Preambule

To remember and honor the Skill, Greatness, and Wisdom of the late GM Kang Sin Sin (江新辰), the disciples Michael, Rio, and Febry decided to publish this website as we need to preserve the Wing Chun KungFu of the late GM Kang Sin Sin by spreading his way of teaching and the style that he learnt from the late GGM Ip Man (Yip Man), the late GM Leung Sheung, and the late GM Chu Shong Tin.

Chi Sao

Chi Sao (Double - Sticky Hand)
(International Wing Chun Martial Art - Indonesia)



Chi Sao. Sometimes called the sticky hands.

Chi Sao training makes Wing Chun practitioners feels more "comfortable" and “confident” with trapping or clinch range. And while we are on that range, we try to do offensive and or defensive maneuvers.

If we may quote from Roy Harris:

Here are two points about trapping range training that some do not know:

I. Trapping range training is designed to help the trapping range practitioner/specialist develop the much needed pain tolerance and mental perseverance to stay in this painful range.

II. Trapping range training is very painful. Why? Because regardless of a person’s level of experience, he/she will always get hit when one train in this range. This is one of the reasons why many do not train within range and prefer to push away and box or kick box, or enter to take the fight to the ground.

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In Wing Chun, before you learn how to Chi Sao, first you have to go through the basics. The basics are posture, elementary techniques, footwork, and Wing Chun hand forms.  By doing the basics, a Wing Chun Practitioner will actually become familiar with the concept of proprioception and kinesthesia. These concepts will take your understanding of Wing Chun even further according to your condition and your opponent / partner’s skill.

After a Wing Chun Practitioner has the good basics, then he/she must try to apply it with the training partner. But before everybody goes “all out” and kick each other butt like crazy drunk guys in a bar fight, one has to learn the basic of Chi Sao as follows:

  1. Chi Dan Sao or Dan Chi Sao (single hand Chi Sao)
  2. Bong Sau / Lap Sao drill
  3. Tan Sao / Bong Sao and Fook Sao / Ting Sao transition
  4. Elbow drill.

A Wing Chun Practitioner does the Chi Sao drill practice in a dynamic situation, which means that the person that one confronts with is not static, the other person moves as one does.

After a Wing Chun Practitioner has the adequate skill with those trainings, then he/she can try to “kick each other’s butt” with the training partner, but one has to contain it within controlled environment. Maybe at first a Wing Chun Practitioner will try to spar in a condition where Wing Chun style VS Wing Chun style. But after that, one will go outside the box and will try his/her Wing Chun style against any kind of style. By then you will find what works  and what doesn’t. Cause every technique has its physical limitation.

The next level of Chi Sao is more (most)  important, and those are:

  1. Timing
  2. Sensitivity
  3. Awarenes

After a Wing Chun Practitioner “masters” those three elements, he/she will get the “treasure” of Chi Sao. One will know what concept works for oneself and what does not. So one can find out that not all things in Wing Chun can work like a charm for oneself, then maybe one needs to change here and there a little bit.

“You can get / do beyond the basics but you are never above the basics.”

Something to think about:
A thorough understanding of an entire art is not needed to become functional with any method of fighting!