Issue 54 - Tse Qigong Centre

The Art of Sticking HandsChi Sau is the most important part of Wing Chun injured and other areas of your life will also be affected verytraining. The purpose of Chi Sau is to develop badly. So in the end you might not even be able to carry onyour instinct and sensitivity to your opponent, your training.so when he moves you can react straight away. However, there is one other way in which you can trainHowever Chi Sau is not the same thing as fighting where you do not have to pay this high price and it will teachthough it will help you to develop your fighting skill. Chi Sau is you how to keep relaxed. Of course the answer is Chi Sau. Asalso not the same thing as sparring. How are they different mentioned earlier, the most important thing in Chi Sau is toand how does Chi Sau develop fighting skill?When fighting or sparring there is alwaysa winner and loser: if you are beaten in afight or in sparring then you have lost. ChiSau does not look at things in the sameway. The purpose of Chi Sau is to learnwhy you were hit and how to hit youropponent. So as long as you learn,whether you get hit or hit youropponent, you never lose. Then youcan treat Chi Sau like a game andstay relaxed. This is the mostimportant thing in Chi Sau – to stayrelaxed.Most people will lose afight because they panic. Whenyou panic you cannot move asyou would like to or react asquickly as you should. You“The purpose of Chi Sau is tolearn why you were hit and how tohit your opponent.”panic because you are not used to being in that situation andstress and so cannot keep calm. You don’t even know whatyou are doing or what is happening. It does not matter whetheryou study martial arts or not, if you panic then there is a goodchance you will lose, especially if your opponent remains calm.So the question is how do you stop yourself panicking?The only way to stop is to get used to the situation so it isfamiliar to you. Its is like driving acar, when you have alot ofexperience then if some one steps out in front of you, you canreact quickly and stop, however, if you are anew driver, youmight panic and not know what to do. So you have to gainexperience. One way to do this is fight a lot, almost everyday.If you fight a lot then you will know what it is like and so beable to stay calm and relaxed. Then you can use whatever skillyou have learnt. However if you do this, then you have to paya high price. Physically, you will become very damaged andstay relaxed. After you have trained in Chi Sau for a long time,you can stay relaxed whatever your opponent does, and canalso use all the skill you have studied. If you can do this thenyou have developed the fighting skill. Of course there is neverany guarantee that you won’t panic, even if you fight a lot, youcannot guarantee that. All that remains is to make sure thatwhen you strike it is strong enough. This is more easy to do. Tomake a tense person physically and mentally relax is verydifficult and takes a long time.This is why Chi Sau is so important. If your Chi Sau isgood then your Wing Chun will be good and if your Wing Chunis good, then your fighting skill will also be goodby Grandmaster Ip ChunThis article is based on a series of discussion with Grandmaster Ip Chun whilsthe was teaching in the UK. For more information about his seminars pleasecontact the Tse Qigong Centre.Qi Magazine 26