WING CHUN TIPS

Random 108 Training Tips

•  1. Sensitivity in feeling your opponent's structural strength and stability, so that you know the path of least resistance. This can be achieved through "Chi Sao" training.

• 2. Develop "listening" capability of the opponent's energy, so that you can control and manipulate the situations.  Only in "Chi Sao" practices, you are given the environment to train to "listen".

• 3. Start proper with good sensible techniques. Bad habits can creep in without your knowledge. If not check, may ingrain subconsciously into your brain and neurologically hard-wired into your physical body. "Chi Sao" is a platform that the practitioners can safely and have the opportunities to do trials and errors.

• 4. Wing Chun is an in-fighting art which trains you to be able to attack instantaneously from whenever and wherever there are opportunities. "Chi Sao" close distance engagement give the practitioners to practice.

• 5. Critical to train the overall bio-mechanics, to be effective at any position. "Chi Sao" allows the practitioners to put into use the various bio-mechanics.

• 6. As an in-fighting art, therefore, once in contact with your opponent, you should be able to manipulate your opponent. "Chi Sao" develops the sensitivity through contacts.

• 7. Proper Chi Sao training with realistic simulation in close quarter encounters is important. 

• 8. Learn to recognize the opportunities to attack your opponent. There may be many options. Recognize them. Develop your awareness to see the various possibilities.

• 9. Once already proficient in proper Chi Sao, one should practice "Once touch, Action" concept. That is, control and execute accordingly from the touch.

•  10. Your opponent will not wait for you. Either you act or your opponent will act and then you will have to react, which mean you are one step behind.

• 11. Techniques can be developed stage by stage, one technique overcoming another technique, developing progressively. These are what "Chi Sao" platform allow for.

• 12. Continuously develop situations and counter situations, progressing the level of skill, sensitivity and concept. In "Chi Sao", the practitioners can "give and take", developing different scenarios.

• 13. Training will be fun and full of creativity, with techniques that happen than forcing techniques to happen.

• 14. Develop the awareness of the opponent's strength, weaknesses and center of gravity.

• 15. Listen to the opponent's intention and energy disposition.

• 16. Don't use force, outwit your opponent by using bio-mechanics, structure and flow.

• 17. As a Wing chun practitioner, one must know how to "stick" in "free fight" situation. If not you are not using Wing Chun's specialty or main training skill.

• 18. Why chi? You don't do "Chi Sao", but it happens, because you want to "Trap, Restrain, Manipulate and Control" the opponent.

• 19. Pivot and shift to an advantage position, manipulating as you move.

• 20. Know your capacity and exploit the opponent's weaknesses.

• 21. Use movement and positioning to outwit your opponent.

• 22. Either displace the opponent's strong point or exploit his weak point.

• 23. Attack the weaken structure using Chum Kui horizontal turning force or Bui Jee spiral energy.

• 24. Move, re-position and re-organize your structure, position and strategy with mindfulness.

• 25. Be aware of all possibilities and opportunities, but you may not have to execute them, so that you can have the chance to experience what the situation can evolve subsequently. Your skill will expand exponentially by putting yourselves in difficult situations. This is possible only in "Chi Sao".

• 26. Positioning is critical. It is quite difficult to coach positioning as situations vary and you are dealing with a moving thinking target. Therefore intuitively you must know where you should be and develop the sensitivity to adjust accordingly.

• 27. Your foundation and skill set must be "internalize" in you. That's you have to put effort and time in the right foundation training, like joints power, sticking sensitivity, sinking ability and combat drills.

• 28. Position strategically to circumvent your opponent's intention.

• 29. Using "opportune energy", execute from that "opportune situation".

• 30. Wing Chun is an intelligent art that use strategic positioning, leverage and space, time and speed to manifest the techniques. Have that in mind. Always.

• 31. Using the opponent's arm to create a "barrier or shield".

• 32. Disrupt the "Chi flow" of the opponent so that he lose his breath and thus control the opponent's body, demonstrating the importance of one's breath control.

• 33. Mind and breath are interrelated and mutually dependent. Control the opponent's breath to control his mind so that his reflex is nullified for that moment.

• 34. For Wingchuners, it will be very necessary to train to "Intercept, Engage, Trap, Control and Attack".

• 35. All Wingchuners should train Fa Jin and Inch punch, as Wing Chun is an In-fighting Art, to be able to Attack at very close range is imperative.

• 36. For Wingchuners, simultaneous defense and attack are basic concept, that they should always have in mind.

• 37. Wing Chun also favour hitting at very close range. Therefore, need to develop the "Chun jin". Without this, it is just like a blunt knife that cannot cut.

• 38. Do not get stuck with the concept of "squareness". It is a marvelous concept, but situations are always changing in fights. One must train to fight at any angles and recover to the "squareness" if you are most comfortable with.

