Chi Sau

[Dan]

Ok here comes a long post about Chi Sau that im gonna keep updating.

• 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.
  
• Some sessions look similar but they are 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 play 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, e.g. tan, bong, fook and provides a method to promote a better understanding of the basic techniques and learn to recognise mistakes.
  
• Through Chi Sau more advanced techniques can be gradually introduced.
  

That was written by Master Kwok

and gives an insight into chi sau. if anyone read his interveiw in martial arts illustrated a good few months back now, that was largly about chi sau and its usfulness in providing a bridge between the forms and actual fighting.

Chi sau is a very usefull form of traning, but if your forms [and techniqes] aren't good your chi sau will not be good.

elbow positioning is vital and this becomes clear in chi sau, for if you posiioning is bad you will always get hit.

therefore chi sau is usful in illustraiting these problems, and it is only when these issues are resolved that your chi sau will be good.

Chi sau also helps further ones understanding of how the techniques lernt in the form work.

[Dan]

Chi sau should be practised with as many different partners as possible as everyone is different in size, shape, streangh, speed, ability, reaction times etc etc so if you train with as many people as possible it will allow you to develop and use you skill regrdless of opponent. and obviously this is what is needed in wing chun, because as wing chun does not encorage streangth on streangth one must use skill to overcome it.

the key to not clashing streangth with your opponent is to not worrie about getting hit, everyone gets hit in chi sau, however if you worrie about it or try to prove something by chi sauing with someone, then it may offten result in ones use of streangth over skill which firstly is no good if the other person has greather skill or streangth than you and secondly it is teaching you nothing, arm wresteling will do your chi sau traning no favours.

as bruce lee said you must be like water.

[Chris]

so in chi sau do we use attacking footwork or not? the chi sau that master kwok's student showed us last night seemed to be fixed in position.

so what do we wanna do in chi sau then stand there and throw punches and block anythin that comes?

also why does alot of the chi sau i see look so competitive if it is just an excersise and also what do u do if your opponent is just trying to hit you?

also what if he throws in something unique instead of just regurgitating the form? coz the way i see from what im reading above, it if hes using unique stuff then he isnt practising chi sau yet if he isnt doing anything unique then he isnt representing water or showing free development from the froms. which side of the fence is best?

and what if you do something that worked but you dont know if it was wing chun or not, does this mean your crap at wing chun even though you showed free development

its still a bit contradictory i thought chi sau was training correct position (distance) for fighting and sensitvity and was free from there.

basically it looks like i have never really been practising chi sau

[Dan]

Ok there is alot here so im gonna try and break it down bit at a time.

firstly you can train chi sau static or with foot work it is a good move to train static first to get used to it as footwork adds another element but you will see Sifu using footwork so it is quite acceptable.

People offten make chi sau competertive but it is best to see it as training one way off doing this is to have one person to attack and pne deffend then swap over that way the techniques can be concertrated on. But if your partner is just trying to score he will often be using streangth which for training purposes is of little use, so it may be worth considering finding another partner if the one you have is just trying to score points. Hitting someone in the cheast is not hard but it will sacrafice [potentially] one to the head and i know where i would rather be hit, so you must remeber chi sau is traning so treat it like a real situation if you are gonna hit somone make sure you are not just toching them for the sake of it. and if you are much better than the other person dont just assert your authority help them give them gaps to work with etc.

[Dan]

In chi sau you are not regurgitating the forms you are applying different techiniques to the requiered situation so they flow together without need to think oh hes throwing a straight punch ill pak sau .... and so on.

as to using non wing chun specific moves try and ensure they are sound to wing chun priciples i.e. dont use clashes of force and there is no reason in my opinion why you cant use them. but obviously dont just boot the other guy in the shin in the middle of chi sau practice but if you do react in a non wing chun manner if it works and would always work in a particular situation it does not matter if it is not in the forms if its principles are good.

[Chris]

it makes more sense now

thanks Dan

[Dan]

ok an article by Ip Chun i really enjoyed.

Chi Sau by Ip Chun êvŽè

Chi Sau is the most important part of the learning process of Wing Chun. Yet there are many Wing Chun practitioners who still do not understand Chi Sau properly.

There are Wing Chun teachers who put too much importance on Chi Sau, thinking that once they have learned the energy of Chi Sau they will not require any other kind of hand techniques to be able to control their opponent. Others feel that because Chi Sau does not resemble eOne stepf fighting techniques that it cannot therefore be of any practical value in sparring or real fights. It must be understood what Chi Sau can give you in relation to real fights, also what the difference is between sparring and Chi Sau.

Firstly we must understand that Chi Sau is only part of the training method of Wing Chun Kung Fu. Chi Sau is used to provide us with four essentials of factors of Wing Chun knowledge, there are other concepts which are relevant but we shall discuss here those which are most important.

Good hand technique [fighting method]
Knowledge of energy use
Good sensitivity and reflexes
Achieving the best position in sparring

These are the four most important factors in sparring. Once you have understood these four factors then you can apply any technique, whenever necessary. The greater the knowledge of these four factors then the more likely it will be that you succeed in sparring or fighting.

To understand this point from a different angle. Everybody knows that money is the most important tool [item[ that we need whenever we go out to buy something, the more money or purchasing power we have the easier it is to get what we want, but it still depends on how you use your money, as a consumer you have to select what you need

[Dan]

to buy and not spend on items you will never use, therefore if you have a lot of money it does not mean it will give real value.

Alternatively, when we are studying in school, we are supplied with knowledge of ethics, health, philosophy, and other aspects s of education, all of these we are taught. Some aspects will have a direct effect on our later life others only and indirect effect, a number my have an effect but then be dormant and take many years to surface. Nobody can say there is no need for complete education. For a few in school their results are always excellent, every year they might be top in examinations, yet when they enter into adult society their performance does not show their earlier promise. It all depends upon weather they can fluently apply what they learnt in school.

Chi Sau and sparring are related in much the same way. Chi Sau can supply all of the most important knowledge we need in sparring, Chi Sau is not free sparing this must be recognised, but if a students Chi Sau is good then their sparring will be good. Though a students ability to fight depends upon weather they have learnt how to fluently apply the four factors mentioned earlier.

Therefore what we can learn from Chi Sau is complete in all directions, it is often the case with a practitioner who has good knowledge of the four factors, that when they are sparing or in a fight situation that they can handles it easily. There is no need to learn how to use one specific block against a particular move of kick.

The four factors mentioned in Chi Sau, I personally believe are not only restricted in relevance to Wing Chun, they are also suitable for any style of Kung Fu, Karate, etc [i.e. technique, power, sensitivity and reflexes with position.]. Except for hand technique which you can visibly identify from the forms, the other three factors are abstract and open to interpretation.

I admired Bruce Lee because he applied what he learnt from Chi Sau very well. Although he did not use Wing Chun techniques he could still apply his energy in whatever he wanted. From studying films you can see that each of his techniques weather it was Wing Chun or not, showed without doubt that his reflexes and reactions were of the highest order, his use of energy perfect and his position excellent.

Everybody says of Chinese Kung Fu it is like the sea, Large and Deep. If you learn Kung Fu in such a way that a specific technique is taught to defend against one particular attack then you are learning ‘dead kung fu’ and your kung fu will never be large or deep, however if you learn to understand the four factors of Chi Sau, then there will be no end to your knowledge, you will be able to learn, to explore freely and then you will understand Chinese Kung Fu is truly ’Large and Deep’.

[Chris]

thats a good article, i especially like the closing paragraph

[superfoot]

good read, thanks