Chi sao

At STMA our sparring encompasses kb, grappling, MMA and chi sao.

It's hard to explain chi sao in writing and it's quite hard to see what it actually is if you are uninitated.

We practice basic luk sao roll drill as part of our FW drilling. It will instantly improve your trapping and locking sensitivity.

Chi sao has to be handed to a student by a Sifu and one stage at a time. I have to constantly check your position before allowing you to advance with each other. It takes time, but it's worth it.

We take the Jun Fan approach rather than the hard fixed WC approach, and you don't need to learn Sil Lum Tao first.

Chi sao is one of the areas in MA that is not often taught properly, especially by Westerners taught by Westerners with no real Chinese lineage.

As it's hard to see what it really is, unlike boxing or grappling, it's easy to misinterpret and get wrong.

Our chi sao is very adapted. It starts in Traditional WC, then works to Modified, the Jun Fan, which is much looser and works from a boxing stance.

WC enters quickly to chi sao, while JF is fully functional in the KB phase.

It's been said that chi sao is an expression of the Sil Lum Tao form in combat. I always interpret that as refering to an expression of the concepts of Sil Lum Tao as opposed to the literal techiques.

I won't be expecting members to learn the Sil Lum Tao form, or any WC forms, but we will do SLT exercises and definately expound the concepts in combat.

I was talking to one of the STMA students who had some previous chi sao experience and he mentioned something he had been told previously about the position of bon sao having to be 45 degrees.

This is a classic example of somebody who doesn't know what they are talking about!

This person did not understand Sil Lum Tao or Chi Sao at all.

Let me explain.

The first thing you learn is Tan Sao. In tan sao the arm is fixed at 45 deg. You use this as a bridge and block.

You then learn fok sao - the "bridge arm".

Once you have these you roll tan to bon sao.
Bon sao is the third arm position you learn.

If your tan sao is properly developed before you start rolling
YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE BON SAO AT 45 DEG!

What Paul mentioned was a class where the student's structures collapse and the hand at bon pulls in towards the body. This is because they were not taught SLT properly - how to fix tan sao and fok sao before ever rolling to bon sao.

If tan sao and the roll are properly trained there is no need to ever think about this bon sao "compensation"!

SLT training ensures the structures are correct from day one so there is no need for later correction.

EMPTY YOUR CUP and forget what you think you know!