• 39. Do not force yourself to "square off". Most likely you are wasting precious time and an experience fighter will "ambush" you in your attempt to "square off". And a practitioner who is proficient in "energy management" will get you "stuck" there and finish you off before you even know what is happening.

• 40. Exploit the situation if the opponent's position is "too off center" by using the "squareness" advantage. Learn to identify and act instinctively.

• 41. Therefore, be free of concept, understand from different perspectives. Sometimes your obsessiveness to a concept may be a liability than an asset.

• 42. When you are sufficiently proficient, there is no form, no "squareness" or whatever ideal positions, for all possibilities are in also opportunities.

• 43. Once touch, flow into action with your opponent's intention.

• 44. Forms are useful and necessary for learning and transmission of the Art. 

• 45. Forms help the practitioners to develop structures, understand bio-mechanics and concepts of the chosen Art.

• 46. When one is proficient enough, each individual should not be "stuck" by the forms, but use it to develop their own individuality.

• 47. If you rely too much on the forms, you will be rigid and slow as you are reacting as the situation arises.

• 48. Know how to use the "Jin", then it is a very different ball game. Your efficiency and power will be greatly amplified.

• 49. "Jin" can be issued to disrupt the opponent's position, structure and integrity, besides mainly for attack.

• 50. Combining Fa Jin, pressure points attack and Qinna, you will be more effective in handling your opponent.

• 51. Knowing how to be "Suong" at the right moment is important, so that your structure will not be affected by the opponent's actions.

• 52. The ability to "sink" will greatly enhance your capacity to put pressure on your opponent's structure and balance. It is very useful tool to put down your opponent.

• 53. Use the opponent's strength against himself, by manipulating with arm lock, or Qinna for example.

• 54. Fa Jin, Qinna and pressure points manipulation, are definitely useful skills, making things so much easier in handling your opponent.

• 55. Control your opponent's balance through their limbs to disturb their "energy center".

• 56. Fa Jin can be issued with any part of the body.

• 57. Use "mind control", by distracting, misleading and overriding the awareness of the opponent.

• 58. Understand substantial and unsubstantial hands of your opponent in both inner and outer gate position. The "holding energy" and sensitivity, determine who will have the upper hand.

• 59. Use opponent's strength by manipulating his intention.

• 60. With full awareness, every action or reaction your opponent did, you will be able to counter or use it to your advantage.

• 61. With full awareness, you can know the consequences of each move you are making and therefore having full control of the situation.

• 62. Realize how to act with the most economical, fastest and most efficient technique by having full awareness.

• 63. Nerve control is a good skill to manipulate your opponent's action and reaction during encounter.

• 64. Inflicting pain is one method that you can use to distract and therefore, control your opponent's mind, and accordingly control the opponent's bio-mechanics to achieve your objective.

• 65. Condition your Subconscious Mind to register "only good habits". Be aware of bad training habits. Re-mind and re-wire your mind by re-minding each other. So it is important to have "good" training partners.

• 66. To develop full awareness, "Still" your "Heart". Your bio-energy will be stable and can Flow smoother and easier.

•  67. Meditation is important to develop full awareness.

• 68. Awareness and sensitivity not only on the physical plane, but also on the energy and mental plane. So the intuition will be fine tune subsequently.

• 69. Learning martial art has these inherent benefits of heightening your awareness level which will definitely enhance your overall life.

• 70. Develop awareness. Awareness is critical, to be able to recognize all possibilities to overcome the opponent's weaknesses.

• 71. Develop Intention. Intention is critical to be developed. Be aware of opportunities to put Intention into action.

• 72. Develop your Mindfulness. Unless you are at the Moment, you can not be sensitive and fully aware of the combat situation.

• 73. Cultivate "Kinetic Jin". 

• 74. Once you are proficient in close quarter encounters, "Li" is not enough to be effective. "Jin" will overcome "Li" and very effective during "stalemate" conditions.

• 75. Once you are comfortable to issue "Jin", use it with lesser and lesser effort, "Suong" more and more until it is just a thought. Your "Yi" will then manifest.

• 76. The level or depth of your intent (Yi) will depend on how much you can be "Suong".

• 77. Train without the Ego. The most difficult part is overcoming the thinking Mind (Ego). To overcome this, "Meditation" is recommended.

• 78. When do you see Chum Kui or Bui Jee appear in fights? Hardly! You don't try to apply Chum Kui or Bui Jee. Chum Kui or Bui Jee will creep in naturally according to the situations.

• 79. Use Chum Kui rotation or turning force and Bui Jee spiral energy. "Chak ma, Bui ma" are all momentum energy that can be very effectively used.

• 80. Training should include Chum Kui and Bui Jee in applications. If don't know how to apply, then you don't understand Wing Chun enough. You are still "trap" in the "text" book concept. 

