Chi Sao

Chi Sao Vs Sparring | Which One Is Better For Fighting?

September 7, 2016 By admin Leave a Comment

chi sao You don’t have to search too long to find debates about Chi Sao Vs Sparring. You can find arguments all over the internet especially in the MMA VS TMA circles.

Wing Chun is a style that you either love or hate. I am not sure why that is, but you can literally walk into an martial arts forum and have a ton of martial artist involved in flame wars.

If you trained in Wing Chun for any amount of time you probably know that Chi Sao is like sparring for the Wing Chun community. I myself have been playing Chi Sao for around 20 years now.

With my Sifu my Chi Sao training is very structured. However, in the street training with other Wing Chun practitioners it can sometimes be the closest thing to fighting that you can experience without fighting. [Read more…]

Using Chi Sao To Train Sensitivity

April 29, 2015 By admin Leave a Comment

I am not sure why when people talk about Wing Chun they mention Chi Sao and then they go into how Chi Sao isn’t training for realistic fighting situations. Then I usually hear that if you really want to see if your Wing Chun works you need to try it against a resisting opponent.

I am not sure how other people train their Wing Chun but we don’t use partners that allow us to do whatever we want to them to make our kung fu look better. In fact we encourage our partners to try and get us.

However with that said this post isn’t really about if Wing Chun is good or bad. This post is to help you understand what Chi Sao is used for. Often times when you see a Chi Sao video you see 2 people just smacking the bejebus out of each other. It’s not what the intention of the exercise is. Chi Sao was created to teach people how to deal with energy.

While there are times when you can play Chi Sao very aggressively, most times you should train it calm and relaxed. Your partner should give you time to fix your mistakes. Part of what you are also doing in this drill is training your fighting ranges

Like everything else, there is a time and place for everything. Don’t do Chi Sao with the intention of beating your partner. This will only create bad habits in you and your partner. [Read more…]

Chi Sao Demo, Lesson On Chi Sao Understanding Sticky Hands

February 11, 2014 By admin Leave a Comment

In many Wing Chun circles there is much talk about what is proper chi sao vs what is not proper chi sao. If we look on YouTube we find tons of samples of people doing bad chi sao or worse people thinking chi sao is actually sparring.

In a previous article I talked about What Is Chi Sao.

In this article I want to show you what I feel chi sao should look like. I am not a big fan on filming myself doing kung fu. However, my sifu did a really good lesson on it and I wanted to do the intro to the the lesson justice.

Chi Sao Is Important For Stress Testing Your Skill

While Chi Sao isn’t exactly fighting if you are practicing with an aggressive partner you can experience a real adrenaline dump. These things are nasty. Your body locks up in many cases you even get scared.

Essentially when an adrenaline dump happens your chi sao skill goes out the window. Chi Sao training can help teach you breath control and pressure control. Only a novice practitioner thinks chi sao is actually fighting. Besides the fact that in Chi Sao you start with your hands connected, in a real fight you are not connected.

Chi sao has fixed patterns, therefor depending on your partner you could be training repetition rather live energy. So there are many factors that go into chi sao.

Make no mistake though, a person who is very good at chi sao is also more than likely a very competent fighter.

There is a saying:

Don’t box a boxer

In order for Wing Chun to work, a wing chun practitioner has to use their skill vs using brute force. Wing Chun is a counter attacking system. I know you see lots of videos online where wing chun fighters are doing the attacking. I don’t believe it’s how it was meant to be used. Wing chun is devastating from a counter attacking position.

The skills you learn in chi sao can be applied the moment the energy calls for it. As Bruce Lee said, when it attacks it attacks all by itself…….