
Poon Sau (double sticking hands)
This is the second stage in Chi Sao training and is the only only stage where the movement is in a fixed and predictable sequence. Both arms are in contact as the two practitioners alternate between basic wing chun defensive positions ensuring that the centreline is defended at all times.
Jeung Sau (changing hands)
The practitioners learn to move from the outside to the inside of their opponents arms and back. Because they are particularly vulnerable to attack during these transitions they need to move quickly and maintain the optimal structure for their arm position.
Dok Sau (analytical hands)
Starting from poon sao the practitioners roll slowly seeking gaps in their partners defeence, as they find those gaps they push forward very slowly giving time for their partner to adjust to a better position. There are no set patterns and the exercise is an opportunity for practitioners to start experimenting with the basic positions and techniques that they’ve learned.
Gor Sau (free applications)
At full speed and starting from poon sau the practitioners aim to find gaps in their partners defences and deliver light taps to indicate where and how they could land a hit, and the same time they have to ensure that the same doesn’t happen to themselves. Defence, trapping and striking skills can all be tested against a resisting opponent. It is essential that Chi Sao is done in a relaxed and non-aggressive manner for the student to get the optimum benefit in terms of training. Practitioners of wing chun talk about “playing” chi sau to emphasis the fact that it is to be done in a relaxed manner and frame of mind, that you would any game of skill.
Chi Sau Lye Bye Muk (blindfolded chi sau)
As you’d probably guess this builds on gor sau, adding the extra element of blindfolds to enhance the development of using contact to guage the position and defences of the other player.
Some important Pointers:
- Chi Sau is the most important part of the system.
- Chi Sau is not a form of kata.
- Chi Sau is not a form of sparring.
- Chi Sau is the bridge between techniques from the forms and real fighting.
- The forms are always the same.
- Chi Sau is free development.
- Every session is different.
- The difference between Chi Sau and fighting is that a fight produces a winner and a loser by points or K.O., and it is not important in Chi Sau which person gets hit. Chi Sau is only a form of training.
- The main objectives are good hand techniques, positions, sensitivity and reflexes.
- If the basics are wrong the defence will be poor.
- If two people Chi Sau with the sole aim of knocking each other down the real point of Chi Sau training will be missed.
- Chi Sau develops good hand techniques from the forms.
- Through Chi Sau more advanced techniques can be gradually introduced.
Practicing Chi Sau correctly will perfect all the Wing Chun elements and promote a better understanding of the Wing Chun System. No other Martial Art has Chi Sau although similarities are found in other forms of Kung Fu e.g. Pushing Hands in Tai Chi, but the essence and ultimate are significantly different. Chi Sau can be used as a measurement of a students understanding of the Wing Chun system but more importantly it is a lot of FUN to practice (when practiced correctly)!
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