I think Donnie Yen is a magnificent martial artist, and I think he did a good job of cramming his Wing Chun studies to the point where it looks like that’s his chosen art. And he looks good in the films. He looks good doing Wing Chun in the clip below, too.

But I’m not sure about the bong sau he throws at 3 seconds:

It’s a nice looking bong sau, but I’m not sure it’s the best response to his attacker’s punch. He’s got his right leg forward and he uses his right bong sau to block across himself. It’s obvious that he’d already decided to use a bong sau because his left hand is actually up and forward when his attacker punches. He could quite easily have used a tan da (left tan sau, right punch simultaneously) with better results. His right side is exposed and vulnerable. I’d love to have a go laaping that bong sau!

You might say that it’s understandable for DY to prepare his move beforehand, given that he’s under the pressure of being on stage under those intense lights and with no time to think. However, this is what chi sau trains us for. Cultivating unconscious reaction at lightning speed baby.

Told you leather jackets and martial arts were “in”.

I’ve seen this clip of Alan Goldberg chi sauing a few times in the past, but this is the first time I’ve been able to pick out something I could use. It’s pretty interesting to watch all the way through, but the “combination” I’m going to use starts at 36 seconds:

Let’s pretend you’re Alan Goldberg, doing the technique exactly as he shows it. Here is the run down:

1. you start with one hand inside and one hand outside and just roll
2. as your right tan sau changes to the outside on the way up, punch forward with it (instead of changing to a fuk sau, as you normally would).
3. this punch is not an attempt to hit your partner; it’s simply to provoke a bit of resistance from them.
4. as they push back against your punch, laap their resisting hand with your punching hand.
5. bring your left hand over to laap their arm (the same one). The good thing here is that your left arm is covering both of theirs. One hand controls two and you have a spare hand.
6. draw your right hand back only enough to punch them for real this time.

If you look at the video again, you can see how smooth Goldberg is in his actions. He’s obviously done this move a few times. It’s a fairly simple one to introduce to your own chi sau, so I’ll be using this in my next class.

You could do your initial right hand punch at any time as long as that hand is on the outside. The reason Goldberg does it immediately after changing from in to out is to “mask” what he’s actually doing. His partner is used to the changing action from in to out and so thinks that’s all that’s going on.

As with most chi sau techniques, this one isn’t a killer technique that you can use to “finish it”. If anything, it’s a tool to get you used to a concept that you can transfer to other situations. What’s the concept? Push to provoke some resistance from your partner and then take advantage of their energy. The technique won’t work unless your partner uses their strength to push against you. If your partner’s Wing Chun is any good, they probably won’t be pushing against you, so you have to create a situation where they are. That is, push them first.

My training this week is going well. I know it’s only Tuesday, but hopefully, I’ll maintain my fortitude throughout the week.

Yesterday I had the usual argument in my head on my way to work about whether to go to the gym for an hour before work or whether to do something else (also constructive). In the end, Wing Chun training lost out to learning PHP but what I did do was an hour of Chi Sau at lunch and an hour on the dummy in the evening. That’s not bad going for me. Two whole hours in one day. It would have been three if I’d gone to the gym in the morning, but I do have a life outside of Wing Chun that I’m trying to hang onto.

Doing three one hour chi sau sessions a week looks like becoming an established routine now, which is brilliant. My only concern is that chi sauing with the same person all the time gets you used to their way of working. Just because you can handle yourself in chi sau with that person, it doesn’t mean that your Wing Chun will stand up to someone else’s chi sau. But I do get to chi sau with other students during and after my weekly class, so it’s all good. And, up to a point, I think that doing a lot of chi sau with the same person is better than doing none at all.

This morning I did 30 minutes of Chun Yuen and 15 minutes of Siu Lim Tau. I also got an hour in on the dummy later this evening.

