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Sticky-Hand Fighting (chi sao)

INTRODUCTION

Sticky-hand fighting (chi sao) is the foundation of the Wing Chun system. So important is this skill that the merits of a Wing Chun practitioner can be judged by his skill at sticky-hands alone. Yet many students of Wing Chun are confused about the meaning of chi sao; it is seen as no more than a training exercise, like shadow boxing, for developing, in this case, contact reflexes—the ability to spontaneously respond to an attack upon contact of the arms. This is true, but sticky-hands is much more than this—it is a way of fighting.

In this chapter, I shall explain how to fight using the sticky-hand techniques. I cannot in this guidebook show you every technique from the theory of sticky-hands, as that would take an entire book in itself. I can, however, discuss and illustrate the most basic and useful techniques, which I believe will give the reader an understanding of the fundamental principles behind chi sao, and this I feel is a more important task.

WHAT IS CHI SAO?

In fighting with the hands, an attack may be either evaded or else it is blocked or deflected. If it is blocked or deflected, then the attacker and the opponent’s arm (typically, the forearms, or what is called the bridge) come into contact. Chi sao is a martial-art theory concerned with fighting at this instant. Instead of withdrawing and then counterattacking, as is usually done in Western boxing, in sticky-hands one clings or sticks to the opponent’s forearms and attempts to penetrate his guard and thus secure a strike. There are many individual techniques designed for penetrating an opponent’s guard once the forearms come into contact. In general, however, these moves may be classified into fundamental categories such as: trapping the arms; pushing the hands up or down, left or right; pulling the guard hand(s) down or clearing an entrance by the jut sao; forcing or grinding through the guard; twisting around or flicking a bil jee strike around the guard; and attacking under or over the bridge (e.g., using a lap sao technique—a bong sao with a rotating back fist).

Sticky-hand training has two parts. First, one finely tunes one’s reflexes by two training drills known as single and double rolling hands. Both of these exercises are practiced in the parallel stance in order to train both hands equally. Second, one adds fighting techniques to the single and double sticky-hands techniques so that hand-free fighting can occur. At a more advanced level, sticky-leg techniques are added so that ultimately the student works up to performing sticky-hand and sticky-leg free sparring. In this section, I shall discuss the formal exercise of rolling hands; and in the next section, combat techniques.

Single chi sao is performed by two practitioners who face each other in the parallel stance. Person A forms a left or right taun sao, which person B locks up with a right or left fook sao. There is forward force (not downward force) on both of these hand moves, but not an exaggerated amount. In other words, you aim your weapon at your opponent, but do not push it through unless he is obviously open. This is so that you do not commit yourself to any particular direction and consequently create an opening for your opponent, who could then side-pivot, redirect your force, and strike.

From the taun sao/fook sao position, the person forming the taun sao performs a low palm-strike, careful not to draw his elbow into his own body. The other person destroys the force of the palm-strike with the wrist force of a jut sao; this person must be even more careful to maintain the fist-and-a-half distance between the elbow and the center-line, to lose it would be to simply draw the opponent’s strike into his own body. The person who has done jut sao now punches toward his opponent’s head. The opponent’s arm sticks and rises into a defensive bong sao. Then both hands go back to the starting point of taun sao/fook sao and the sequence begins again. The practitioners swap hand moves on the jut sao/palm-strike position, the person doing the low palm-strike performs haun sao to get on the outside and punches up. The punch rises with a defensive bong sao and the sequence begins again. To change hands, one person punches with the previously stationary hand, which is met by a bong sao and the sequence continues. Single sticky-hands practice performed in this way, is a continuous flow of attack and defense.

