Form Training and Chi Sao Training

[wingchun100]

Sifu said something interesting to me when I went back to class, and I hope I am remembering it right.

I said to him how I was glad to be back to class because, while I enjoy doing the forms on my own, I hated that I wasn't able to develop my chi sao skills. He said to me, "Well, it can work both ways. You'll be doing chi sao and realize you are really tense, and you'll say to yourself, 'Damn, I'm way too tense during this fook sao. I need to work on that during my form.' So your chi sao training can also help your forms."

It helped to alleviate how bad I've been feeling over not making it to class, but then again I don't think he said it just to watch out for my ego. All the years I have been going, Sifu has said what you do bad in one form will reflect on ALL of your wing chun as a whole. So if my stance is bad, then you will know it when I do the dummy form because, instead of me moving the dummy, the dummy will move ME. If you don't have enough forward intention in one technique, then NONE of them will. So his statement really just further reinforced an idea he has shared with me for the past 18 years.

Any thoughts on that?

 

[Takai]

i would concur with his statements. Your forms are your building blocks for your "techniques". The teach your position, structure, and how to be soft. Do SLT with a whole lot of muscular tension and see how it affects your technique.