• 81. Train as realistic as possible, simulating near real life street fight scenario and instinctive course of action.

• 82. In real street fight, the momentum, energy and emotion are very intense. The built-up energy level is high and if one is not prepared or familiar with these intensity and anxiety, stress and hostile atmosphere, you can psychologically be succumbed (unless you have real fight before, it is quite difficult to understand).

• 83. The ultimate purpose for training is to be able to deal with real life situation and protect ourselves, beside the well-being aspect and the love of your chosen Art.

• 84. As a Wing Chun practitioner, one must train to intercept and manipulate the situation to our advantage. Most practitioners lack knowledge of positioning, movements and space/time management and control.

• 85. If you have other martial arts background and skill, it should be integrated into your "repertoire". One should not be biased or discriminate other martial arts.

• 86. Fights are not sparring. Training for tournaments, training for "street fight" and training for purely self-defense are all different physical, mental and emotional state of being. Train accordingly and be clear of your training objectives. 

• 87. If one want to use Wing Chun as a striking Art, than understand, train and program your psyche with the Wing Chun concept of energy management and execution. But you are definitely not able to utilize the fullest potential of Wing Chun.

• 88. Most of the time, you see only the "on-guard sparring" Tan Sao pose, straight vertical punches and think that is Wing Chun. Seldom one see Chum Kui or Bui Jee applied in the fight. We are belittling Wing Chun capabilities and capacities if we fight that way.

• 89. There is a grossly misconception of Wing Chun forms and levels or standards in Sui Lin Tao, Chum Kui and Bui Jee, framing them into different standards. And it is deplorable to take Bui Jee as an emergency/hidden/secret" skill set.

• 90. Break out from the "shell". As much as had been said and echoed that Wing Chun is a conceptual Art. The forms are conceptually designed to generate, inculcate and drill into our subconscious mind the concept, energy and "auto-pilot" responses to be applied accordingly.

• 91. "Kau lau sao" (hooking hand) application and many ways of circumventing your opponent's guard. Do not pull back, as an experience opponent can use your "withdrawing energy" to their advantage. Seeps in with the "Kau lau sao" into the inner gate and attack accordingly.

• 92. Training must be always "give and take", so that both practitioners will benefit, learn, understand, develop and grow.

• 93. Develop contingencies techniques through various scenarios and in the process, movements, positioning, turning forces and counter attacks can be trained.

• 94. Never limit just what you know, explore also other possibilities of skill sets.

• 95. Train the Core of the body. Know how to use the massive body structure to generate twisting, turning and directional force.

• 96. Fight with the whole body at any situations and in any instance.

• 97. When the hands are occupied and momentarily no more effective, use the legs.

• 98. Learn to "read"or "listen" to your opponent's intention to kick and dampen it.

• 99. Learn to counter the kick or using movement to outwit your opponent.

• 100. Putting kicks in, the overall Chi Sao experience will be very different.

• 101. The concept of "no hands, use legs". That is why most of the time when a proficient Wing Chun practitioner kick, the opponent will not realize until it is too late.

• 102. Kicks should be part of the fighting system, and should be experimented during the Chi Sao practice. Exploring the possibilities and consequences will let the practitioners see new perspectives of the Art or actually what the Art should and can be.

• 103. Flow with the situations, then "Yi" can manifest, leading the "Xing" accordingly.

• 104. With FLOW, the awareness will be sharpened and the clarity of the Mind enhanced. The "sharper" your awareness, the "sharper" your reaction or counter-action.

• 105. Flow is critical to control the opponent's bio-mechanics, and energy, in order for the Intention to work.

• 106. Learn to "listen" to know the opportune time to execute an attack.

• 107. Move around with the opponent's position and structure to explore, exploit and outwit the opponent, letting an appropriate technique to happen, but not forcing a technique to happen.

• 108. Flow with the opponent's strength and energy. Don't fight strength to strength.

Above are just random tips accumulated as we train and noted through reviewing our videos. We need to reorganize the pointers in order to make it coherently understandable and easy to learn.

Let's categorize them!
After "labeling" them, We think the below elements should be present in "Chi Sao" training or to be developed through "Chi Sao".

• position -- determine how you can dominate the encounter

• breath -- give you the "pneumatic" power to enhance your action

• concepts -- are guidelines to make sure you are training effectively

• techniques -- are tools to manifest your intention

• awareness -- the being-ness that allow you to "see" and therefore act effectively

• flow -- are dynamic training method to develop sensitivity, timing and control

• kicks -- are the "hidden" tools that can be very powerful, which are normally underused 

• others (like using Yi, Qi, Jin, Suong, Tun etc) -- are a vast sphere of learning that will take time to digest and apply. They are the higher level of training.

All these are inter-related and will be required to make the training effective and the application possible.
So let's define what's "Chi Sao"?