Double chi sao is not the performance of single sticky-hands with both hands (although that would be a worthwhile exercise). Rather, the simple rolling exercise is as follows. Person A has either a bong sao or a fook sao with either his left or right hand, while person B has a punch or taun sao with the opposite hand. The rule is that at any time you have either: a) a bong sao and a fook sao, or b) a punch or a taun sao, then the bong sao always goes with the punch and the taun sao and fook sao go together. If person A is in the bong sao/fook sao position, then he rotates to taun sao/punch and person B does the corresponding move. To change hands, one performs haun sao and punches from the inner hand (the hand inside the opponent’s guard), which is met with bong sao, and the opponent does the same. Then simply drop down into taun sao/fook sao on the opposite side and start rotating again.

The most important aspect of either of these exercises is to develop a good defense of the center-line (median axis of the body) by getting the elbow in the center-line. A sticky-hands performance with the elbow out of the center-line, particularly one in which the hands sway from side to side like palm trees in a storm is extremely poor because this sort of rotation is wide open to a strike from either the taun sao (the inner hand) or the fook sao (the other hand). To develop a good center-line defense, or a so-called good elbow, some hard training is necessary. First, one must stretch the chest muscles and shoulder muscles (especially the lateral deltoids). Second, sticky-hands must be performed using the cane-circle hand. The idea here is to force the upper arms (not the forearms as some students believe) together with a round of cane, or even a piece of cloth. Sticky-hands is then performed. As the elbow improves, a cane circle with a smaller diameter can be used. This advice is an illustration of the profound simplicity of Wing Chun: its best skills and training methods make one think, “Of course, why didn’t I think of that!” It is easy then to see why so much of Wing Chun kung-fu has been veiled in secrecy for so long.

STICKY-HAND FIGHTING SKILLS

1. BASIC HAND TRAP

The idea behind hand trapping is to use one of your hands to cut an opponent’s arm down upon his other arm, so that it is pressed upon his body and is momentarily dead. This situation occurs when one of your hands is on top of your opponent’s hand. At that instant, an opening for a strike to the head exists. Repeated hits can be performed while maintaining the trap by alternating the hands that respectively hold and punch.

Another form of trapping hands involves using the opponent’s own body to cut off his attack. This occurs when the attacker gets into an opponent’s side and, with one of his arms, locks up the opponent’s upper arm, forcing it onto the opponent’s chest. Once again, a clear shot at the face is possible, and again, repeated hits involve maintaining the trap and alternating the hands that respectively hold and punch.

The cut-and-punch trap can be countered by moving your bottom hand out of the cut and using the internal close-body taun sao, deflecting the punch and immediately counter-attacking. The side trap must be evaded by footwork, moving to release the pressure on the upper arm, parrying the pressing arm, and countering with a bil jee, back fist, or side hammer-punch.

2. ONE-STEP GUARD-CLEARING TECHNIQUES

There are a number of techniques in sticky-hand fighting that are called one-step guard-clearing techniques. Typically, these techniques involve one deflection or angle-altering hand move, with a follow-up attack. The taun sao and punch/palm-strike is the simplest of these.

From a taun sao with the inside hand, turn out the opponent’s outer hand, and strike through the opening. Or alternatively, perform this move, but fake a strike, and attack instead with the opposite hand. Another good technique is to alter the angles of the opponent’s defense, so that an opening materializes. For example, in the rolling hands, when you rotate from bong sao/fook sao to taun sao/punch, with your left hand in bong sao, try applying a slight circular force to the motion forming the taun sao so that your opponent’s hands both move to the left. At that split second, a free path opens up for an attack.

Apart from these techniques, there are many other one-step guard-clearing techniques. You may push a hand out of the way or lift it up; a hand may be cleared by the downward force of the jut sao, or a bil jee strike may be forced through using the piercing-hands technique from the Chum Kil form. The opponent’s hands may also be drawn downward, so that they come together (constituting a partial trap) and a strike made through the opening to the hand which is then created.

