Strengths and Weaknesses of Stance

Give more thought to your feet

 

A phrase I have used MANY times of the decades of my teaching has been:

 

“If ever there’s a problem with your hands, let your feet sort it out for you”

 

 

I recently wrote a blog called, ‘Four Pillars Of Chi Sau‘ where this principle is explained in a little more detail, but this idea could be applied as simply as (in a street situation anyway), Getting yourself out of the way!

 

When we use a Bong, a Pak, a Tan and so on, we tend to turn with these techniques, the reason for this?

 

There should be a little of you moving the strike out of the way of you

and a little of you moving out of the way of the strike

 

To borrow from the blog I just mentioned:

Master Ip Chun has a wonderful way of watching people play Chi Sau which he shared with me at the VTAA in Hong Kong, (something that many people misinterpret as him not being interested) and that is that he watches the floor, only when he sees good footwork would he want to raise his view to observe the hands

 

Again, I return to the wise words of my Sifu, and how he would describe people’s approach to Chi Sau.

He would say:

 

‘Too many people stand too close to watch Chi Sau, constantly staring at what the hands are doing,

When really you should really step back and watch the body working as a whole’

The video clip below gives a little exercise to help you better understand, and better train, this idea of correct use of footwork in Chi Sau.

 

Being able to do these techniques on others, should mean, that you should therefore not have them done on you.

 

Understand how to use,

Understand how to avoid

 

Please note that this clip was taken during one of my classes and was not recorded for the direct purpose of video tuition, for that reason I do hope the message comes across clearly enough and that you are able to understand and use the information being shared.

 

Thank you.