AWCA Notebook

Is “sticking” to your opponent actually helpful in a real fight, or is it classroom rhetoric?

“Sticking” is the essence of Chi-sau, and Chi-sau has been shown to be a legitimate, useful element to real life fighting. How a practitioner utilizes this element, though, is really where it’s at. Some feel that you should stick at all times, while others feel it is more appropriate to stick at the beginning, know where the opponent is at, and then take your own initiative from that point on.

We develop all of these points through controlled sparring, but also in all-out, full-scale fight training. By that, I mean that we run the gamut of progression:

1. We begin with learning what Chi-sau is about and how to utilize it in a slow, controlled manner
2. We speed it up by learning various sections for specific reactions
3. Finally, we ”free it up” and just let things happen as they will, while constantly working to improve speed, softness and relaxation (which in turn improves reaction time and performance)

The final stages involve two phases: the first is Chi-sau sparring with light protective equipment (so that more powerful strikes can be employed while also limiting injuries) and the second is full sparring but using Chi-sau to “guide the way”. Gloves might used, as well as mouth guards and groin protectors. Beyond that, there is nothing to protect each other except the practitioner’s skill.

Does this lend itself to learning “how” to fight for real? Yes, it does. The simple fact of making contact and learning how to attack (as well as how it feels to be attacked) conditions the body to respond in a specific way. At the various levels of progression, a great deal is learned when we can not only focus on what we are doing in a controlled manner, but also “letting it go” periodically in order to up the anty, so to speak.

So where does Chi-sau come into play? It comes into play at the very moment that contact is made, because in that split second your arms will know exactly what the opponent is doing. And because your arms knows what the opponent is doing, they can do something about it. If they could not, then it is nothing more than “who can get there first”.

So Chi-sau is used to a greater extent than some might initially think. In fact, it is the sole reason that Wing Chun is as effective as it is.

The real problem I encounter sometimes, though, is when someone thinks it will be the same in the street as it is in class, and naturally that is rarely the case.

For example, we learn the forms but would we apply the movements exactly like the forms are trained, and in exactly the same way? Of course not. Slight changes here and there according to the real attack will always keep things from being worked “exactly” as trained.

And that is why Chi-sau is so important.

The concept of sticking is to teach the arms how to respond properly to what the opponent is doing. Nothing more, nothing less. A movement without pressure (stick) will always have to change according to the situation, but the concept “of” sticking revolves the concept “of” changing to begin with.

In other words, the training itself is the same as will be on the street: we never stifle ourselves by being regimented; instead, we are always responding differently to what we feel, so when it is encountered for real, we are already accustomed to respond to the change.

Rather than thinking about anything, Chi-sau offers the means in which to let yourself go and allow your body to respond solely to what it is feeling. Does that mean you cannot take some of your own initiative? Not at all. After all, you have eyes to see and ears to hear, so definitely use them. But in there somewhere, you must keep it firmly in front that the sole purpose is to learn how to feel, and then take the feeling and translate it to real situations.

In those situations, we work them in the drills and let things go, experimenting with angles, power, speed, and different movements, things we would encounter in real life.

“Sticking” during fighting is definitely a practical skill by every sense of the word. So in your Chi-sau training, do not just go through the motions without working out what it means to apply that to real life.