3. ROTATIONAL FORCE

The Wing Chun fighter’s hand must be flexible like a snake, one of the animals that is used to symbolically represent the system. Many sticky-hand skills are based upon rotation of the wrist or elbow to secure strikes. You may, for example, by haun sao or wrist twisting, get both of your hands on the superior inside position and force the opponent’s arms out of his center-line, attacking with a double palm strike. Again, if your hand is on the outside position, you may rotate your hand inside the opponent’s center-line and flick your fingers into his face. Another excellent skill from the Bil Jee form is to rotate an arm that is on the inside of an opponent’s upheld arm, cutting down with a palm strike or hammer punch into the opponent’s face.

4. GRAB-AND-CHOP TECHNIQUE

The grab-and-chop technique is an excellent skill that can be devastating in combat. The idea of this technique is to grab the opponent’s hand under the bridge (forearm) of your bong sao and launch a chop to the throat. This chop is usually blocked by the opponent with a taun sao. However, you can then grab the taun sao and pull and chop above it, pulling the opponent down at a 45-degree angle. This second chop will be successful because the opponent’s balance is destroyed as he is forced to trip over himself. This skill is used extensively in Wing Chun’s chin-na, which is discussed below.

5. PULLING AND PUSHING FORCES

Wing Chun’s sticky-hand fighting makes extensive use of pulling and pushing actions to clear away defenses and to render defenses ineffective. The simplest way in which this can be done is by lifting the opponent’s arms up and attacking under the bridge. Another technique involves parrying the opponent’s taun sao from your bong sao, and slipping an uppercut (lifting punch) under the bridge and through the guard to the head. A subtle use of pushing force is the tracing-the-shape palm, found in the Bil Jee form of some forms of Wing Chun, which I discussed previously in the Bil Jee chapter in volume one. This technique is used to control the upper arms of the opponent, clinging to them and forcing them onto the opponent’s own body so that his arms are momentarily trapped and you are free to strike his face.

Pushing force is a neglected aspect of contemporary martial-arts training, only being adequately developed by the Japanese in sumo wrestling and surprisingly enough by the Americans in American football, and by the Australians in “Aussie Rules” football. The push, however, is an excellent balance-destroying technique. In Wing Chun training, students train both shoulders and hips in pushing techniques that illustrate a broader principle, namely that students should aim to mold their entire bodies into weapons—not merely their hands and legs.

An example of the use of pulling force comes from the Bil Jee form (previously mentioned). Another method of clearing a guard is to pull at the opponent’s defensive hand, not to disrupt his balance, but to alter the angle of the defensive hand so that the way is cleared for a punch. For example, against your straight punch, the opponent defends with a bong sao. You grasp the opponent’s hand with your free hand, and pull so that the bong sao straightens out and your punch sails right over the top of the bong sao.

I have summarized here some of the fundamental sticky-hand techniques. While many of the more complex techniques have not been discussed or illustrated here, the above outline does, I believe, give the reader a useful guide to sticky-hand fighting. But that is not all there is to Wing Chun combat. As well as sticky-hand fighting, there is also sticky-leg fighting and chin-na. These skills must be added to the foundation that has already been constructed.

STICKY-HAND FIGHTING TECHNIQUES

1. This illustrates the start position of the single sticky-hands training drill. The larger fighter on the left delivers a left-hand taun sao, which is locked up by the smaller fighter’s right fook sao. Notice that the elbows, and not merely the wrists, are aligned along the center-line.

2. The larger fighter delivers a palm-strike from the taun sao position toward his opponent’s groin. The smaller fighter deflects this attack with a jut sao or downward-deflecting palm-strike. Because the hands are in contact, the attack is felt and the hands stick to each other, or follow each other’s force.

3. From this previous position the smaller fighter has a strategic advantage, because his hand is on top of his opponent’s hand, effectively controlling it. Therefore he punches toward the larger fighter’s head. However, the larger fighter again feels this attack coming because of the upward release of pressure and rises up, sticking to the punch to deflect it with a bong sao. The larger fighter then drops his left arm from the bong sao to the taun sao position, while the smaller fighter sticks on all the time locking up the arm. The sequence is completed by returning to the taun sao/fook sao position. The sequence is then repeated.