The dummy is going well. I read on a forum yesterday that the tan sau -> gaan sau -> kwan sau in the first section of the dummy form mirrors the third section of Siu Lim Tau. I’d not thought of that. I read somewhere else that a particular teacher’s method is to teach “the next bit” of the dummy every time students learn the the next form. So it sounds like the dummy is a way of practising the application of the forms in the absence of a partner. And it looks like maybe 0.01% of the crap I read on Wing Chun forums turns out to be informative.

Random Youtube Video

I think I was looking for “fast hands” when I found this. I’m going to ask sifu if we can start wearing biker jackets in class.

 Crack that power baby!

Today I invented a new exercise for my Wing Chun training. Your left hand presses down on your partner’s right hand, and both hands are just above waist height. As your hand is on top, you want to release your partner’s hand to hit him in the face (as lightly as you like). He/she has to block the strike, probably with a tan sau of the same hand.

I often find myself in the situation where my left hand is on top of my partner’s right hand like this. It just stays there, not pressing down but resisting any pressure that my partner exerts upwards. From there I can usually leave the hand quickly and reach the face before my partner has time to react.

Because this happens so often, I thought we could make an exercise out of it today during some lunchtime chi sau practice.

It’s not just a speed test. Because the “under hand” has to be aware of when the top hand leaves, it’s a good sensitivity exercise. And because minimal Wing Chun skill is required, you can practise with people who don’t do martial arts. You don’t have to go mad with the striking hand. If you can lightly tap your partner’s face, causing no harm, then equally you should be able to land a punch.

When I had the under hand, I was able to get the tan sau up to block, but I wanted to turn as well. There just wasn’t enough time to turn as well. I don’t think it’s beyond the realms of possibility to be able to tan sau and turn to block the strike, but I’ll need much more practice on this.

My line manager at work is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, so I’ll ask him later if he thinks he’s got quick reactions. That should get a good response. Hold on, he’s just come back from a meeting now.

I thought I’d write about the things I’ve found hard in my Wing Chun training, and hopefully give you some solace if you’re struggling with the same things. The following are comments I’ve made and comments I’ve heard others make:

• “Siu lim tau is mind numbingly boring, in fact it’s like torture“. Yes, it does eem that way when you first start, even if you do it for a mere 10 minutes. However, the more times you do it, the easier it gets. That’s not to say you “master” it. You can continually challenge yourself by spending more time doing it. Many people in my class do Siu Lim Tau for around 40 minutes. The key is to keep at it and just try to lengthen it by something small like a minute per week. You choose your own level of progress.
• “I can’t think of what to do next in chi sau, my mind goes blank“. This is very common, so don’t think you are alone. Don’t worry about it. To a certain extent, it doesn’t matter if you keep repeating the same techniques or combinations of techniques. If your sifu shows you a new technique, try and incorporate that into your chi sau. This is easier said than done if your partner is competitive and is trying to knock your block off! There won’t be any time to stop, think and plan your attack. Suggest taking it in turns practising the technique. If you have a training partner you work with outside of class, you could go over new techniques that your sifu showed you. Practise them enough and their use will become subconscious and automatic.
• “My legs shake like mad doing Siu Lim Tau“. Yep, they are working hard. It’s to be expected, so relish the pain! The more times you do it, the stronger they will get. When you conquer a 10 minute Siu Lim Tau, try for 15 minutes. But make sure you warm up properly before starting.
• “My shoulder/elbow/wrist/posture isn’t right when I do Siu Lim Tau“. If you don’t do Siu Lim Tau in front of a mirror, you should try. Your reflection will show you if your shoulder is too high (tense) when you’re extending your tan sau/fuk sau and you can correct yourself. Similarly, you can spot if your wu sau is too high, too, and a myriad of other faults.
• “I’m not sure whether I’m spending equal amounts of time on my left and right sides in Siu Lim Tau“. Three choices: 1) estimate how much time you’re spending on each extension/retraction of tan sau/wu sau and try and make them the same, 2) have a clearly visible clock handy, 3) count internally. Ideally, you should be emptying your mind of any thoughts while you do Siu Lim Tau, so although counting internally is a good way to do things in the beginning, you really should be striving to let the feelings guide you.
• “Some people I chi sau with use too much force and have heavy hands“. Whilst this can be uncomfortable for you if you are trying to use soft hands and you find that their strength overpowers you (even though their technique might not be very good), use it as a learning experience. If your Wing Chun is good, you should be able to use their strength against them. Don’t avoid them in class, seek them out. When chi sauing with someone who does use a lot of strength, I’ve found that being aware of when I’m resisting and meeting their strength with my own (bad!) really helps. Only when you are aware of what you’re doing can you change it. If they’re pressing on you, change it. Maybe use angles more. If they keep breaking away from you so that they can take “pot shots”, get in close.
• “I struggle to do the things we have to do in class“. Do more at home. There is no other way around this, and the solution is common to any skill you attend a class to learn. If you want to get better, you have to practise. Practise enough and then the class becomes easy.
• “I don’t know how to practise Wing Chun“.  Everything you are shown in class, you can practise in your own time. You know how to do a tan sau and a bong sau? Great! Now you can practise changing your tan sau to a bong sau. You’ve been shown how to turn? Now you can practise changing your bong sau to a tan sau whilst turning.
• “I’m just not getting any better“. Stop whining and practise more. Practise where you can: whilst waiting for the kettle to boil do some bong saus, do some punches while your partner goes to the toilet (not suitable for restaurants) etc. Get creative with your training: imagine the hatstand is an opponent and practise your footwork around it.
• “I’m always being told my shoulders are too tense in class“. This is also to be expected. It takes a great deal of practise to be able to really isolate your hand movements so your shoulder doesn’t tense up too much while chi sauing.  It’s hard enough when you’re alone and practising bong sau – tan sau, but when you’re doing chi sau and have all that adrenaline rushing around there is a tendency to tense up when someone is trying to hit you. The best thing to do is just accept that your shoulders are too tense and work towards improving it. It helps if you don’t get too hung up on trying not to get hit. Ironically, the more you let go and become less bothered about getting hit, the more you can relax and the better your chi sau will be.

This is good news for me: my lunchtime chi sau partner can make Mondays as well as Fridays. That’s great. That’s 3 times as much chi sau as if I was just restricting it to the Saturday class. Combine that with my (now) regular Wing Chun practice on the remaining days, and I’ve got a recipe for improvement.

The remaining days, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday work out quite well too. I figure I need some cardio vascular exercise in there somewhere so Tuesday and Thursday will be the physical Chun Yuen training (plus jumping) and Wednesday will be Tsum Kiu and leg training.

Where’s the Siu Lim Tau, you ask? Well, in the name of dedication, I’ve decided that I can spare half an hour when I get home from work in the evening. I did that last night and it actually sets up the evening quite nicely. You get a sense of accomplishment if you do Siu Lim Tau as soon as you get in that just polishes your evening. I do things some evenings, but I can manage Siu Lim Tau on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

Wing Chun Training Timetable

That timetable can work as a foundation and I can vary what I do on Wing Chun Wednesdays. Tsum Kiu and leg training is a perfect base, and every now and then I can swap that for some technique training, like practising bong saus/kwaan saus/punching/chopping. The Chun Yuen on Tuesday and Thursday I’d like to keep fairly permanent, just so I actually do some exercise that gets me out of breath. Need aerobic exercise!

I’ve not put anything down for Sunday as I’m counting it as a “rest day”. I’m not doing so much training that I deserve a rest day, but I’d prefer to err on the side of conservative estimates when it comes to training. Better to estimate that you’re doing less than you really are than the other way around. If the urge takes me and I have the time I can do a bit of extra training on Sunday as a bonus. At my intensity of training, I can train every day.

Now I’m motivated!

