CHI SAU - THE LINK BETWEEN FORM AND FUNCTION
Hey All,
I was working through some drills and disarms, and I found it interesting that much of my wing chun forms came into practice. But the most interesting thing was how easily I flowed between one technique and circumstance to another.
As
I looked later at the training, I noticed that much of the flow was
because of the chi sau training and push hands that I do. Now let me
explain, when I and some of my Gung fu brothers do chi sau or pushhands,
it is unscripted. So what happens, happens. We are more interested in
understanding the flow of the force, rather than trying to force a particular
technique.
There are many who believe that chi sau is about making a particular technique work. And they are correct, to a point. When training with a partner, and you want to perfect a technique, it must be trained together. Your partner must give you the proper 'stimulus' to flow into that technique. If you need to muscle your partner into that technique then you are doing it wrong. In Wing chun, there is a proverb, 'Beginners Must not use strength'. So using muscle to force a particular technique isn't the best idea.
One of the best things about working techniques with the proper stimulus is that when you do practice 'free form' or 'unscripted' chi sau you naturally flow into a given technique because the stimulus is there and you trained for it. By training for sensitivity and stimulus, you then are able to work outside of a 'textbook' answer.
Doing Taiji pushhands also serves a great purpose. In pushhands, you are working constructively to develop the sensitivity of knowing where your partner's center of gravity is and how to manipulate that mass to take your partner's balance, all the while, without any scripted movements.
So when you train chi sau, remember to work through your techniques with the proper stimulus, and understanding when a particular technique would work.
Keep Training, Keep Learning!
