mook jong man
Senior Master
Does anyone else sometimes practice chi sau at a very , very , almost excruciatingly slow pace just standing in the one spot.
For years I was always told by some of the senior instructors and my Sifu that it would improve the quality of my chi sau and ultimately my Wing Chun.
But I never had time for this , I tried it a couple of times for short periods and I thought it was boring .
I always had to be moving around , hitting , trapping , and being hit otherwise I thought I wasn't really training and just wasting my time.
But they were right , at very , very slow speed you can make sure your movements are absolutely correct and properly positioned.
Because the best defence against any trap or attack in chi sau is perfect rolling.
You can also work on really projecting your forward force from the elbow through out the whole cycle from Tan to Bong / Bong to Tan and the Fook sau between its upper and lower positions.
Even force from both arms must be kept on during the whole cycle of movements , this forms a type of shield.
Often with very fast chi sau , techniques are not as correct as they should be , not on centre , or the forward force comes on and off at different points during the cycle , usually with the Fook sau being the main offender.
This allows the opponent to detect a weakness in the shield and strike through.
Doing chi sau at a very slow speed also enables you to really feel the movements of your partner and detect where he is weak and also where you are weak , because you have time to concentrate on each minute action of your arms.
This is something that can be lost in normal speed chi sau because things are happening to fast for you to detect and make micro adjustments.
It is not boring if you concentrate on your stance , making sure each and every arm action is perfect and also trying to intensely focus on the movement of your partners arms.
This could be thought of as fine-tuning for your chi sau , probably wouldn't be a bad idea to go back to single arm chi sau occasionally either.
You still need to do some of the rough stuff at high speed to be functional in my opinion , but its also good to go back and refine your technique as well.
For years I was always told by some of the senior instructors and my Sifu that it would improve the quality of my chi sau and ultimately my Wing Chun.
But I never had time for this , I tried it a couple of times for short periods and I thought it was boring .
I always had to be moving around , hitting , trapping , and being hit otherwise I thought I wasn't really training and just wasting my time.
But they were right , at very , very slow speed you can make sure your movements are absolutely correct and properly positioned.
Because the best defence against any trap or attack in chi sau is perfect rolling.
You can also work on really projecting your forward force from the elbow through out the whole cycle from Tan to Bong / Bong to Tan and the Fook sau between its upper and lower positions.
Even force from both arms must be kept on during the whole cycle of movements , this forms a type of shield.
Often with very fast chi sau , techniques are not as correct as they should be , not on centre , or the forward force comes on and off at different points during the cycle , usually with the Fook sau being the main offender.
This allows the opponent to detect a weakness in the shield and strike through.
Doing chi sau at a very slow speed also enables you to really feel the movements of your partner and detect where he is weak and also where you are weak , because you have time to concentrate on each minute action of your arms.
This is something that can be lost in normal speed chi sau because things are happening to fast for you to detect and make micro adjustments.
It is not boring if you concentrate on your stance , making sure each and every arm action is perfect and also trying to intensely focus on the movement of your partners arms.
This could be thought of as fine-tuning for your chi sau , probably wouldn't be a bad idea to go back to single arm chi sau occasionally either.
You still need to do some of the rough stuff at high speed to be functional in my opinion , but its also good to go back and refine your technique as well.