I like Fridays. Not only is it the end of the week, but I get to do some chi sau in my lunch hour with one of my friends.

Today’s chi sau was encouraging as there was no pain in my shoulder. This may be due to the self massage I’ve been doing on it every couple of days or so. It’s quite sore and tender when I do massage it, so I know that something’s not quite right. I get quite deep with the massage and use tiger balm on it, which smells realy good too. It’s not made with real tigers.

Anyway, today there was no pain when I was doing chi sau. We resolved to try and do an extra day during the week too, so I hope we manage that. Two lunch hours of chi sau + practice on my own on the remaining lunch hours + Saturday class = more improvement.

Before we started chi sauing, I asked my friend to run through the Xing Shou form in Chun Yuen, which he did. He was the one who sold me on Chun Yuen in the first place, so it was the least he could do! I was amazed. He was very precise in his movements and had an obvious sense of purpose. I’d seen him do the form a couple of weeks ago, but I was looking with stranger’s eyes and didn’t really appreciate the skill. Now that I’ve done a couple of lessons, and practised the form (or what little I know of it) nearly every day, I had a reference point and could look for certain things.

It’s always the same. If you are unfamiliar with a particular skill and see someone else doing it, you might be mildly impressed. If after studying and training that skill for a few years yourself, you become more critical of – and more impressed with – good skill. You recognise the expertise. That’s how it is with the Wing Chun, anyway, and I know that that’s how it will be with the Chun Yuen. The more I learn, the more I will recognise skill when I see it. Already I’m seeing more in my friend’s form than two weeks ago. And of coutse, the more I train, the more I’ll spot the subtle nuances I can’t spot now in sifu’s form when he does it.

So, a very positive day today:

• good chi sau session
• no pain in my shoulder
• promise of more chi sau in the week
• it’s the day before my next Chun Yuen lesson

That’s right, lunchtime chi sau returns. Over a year ago, I started chi sauing regularly at lunchtime with someone from class. That was a good move as the consistency of training pushed my chi sau skill up.

But then I got injured and had to put that idea in hold. My wing chun partner was fairly busy at the time, so I guess if there was ever a good time to get an inhury, that was it. And of course, over the last year my training has suffered.

But my wing chun friend rang me up and asked if we could do some chi sau today. I was going to go to the gym, but doing a bit of wing chun practise was far more appealing. My shoulder was OK on the whole, but I felt a couple of twinges towards the end. We were chi sauing for a good 30 minutes, which is more than I’ve done for a while.

It’s true that chi sauing with the same partner does get you used to responding in the same way to a particular technique, but the benefits of “getting used” to someone’s style far outweigh the disadvantages of not practising at all! One way that we will avoid falling into the same old routine as far as combinations of techniques goes is by practising techniques and drills learnt in class. The problem with stuff we learn in class is that we hardly ever get a chance to practise it. Then when the next class comes around, we’ve forgotten the technique.

The only thing I’m worried about at this stage is how well my shoulder will hold out. Fortunately for me, my partner’s skill is betetr than last time I chi saued with him and his hands are less heavy. If teh pressure on my shoulder causes it to ache then I’ll just have to work within my limits.

Ha ha, I was checking my traffic stats just now and it appears that someone found my site after searching in Google for “chi sau does what”. That just cracked me up. To me, this sounds like someone who is completely perplexed by the whole idea of chi sau and just wants to know what its purpose is. I can imagine, and clearly see in my minds eye, someone watching me do chi sau with my partner, and wondering why on earth we aren’t actually hitting each other properly. Well, for at least one  person out there, here’s my take on Chi Sau Does What!

