mook jong man
Senior Master
The biggest difficulties I had in learning Chi sau were the letting go of tension , and developing nice relaxed springy forward force.
When my partner would take one or both of his hands away at random , my hands would stay frozen in mid air like a store mannequin instead of striking forwards to the centre .
After a hell of a lot of time spent doing Chi sau training I was finally able to get my arms to spring forward on loss of contact without any conscious thought on my part.
The only problem was they would spring forward ok , but they were all over the place . They seemed to hit everwhere except where I wanted them to go , which was the middle of the blokes chest on the centreline.
The problem was that I was exerting uneven force along my forearms , sometimes too much force from the wrist , other times too much from the elbow.
It was around about that time that somebody came back from a training holiday to Sigung's school in Hong Kong or it could have been to our other big Australian headquarters in Adelaide , I can't remember which.
They came back with a little tip about focusing forward force in Chi sau that really helped me a lot and maybe it will help you as well.
We won't worry too much about the Tan Sau , most people don't have too much of a problem with focusing that to centre. The hard ones are the Bong Sau and the Fook Sau.
One thing that will also help you is to point your fingers to where you want them to go , which is his chest.
We will work from static positions as that is easier , we'll work on your Bong Sau first .
Get your partner to put up his Fook Sau , both of you equalise each others forward force.
Now I want you to imagine there is a line going from the point of your elbow to a point on the middle of your partners chest.
Now I want you to imagine a second line going from your wrist to the same point on your partners chest , this with your arm forms a type of triangle.
Now I want you to project your force evenly down these two lines to the point on your partners chest , the one from your elbow and the one from your wrist.
Once you are set ask your partner to start taking his Fook Sau suddenly away at random .
Don't forget to bring your elbow in when your fist strikes forward , if you are projecting your force properly your fist or palm should head straight for the point on his chest like a laser guided missile.
When you are happy with it then you can start on the Fook Sau .
Get your partner to put his Bong Sau up , both equalise the forward force.
Same as before , imagine a line going from the point of your elbow on your Fook Sau to a point on the middle of your partners chest.
Now imagine a second line going from your wrist to the same point on your partners chest see how this forms another triangle like with the Bong Sau.
Once again project your force evenly down these two lines to the point on his chest.
Once you are ready , get your partner to suddenly take his Bong Sau away at random . If you are projecting properly your fist should go straight to the point on his chest that you are concentrating on.
Next is the hard part , now try doing it in normal single sticking hands , it is a lot harder because your arms are no longer static but moving .
The same as before , during the process of single sticking hands get your partner to pull his arm away suddenly.
When you are happy with that you can try the same thing in double sticking hands. This is even harder because you are projecting lines of force from both arms at once while they are moving.
If you are like me you find you will have the most difficulty in focusing your forward force properly when your Fook Sau is at the bottom position of its cycle .
After a while of training like this you can forget about the lines and just concentrate on that point on his chest and your hands will go there like magic every time.
When my partner would take one or both of his hands away at random , my hands would stay frozen in mid air like a store mannequin instead of striking forwards to the centre .
After a hell of a lot of time spent doing Chi sau training I was finally able to get my arms to spring forward on loss of contact without any conscious thought on my part.
The only problem was they would spring forward ok , but they were all over the place . They seemed to hit everwhere except where I wanted them to go , which was the middle of the blokes chest on the centreline.
The problem was that I was exerting uneven force along my forearms , sometimes too much force from the wrist , other times too much from the elbow.
It was around about that time that somebody came back from a training holiday to Sigung's school in Hong Kong or it could have been to our other big Australian headquarters in Adelaide , I can't remember which.
They came back with a little tip about focusing forward force in Chi sau that really helped me a lot and maybe it will help you as well.
We won't worry too much about the Tan Sau , most people don't have too much of a problem with focusing that to centre. The hard ones are the Bong Sau and the Fook Sau.
One thing that will also help you is to point your fingers to where you want them to go , which is his chest.
We will work from static positions as that is easier , we'll work on your Bong Sau first .
Get your partner to put up his Fook Sau , both of you equalise each others forward force.
Now I want you to imagine there is a line going from the point of your elbow to a point on the middle of your partners chest.
Now I want you to imagine a second line going from your wrist to the same point on your partners chest , this with your arm forms a type of triangle.
Now I want you to project your force evenly down these two lines to the point on your partners chest , the one from your elbow and the one from your wrist.
Once you are set ask your partner to start taking his Fook Sau suddenly away at random .
Don't forget to bring your elbow in when your fist strikes forward , if you are projecting your force properly your fist or palm should head straight for the point on his chest like a laser guided missile.
When you are happy with it then you can start on the Fook Sau .
Get your partner to put his Bong Sau up , both equalise the forward force.
Same as before , imagine a line going from the point of your elbow on your Fook Sau to a point on the middle of your partners chest.
Now imagine a second line going from your wrist to the same point on your partners chest see how this forms another triangle like with the Bong Sau.
Once again project your force evenly down these two lines to the point on his chest.
Once you are ready , get your partner to suddenly take his Bong Sau away at random . If you are projecting properly your fist should go straight to the point on his chest that you are concentrating on.
Next is the hard part , now try doing it in normal single sticking hands , it is a lot harder because your arms are no longer static but moving .
The same as before , during the process of single sticking hands get your partner to pull his arm away suddenly.
When you are happy with that you can try the same thing in double sticking hands. This is even harder because you are projecting lines of force from both arms at once while they are moving.
If you are like me you find you will have the most difficulty in focusing your forward force properly when your Fook Sau is at the bottom position of its cycle .
After a while of training like this you can forget about the lines and just concentrate on that point on his chest and your hands will go there like magic every time.
