Correcting Tak Sao and Gan Sao

[wingchun100]

This goes to show how important going to class can be. I have been thinking all these years that even though I couldn't make it to class, practicing my forms and techniques on my own would be "good enough" until I could get back to class. Well, now I'm thinking it's NOT enough because you could wind up developing bad habits without even knowing it until you get there and your Sifu says, "What are you doing???" LOL

At any rate, we did a drill that involved gan sao. Sifu showed me I was doing it all wrong. Instead of using it to draw a person in, I was sweeping it out to the side; the closest example I can think of is I was doing it almost like a low karate block. (That might not even be the best analogy, but it's the closest I can get now.)

Also, regarding tak sao, I realized that I was doing it only HALFWAY right! I had the upward part down (never mind how weird that sentence sounds), but I was missing something. The way I was doing it, I would be lifting a person's punch directly into my face! The catch is to lift up and FORWARD. This is a word that pops up in wing chun a lot because it all goes back to one simple concept: FORWARD intention. After making the connection now, it seems silly I didn't grasp that before.

At any rate, I know there could be plenty of comments made (mostly by myself!) on how sad it is that someone learning as long as me made those mistakes. However, I choose this stance on the issue: So what? Maybe I shouldn't have been making them, but I was...and I won't be from this point on!

 

[mook jong man]

This goes to show how important going to class can be. I have been thinking all these years that even though I couldn't make it to class, practicing my forms and techniques on my own would be "good enough" until I could get back to class. Well, now I'm thinking it's NOT enough because you could wind up developing bad habits without even knowing it until you get there and your Sifu says, "What are you doing???" LOL

At any rate, we did a drill that involved gan sao. Sifu showed me I was doing it all wrong. Instead of using it to draw a person in, I was sweeping it out to the side; the closest example I can think of is I was doing it almost like a low karate block. (That might not even be the best analogy, but it's the closest I can get now.)

Also, regarding tak sao, I realized that I was doing it only HALFWAY right! I had the upward part down (never mind how weird that sentence sounds), but I was missing something. The way I was doing it, I would be lifting a person's punch directly into my face! The catch is to lift up and FORWARD. This is a word that pops up in wing chun a lot because it all goes back to one simple concept: FORWARD intention. After making the connection now, it seems silly I didn't grasp that before.

At any rate, I know there could be plenty of comments made (mostly by myself!) on how sad it is that someone learning as long as me made those mistakes. However, I choose this stance on the issue: So what? Maybe I shouldn't have been making them, but I was...and I won't be from this point on!

Yes , your force in your tok sau should be aiming up at about 45 degrees or so , the way you were doing it you were basically trying to lift up their bodyweight.
Aiming your force up at an angle means you are then attacking their balance which means a lot less effort required.

 

[wingchun100]

Yeah I feel kind of ridiculous for not making the connection before, but now that I have, I'm going to keep on improving and moving forward.

See? There it is again...FORWARD!

 

[jg_wc]

Interesting!

My Sifu always says Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes PERMANENT. Only PERFECT practice makes perfect. Guess this is an example of that!

 

[wingchun100]

Interesting!

My Sifu always says Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes PERMANENT. Only PERFECT practice makes perfect. Guess this is an example of that!

Exactly. And now I'm going to be doing that perfect practice! Well, maybe not perfect at first, but now I can detect what I am doing wrong when I do it from now on.