Chi Sao blindfolded, use the 'force'
Chi Sau (also spelled Chi Sao) is a major tool in developing killer Wing Chun abilities. The two above are demonstrating 'blindfolded' Chi Sao.
If you want lightening speed, hair trigger reflexes, or to 'mind read' your opponent, practice Chi Sau.
It is so central to applying and mastering the principals of Wing Chun that its been referred as the jewel, the genius, or the heart of this martial art.
It has also been called Wing Chun’s laboratory, since it lets students experiment with their techniques, discover what works for them, what doesn’t, and what to do about it.
Chi Sau is similar to Tai Chi Chuan’s 'push hands' (推手 - in Mandarin pinying it's pronounced Tui Shou) training. Both involve:
But each has a different goal. Push hands trains you to feel your opponent’s center of gravity and disrupt it, by pushing, tripping, or throwing.
Chi Sau could do that as well. But since Wing Chun is an art that unleashes explosive strikes, its objective, especially at the more advanced levels, is to find an opening to strike your opponent, while protecting your own openings from attack.
Chi Sau (黏手 - in Mandarin's pinying it's pronounced Nian Shou) translates as sticky hands. Many people take the name literally and believe you must stick to your opponent’s arms at all costs. Not entirely accurate.
You want to maintain contact at the forearm right behind the wrist. This area is called the bridge.
More important than 'sticking' is protecting your center line from attack, and feeling when your partner's centerline is vulnerable to your attack.
For instance, if your partner gets tired and drops her guard very low, instead of following it down by 'sticking' to it... you probably have an opening down the center.
Let her arm drop, break contact with her bridge, and hit her in the face.
Through sticky hands practice, you learn effective transitions, adjustments, and control of all three sides of the bridge.
The bridge is the basis for the three families of Wing Chun hand movements.
Another point about the name: If both opponents [look at the picture above] have good form (assuming there is no footwork in the drill), and protecting their centerlines and the centerline between them, technically that means both their arms/bridges are taking up the center.
But according to Newton or Einstein (probably both), and often repeated in Wing Chun, two objects can't occupy the same space at the same time.
So visually, the arms are rotating in a Wing Chun chess match where each opponent is trying to gain a better position.
To the untrained eye this looks like the fighters are trying to stick their arms together.
In fact, what they are doing is probing for openings, attacking the openings, simultaneously creating an opening on themselves with their attack, and then defending the openings from their opponent.
Back and forth this goes until something gives.
My sifu breaks down training to make it easier to learn. Some steps are:
What's Next?
Video MASTERY: Sifu Tyler Rea Teaches Chi Sao Foundations Bundle
3 Blindfolded Chi Sao Drills [Video]
The Most Common Chi Sao Mistake, and the Fix
Video Mastery: Sifus Taner and Graziano Chi Sao 1 - 7 Bundle
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