This drill is repeated on the opposite side by either proponent punching, the other proponent deflecting the punch with a bong sao, and the sequence continues. The point of this drill is to train fluid and fast combinations of basic hand moves and contact sensitivity— to respond to an attack by feeling alone. For this reason, chi sao is often practiced blindfolded.

4. This is the start position for the double sticky-hands rotation drill. The larger fighter’s left arm is in the bong sao formation. It is sticking to the smaller fighter’s right punch. The larger fighter’s right arm is in the fook sao formation. It is locking up the smaller fighter’s left taun sao. This exercise combines the movements that we saw previously in the single sticky-hand drill.

5. Now rotate your arms. This is done by the larger fighter forming a left taun sao, which the smaller fighter locks up with a right fook sao. The larger fighter’s right punch is locked up by the smaller fighter’s left bong sao. Then return to the start position. To do this, the smaller fighter forms simultaneously a left taun sao and right punch, to which the larger fighter responds with a left bong sao and right fook sao, respectively. The double sticky-hands rotation drill may now be continued. This exercise symbolizes a hands-on combat situation.

6. Attack and defense skills can be added to the basic double sticky-hands rotation drill. From the start position shown in Figure 4, the smaller fighter may cut down the larger fighter’s bong sao onto his other arm, so that a hand-trap is formed. Notice how the larger fighter’s top arm is pressed down onto his lower arm.

7. From this position, the smaller fighter withdraws his bottom arm, which was locking up (from below) his opponent’s arms. The trap is still maintained by pushing down the larger fighter’s crossed arms. This allows a clear punch to the chin to be delivered.

8. This attack can be countered by the larger fighter quickly withdrawing his bottom arm in a windshield-wiper-type motion (in this case the right arm) from the arm trap, and using a taun sao to deflect the punch off the center-line.

9. The larger fighter then immediately follows through with a cutting side-palm to the smaller fighter’s nose, which is illustrated here.

10. The smaller fighter could defend against the previous palm-strike by pivoting his body slightly on the spot, or even by turning his body to the side, simultaneously chopping down with his forearm on the in-coming palm-strike, deflecting it.

11. Now, from this position, the smaller fighter grabs the larger fighter’s former attacking arm, jerks it down, and then delivers a punch to the chin.

12. In turn, the larger fighter may again defend against this attack by deflecting the smaller fighter’s punch with a taun sao.

13. The larger fighter may then counter-attack with a palm-strike. This sequence of photographs illustrates the continuous nature of the Wing Chun attack and defense in sticky-hand fighting.

14. The larger fighter’s palm-strike can be countered by the smaller fighter in a fashion that we have already seen—pivot counterclockwise to the left 90 degrees and cut down the incoming attack. Then maintain a hand-trap, as we have already seen, and deliver a counter-attack in the form of a punch to the larger fighter’s chin.

15. Once again there is a way for the larger fighter to defeat this attack before he is punched. As soon as his hands are forced downward, the larger fighter simply pivots his body clockwise 90 degrees, or at least twists his trunk to one side to counter the downward force. It is therefore possible now to raise the once trapped arm upward to form a bong sao to defend against the smaller fighter’s punch.

16. Now a counter-attack can be launched. The larger fighter pivots to the front from the side position, simultaneously lifting his bong sao. Notice how the smaller fighter has grabbed the bong sao to prepare for yet another attack. Here, however, the force of the pivot and the lifting motion of the larger fighter’s arm is sufficient to raise both of the smaller fighter’s arms. In doing so, an opening is created, and the larger fighter proceeds to deliver a punch to the chin through the created opening.

17. However, the smaller fighter instantly responds to this attack by pulling down the larger fighter’s bong sao. The smaller fighter’s arm, which was previously forced, seemingly helplessly, into the air, is now smashed down in a hammer-punch to the collarbone.