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What is Chi Sao?
By Phil Elmore
Chi sao is a sensitivity exercise done in
Wing Chun Kung Fu that
is often misunderstood when appropriated by those of other martial art
styles. The term means “sticky hands,” and a typical chi sao
drill involves two people whose hands and arms are in contact with each
other.
There are different chi sao drills. I started with single hand
chi sao, for example, which followed a very set pattern of
movements. One student holds his hand in tan sao, the “dispersing
hand.” Another holds his same-side hand and arm in fook sao, the
“hooking” or “subduing” hand. The student holding a tan sao
executes jing jiang, a palm strike. The student holding
fook sao turns the “hooking hand” into a jut sao, the “jerking
hand.” He then delivers a vertical punch and the other student uses
bon sao, the “wing arm,” to stop the punch from striking him in the
head. This done repeatedly.
Simple chi sao exercise.
Fook sao, jut sao, punch
or tan sao, jing jiang, bon sao over and over again.
As we progressed we learned to “run”
that is, to circle around tightly
and strike when the other student exerted pressure that he or she should
not be exerting while performing chi sao. In this way, sensitivity
to the opponent’s movements his or her “energy” directed toward you
is developed. Let me be clear that the term “energy” here does not
mean “chi” or The Force or some other nonsense. I’m talking about
physical movement or perhaps kinetic energy (depending on how liberal we
are with our terminology).
After these initial stages I started practicing cross-arm chi sao, which starts out from
a position that reminds me of the Bruce Lee and John Saxon fight scenes
during the competition bouts in Enter the Dragon. The goal of each
student is to deliver a light strike from that position while preventing
the other student from doing the same, using a variety of hand techniques
lop sao to pull the other student’s hand out of the way while
delivering a strike, for example. Cross-arm chi sao feels a lot
more like actually sparring someone, whereas the simpler single-arm chi
sao really bored me at first.
Cross-arm chi sao. Looks fun, doesn’t it?
While chi sao starts out very “dead” and
pattern-oriented, students progress from these static stages (which allow
them to develop a base on which to build if you can’t learn to sense the
physical movements of someone who is squared off to you and performing a
specific pattern, you’re not going to be able to do this in a free-form
environment) to a much more dynamic form of chi sao.
Among those who’ve “played” chi sao long enough,
sticky hands attributes translate directly to going around and through an
opponent’s guard to strike him or her. I’ve done this with Sifu
Winfree, our JKD/Kali instructor, and in the words of our senior student
Don Jennings, “It’s like fighting a ghost.” When you try to strike
him this is free form, not a cross-arm or other patterned exercise
he’ll react to the contact of your arms by not being there, all while
working around your guard to strike you. Suddenly a “Wookie hand”
the size of a small ham is at your throat. It’s extremely unsettling
and an advanced application of touch reflexes.
Sifu Eric Winfree (left) and Guru Kevin Seaman
apply touch reflexes.
The importance of chi sao drills was first driven home to me during an
exercise with my teacher
Anthony involving
knives. We had been discussing knife fighting, not chi sao. Using a rubber knife, I attacked him, while he sought to
check my elbows to stop me and counter my attack. At one point his
initial bock of my strike missed. His chi sao sensitivity
training allowed him to counter immediately and stop me from “stabbing”
him without conscious thought on his part. Using his body, he sensed the
“energy” of my missed incoming attack and he reacted accordingly.
By this I do not mean he used some sort of ESP or
mystical powers to react to my attack like some mythical blind swordsman.
I mean that he reacted instinctively, using the reflexes developed in
training touch sensitivity, to the mechanical force of my attack
and the feeling of his missed block. You’d never be able to do this
fast enough if you were consciously thinking about it. That’s the
“mind of no mind,” as they say in Asian martial arts.
Sifu Iglesias demonstrates with senior student
Don Jennings…
…to show the benefits of sensitivity when
“touching hands.”
Those who do not grasp the point of chi sao or
who fail to understand the benefits of the attributes it develops in the
long term often pan the “playing” of sticky hands as a waste of time.
“Why spend hours doing sticky hands when a chin jab or an axe hand is so
much easier to learn?” they ask. “You don’t need this traditionalist
nonsense to learn to fight.” Well, no you don’t need to learn
chi sao to be able to deliver force to someone. You don’t need
to be able to draw to sketch a map for someone, either, but it’s always
nice to have talents beyond the very rudiments of a skill.
Other critics argue that there are better ways to
develop touch sensitivity than chi sao, “trapping,” or hubud
practice. There are different ways, to be sure, but I would
hesitate to call one better than the other provided they perform the same
long-term function. I thik some people also tend to try to “run
before they can walk, skipping the often dull development of basic skills
to go directly to more interesting touch-sensitivity applications.
If you do this, you’re only shortchanging yourself. To dismiss as
“useless” the methodology you do not use is simply ignorant if you agree
that the goal is worthwhile but this no worse than pursuing that goal
while ignoring the foundation you need to achieve it.
Seong chi sao practice done wrong is a
mindless circling of
the arms. Done correctly, it is a means of applying forward
movement and finding holes in your opponent’s guard.
Chi
sao‘s benefits are felt over time. It helps produce more
efficient, more effective fighters who act by reflex and who possess
enhanced awareness of an opponent’s actions. This awareness is not
magical it is a physical skill like any other. When you’ve fought
someone who’s spent time developing this, you’ll understand why it’s a
good thing.
Chi sao, to be done
properly, must be understood properly.
To develop it, seek instruction from a
qualified teacher.