“Out sifu always tells us “we have offense, and thing you do to get back on offense” they can be very defensive sometimes and it always seems to hurt them in the long run”
Which, among other possible things, kinda points out the relationship and difference between chi sau and sparring, right? I hafta say, I like Lindley57’s answer re: ‘the laboratory’. You test theory, they test theory, you both use it to correct structure, enhance precision, get stickier etc.
One of the best quotes I’ve seen regarding practice went something like: “practice a long time for a fight that lasts little time, this is the correct way.” Flip that, and you get “no practice=long, dragged out stupid fighting.” Which sounds like high school or something. LOL
I believe it is important to practice chi sao AND sparring as
often as you can.
I have seen some people spend too much time with chi sao and
nothing for sparring; the result, they suck at sparring.
I have seen some people spend too much time sparring and
nothing for chi sao; the result, they suck at chi sao, and they suck
at extremely close range sparring skills. Their sparring looks more like karate or twd. They go in and out with one shot, but they don’t try to stay there and finish the person off with multiple combinations, traps, and elbows, etc.
the forms are restricted to yourself. chisau is making two one. any conventional fight depends on one effecting another, and that is done through contact, however brief it may be. when contact is made everything that one person does no matter how insignificant effects the other. learn to open your eyes through chisau. everything that it true is there waiting to be discovered, and everything testifies of it. why blunder in ignorance? learn to see what is happening, learn to become one with the moment. forms don’t really do that. no bong sau can be done in a form. you may arm yourself with wonderful abilities, but you won’t prepare yourself to understand what is happening in that momment of contact. you’ll be looking at if from the outside and guessing when and how to use your body. tehn a few minutes you’ll say "I should have done this, or I could have done that, he just got lucky, I just messed up. I’m really better, he just won . . "
at advanced levels, your short-term memmory won’t process as fast as your body acts, and often you’ll not ‘know’ what happened, but your training will carry you.
forms are the bread and butter, but chisau is the meat and potatoes of wingchun in my opinion
A common mistake many Wing Chun practitioners make is to assume that Chi Sao is fighting. Chi Sao enhances fighting prowess. In Fut Sao Wing Chun Chi Sao is not only done in the single and two arm practice but also in two man sets. This practice is for the total sensitivity of the whole body (including footworks) while doing “live” fighting sets. Chi Sao progresses as you evolve your knowledge of each form ie; Siu Lin Tao Chi Sao, Chum Kue Chi Sao, Biu Gee Chi Sao, Siu Baat Gwa Chi Sao, Mook Yan Jong Chi Sao, and Knife (cutting) and Staff (pointing) Chi Sao.