Body Aikido
Wing Chun Training And Chi Sao
One of the most important things people get wrong when performing chi sao is that they do not get their hands positioned correctly and this bad practice with a partner can cay se your skills to slip and erode what you have been taught.
A classic example of this is performing wing Chun chi sao and having sore shoulders.This becomes one of two things. Your opponent is hanging on your hands and arms pushing you down or you are driving our hands by the shoulders and by the elbows. You will be able to tell if you are doing it wrong from the aches and pains.
Remember everything in wing Chun training revolves around the shoulders. The elbows are not where you should be focussing yor energy.Contrary to popular belief.
We are use to our shoulders carrying the weight.
The key is to have fluidity. Relax the shoulders; roll them back and forth, the forward movement at the elbows.
This is where you should be practicing on sil lim tao… The wing chun system was smart enough to teach you the basics early on so if you hit a stumbling block you just go back to basics. Moving forward from the elbow towards your opponent.
Be loose however, have energy in your arms you don’t want to be a wet fish.
The idea of wing chin is to adapt your own style and enhance your strength s, as well as adapt to your opponent. Mastering this helps you gauge the feel and energy of your opponent. The idea is not to meet your opponents energy head on force on force you need to deflect it use it against him and find an opening.
Simiar to an aikido technique , you use the opponents momentum against them. Although I am far from an aikido expert the principles are very similar.
One of the best ways to practice chi sao is obviously with a fellow student.
However if you are at home and no one to train with the best advice would be to proactive your wing chun training forms to get the positioning right and the movement. The wing Chun dummy is also an excellent training tool for chi sao.You learn how it should feel, you can then move to correct the position to enhance your training.