Some styles favor chi sau, some do it but don't think of it as anything but a drill for building skill, some don't teach it at all. And some students have their own thoughts on chi sau.
Do you think that Chi Sau is really effective in teaching one to "fight"? In realistic terms?
yes, everyone pretty much knows how I feel on the subject, but I really want to know what you all think. and why?
Do you think it's realistic for WC or "fight" training? (and i don't mean the "cage" fight training. so please don't go...,, blah, blah.. I mean a real fight for your life, bleeding, biting, break your tooth and chip a nail ... FIGHTING! training)
Will Chi Sau help or hinder you?
If it is trained correctly it is absolutely effective for realistic fighting.
The list of attributes that it develops in a fighter would probably fill a page , but just a few that it develops are aggression , stance , proper angles of arms , forward force and correct spontaneous reactions with out the need for conscious thought.
Remember if you have to think about it , its too late.
You can illustrate its usefulness in real fighting by this little experiment , get someone to throw a series of four corner punches at you.
Right then Left circular punches to the head , and then Right then Left uppercut punches to the gut.
Start off doing them slow and wide so they have plenty of time to do their simultaneous attack and deflections.
Then start doing them extremely fast and with ever tightening trajectories , bring your strikes in so tight that you are barely even leaving contact with their arms , watch as their simultaneous attack and deflections turn to crap as it just becomes a mess of arms .
You can see that what happens is a type of defence using Chi Sau.
What they will do is instinctively stick to the inside of your arms and try to roll from Tan Sau to Bong Sau so that they can control you , this forms a sort of cone shaped defence with the point of the cone focused at the opponent.
They have to do this because not only is the action too fast for them to simultaneous attack and counter , it is also too fast for them to see.
This is where Chi Sau comes into its own because at such short range and with such fast movement you cannot depend on your eyes , they are far too slow.
Your arms must now become your eyes or your ears and instead of deflecting with one arm and striking with the other , you must now be able to strike and control with both of your arms independently.