Being As One in Chi Sau
Just read on, it’ll make sense.
It’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog post, not because I’ve had nothing to share, quite the opposite, it’s simply that I have been focussing on my own progression and that of my students.
Today however, I have decided I would like to share an interesting observation I made, regarding the process of being as one in Chi Sau.
The other day I was chatting with a student, when a passing comment was made regarding him looking for openings when playing Chi Sau, I replied to this explaining that this was the issue, that we should not be looking for anything, but feeling for these openings, created and assisted openings yes, but not going through to the target unless the gap has been made.
Later that morning I was preparing breakfast for my children, when a small blob of yogurt had been dropped on the worktop, so off I went to get a cloth to wipe it up, so far so good.
But when I wiped it off of the worktop, I could see it on the cloth, until after running it under the tap, when it dissipated and vanished from view.
But where was it?
It had not disappeared into the ether, but instead joined with the water and into a different form.
Of course everything is made of atoms, you, me, the worktop, the cloth, and the yogurt.
Now these atoms can be seen in their different guises but may also, on occasion, blend together, taking a different form than before, and this is what I believe is what is happening in Chi Sau.
When rolling at a higher level, we do not have the time to see what is available with our eyes, relay that back to the brain and then tell the arms how to respond, this would simply take too long, instead we react as one, feeling the necessary pathways through sensitivity, through energies within the arms, in effect, through ‘Sticking Hands’, becoming as one with your partner.
Of course there are to be techniques, but these should be thought of as introductions to what will follow, an exchange in which you should be feeling for your partners response, which in turn dictates where you will follow in order to find/create, opportunities for attacks.
I am not saying that our first move is not important, of course it is, if I break off in a game of pool I do not expect to pot a ball, but I will certainly be trying to, and this is the same with the first technique in a sequence of moves in Chi Sau, go for that first attack etc. yes, but what is more important is what follows, feeling and reacting to your partners response to that, this is where the skills are hidden, not the superficial box set of preconceived exchanges you rehearsed in class.
Learn through your Forms to be more open minded to what is available, and to, ‘Stay in the moment’, taking one position at a time, because if you cannot control yourself, how should you expect to control your opponent.
Put water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot,
Put a cat in a shoebox, it becomes the shoebox,
Put yogurt under the water, it becomes the water.
Be like yogurt my friends.
Where’s my shoebox ?!!!