The "ICONIC" training methodology of Wing Chun is "Chi Sao". It is the only Kung Fu system that use this method extensively to cultivate sensitivity, so much so that it invites criticism. There are other Kung Fu systems also have their ways of sensitivty training, like the praying mantis, Liquan, Yi Quan etc.
Why do Wing Chun's Chi Sao is being ridicule? Think deeply into it. Are the Wing Chun practitioners doing it correctly? Can Wing Chun practitioners compete in open tournament, cage fighting or any martial art competitions?

 What you will see in most of these fighting arenas, the Wing Chun practitoners will adopt the "iconic" on-guard Tan Sao pose, and that is about all. When the fight start, it will be more like "kick boxing". Why is it so? What happen to all the "Chi Sao" training? Where is the "tan-fuk-bong" combo? Definitely it is not going to happen! Then why are they training these way? Why are they training their hands position mostly at the chest level, when most strikes are aiming for the head.

Different Wing Chun lineages may do it differently. Some do the soft way, some the hard style. Some concentrate on techniques, some train with "energy". Some adopt other concepts and principles from other martial arts into their training. Of course, each of them justify why they train their way. Is it because that is how it is pass down from their lineage, and some modified themselves, may be within the framework of their lineage, basing on their logical deduction. Most believe in the "squareness" concepts, but only a few adopt the "side or slant" stance. 

Ironically, Leung Jan taught the "ping san" method in his later teaching, retiring in his village. Did he teach "Chi Sao" then? He taught "san sik" and two-man drills.  One of the "LONG" form of Wing Chun do not have "Chi Sao". But they include them subsequently due to the new trend of training and "market demand". Many practitioners may not know what is the "LONG" form look like, nor understand it. The "LONG" form itself have a few variations also. Obviously, there are much evolution since then, and that is what you see now ( the different variations ). So what is Wing Chun? Think!

The "Modern" Wing Chun need to evaluate, reflect and modified, despite their very sound concepts and principles. They need to prove themselves in the fighting arenas or in a simulated street fighting scenario. Can the "Chi Sao" techniques be applied in the street fight? Obviously, many justification, many explanation  and theories, of what they are able to do. Why the Chi Sao's format of "tan-fuk-bong"? What will happen if you throw away this format? Many techniques cannot happen, and also mean all these techniques cannot apply. 

Try to apply on somebody not willing to roll the "tan-fuk-bong" method. The whole technical concepts will collapse. Have you try that? No! Your Sifu will correct your hand positions to be the "perfect" tan-fuk-bong. The senior students will definitely appear more superior, knowledgeable and formidable in this game according to the "restrictive" school rules. Are you deceiving yourself? That will be what the training center teach. Don't you think the ''Chi Sao" training need to be evaluated?

I am in Wing Chun for 20+ years, with 10 years doing the "tan-fuk-bong" format of Chi Sao, until I change to the rolling "free-hand" method, which is closer to the methods of many other Kung Fu systems. This also means that I can practice with most of them easier. This also means you are more expose to more kung fu experience. This also means we can simulate attacks or strikes coming from any directions.  This also means we can simulate "free-style" street fight. But the overall objective is to cultivate sensitivity in a dynamic, unfixed and random movement upon contact.

In Sao Lim Wing Chun, we called it "DAP SAO FLOW". Yes! Flow is the key word. Flow is where you can re-direct, deflect, absorb, control and manipulate the vector forces. There is no fixed drills finally. You act accordingly and appropriately to the incoming force, pressure or attacks. You move, because you need to, because you want to. You re-position because that will give you better control, that will give the opponent no further opportunity to attack. You "receive and you send off", as one of the very important strategy and skill set of the Art. 

Is Wing Chun a "striking" Art or an "Infighting" Art? What's the difference? Think! What is Chi Sao teaching you? Why you practice Chi Sao? What is Chum Kui and Bui Jee mean to you? When and how can you apply them? Are you able to, or do you know when and how to them in Chi Sao? Most of the time you will be seeing two practitioners moving against each other in the same linear straight line, each trying to maintain and advance their position, because it is against the concept if you back step. Seriously? Think again!

 Don't you think most likely they must use brute force or speed in disguise of skillfulness to overcome each other. Where is the economy of energy applied here? Are they using "Energy"? Sensitive to or able to "listen" to each others' energy disposition? So far I have yet to see any school doing that. Most are concentrating the superficial aspect of Kung Fu in applying techniques, despite Wing Chun is supposed to be a Conceptual Art.

From the above "Random 108 Training Tips", we hope it can be helpful to the practitioners. Most of them, maybe you are already been applying, and probably very good in them, some are just common sense. But some you may not be able to apply, or not train yet to have the concepts and principles. Use it to evaluate, reflect and apply in your training.