Chi Sau Is Not Sparring Or Fighting

Chi sau is merely an exercise in which you practise with the help of a partner to develop the following:

• correct technique (bong sau, tan sau etc). Yes, you may be able to defend against your partner’s attack but what hand is that? Are you using proper hands?
• good footwork – you move around in response to your partner to adopt the best position.
• range. This could possiblybe linked with footwork. I had a wake up call recently when someone pointed out that although I’d laap saued them deftly and snapped out a precision perfect punch, I actually couldn’t reach them. My fist was still a few inches short of their face, with my arm fully stretched and at the time I was thinking I’d been “successful”. I realised that for a while now I’d been thinking I could hit my partner when really I was out of range. Duh.
• sensitivity – you must be able to feel accurately what your partner is doing and respond automatically, and quickly, in the most appropriate way. Obviously, automatic responses can only develop from much practise.
• softness. Strength is not usually the best response, at least not brute strength. Better to redirect your partner’s force, which is especially important if your partner is stronger than you. It’s very interesting to see what happens when you try and maintain your softness when practising with a partner who does use strength. I’m still finding it difficult, because, of course, my ego gets in the way! My ego will not let me appear to come off worse against someone who is “doing it wrong”. Duh x 2. I need a mindset change. Every difficulty presents a learning opportunity, and in a case like this it’s better to remove emotions entirely from the equation.

Chi Sau Misunderstood

I’ve seen chi sau competitions on Youtube. The ‘competition’ aspect comes from the fact that you score points when you hit your opponent. So the chi sau tends to degenerate into a wrestling match. I say degenerate, but actually it starts out that way.

The whole idea of “winning” by getting a strike in is contrary to the chi sau ethos. Yes, there is some value in sparring, or even full contact practise, but that is different from chi sau.

Not many tan saus in ths one:

I love this guy’s chi sau! It has a real flow to it and there is no (or very little) use of strength. It’s all about redirecting the other person’s energy.

Taking Turns In Chi Sau

But at the same time, the way that he and his partners are chi sauing is slightly….odd. They seem to be taking it in turns to do something. For instance the teacher’s partner will attack and there will be a pause before the teacher counters. There will then be a pause before the partner does something else. It looks very much like they are taking it in turns to attack and counter.

It appears that the teacher invariably lets his student perform his attack successfully without trying to stop him. Maybe they are practising techniques. This whole business of “you go first, then I’ll do something” is contrary to how our school chi sau. This style of chi sauing is apparent on his other videos too.

This is in no way a criticism of the skills on display here, as I don’t know the purpose of training like this. They all look pretty skillful practitioners. And they all flow beautifully.

I spoke to the person who posted the videos and s/he explained that the teacher was ‘feeding’ the students. What you see is merely a training method that enables the student to practise their technique. Fair enough.

At our Wing Chun school, the chi sau is continuous until someone is completely overpowered. I don’t mean overpowered by strength here, I mean trapped completely. There’ll be odd times where I do pause, but this is usually because there is no advantage to be gained from moving at that moment, or I am thinking too much and can’t think of what to do next.

How to stop thinking is a big problem!

Feeding Techniques In Chi Sau

What ysiddiqui said about ‘feeding’ students techniques led me to think about what my sifu does. He sometimes manipulates the chi sau deftly to keep repeating a particular scenario that demonstrates some mistake the student is making. Doing this, the student finds themself time after time making the same mistake. Whereas before the exercise, the student was unaware, when sifu does this he brings the faulty technique under the microscope so that the student has no choice but to see that something is going wrong.

This usually ends with an “ah – I see what’s happening!” moment for the student, or sifu explaining what’s happening. If necessary, sifu will demonstrate a better technique, or better use of the same technique and then chi sau will recommence. Sifu still manipulates the flow to keep repeating the same scenario, but now the student is better equipped to deal with it and can practise the technique over and over until it becomes natural.

So I can see that, in a way, my sifu does ‘feed’ us techniques, but only when he thinks it is necessary. And it is never “I go, then you go” unless we are practising a brand new technique. It is always a continuous exchange.

That’s not to say that our way is better than ysiddiqu’s way, or the other way around. They are just different ways of training.