CKava
27-Sep-2003, 01:47 PM
I recently took a 6 month trip through Canada and America and on my travels I tried to visit as many Wing Chun schools as I could, before this I had only practised Chi Sau with members in my own school back in Ireland. Now as well as generally being a bit awed by the variety that exists within the Wing Chun styles and the (generally) incredible friendliness of the sifu's I discovered that most other Wing Chun schools seemed to practice Chi Sau at a different height than I was used to.
The lineage of the style I practice is from Tsui Sheung Tin (or however you want to spell it) and we Chi Sau or 'roll' at almost head height but I found that every other school I visisted (except one) seemed to prefer a much lower height- generally about belly to chest level. I see advantages and disadvantages to both styles but I was just wondering what height other people practice Chi Sau at and what reasons or advantages do they see for practicing at that particular level.
For my own opinion I think that Chi Sauing lower allows you to remain more fully grounded in your stance (making offbalancing people a good bit easier), gets you used to guarding your lower body with your elbows and makes some of the more complex techniques a bit more practical. But it does seem to me to make the applications of some of the techniques in Chi Sau more difficult to realise as well as leaving you a bit unpracticed at guarding your head. As for Chi Sauing higher I think its useful for basically all the opposite reasons its good for learning to guard your head but it seems to be easier to offbalance someone who 'rolls' higher, it seems to make your shoulder muscles more flexible but it can make you a bit unpracticed at guarding low and so on... I would be interested to hear anyone elses opions on this.
The lineage of the style I practice is from Tsui Sheung Tin (or however you want to spell it) and we Chi Sau or 'roll' at almost head height but I found that every other school I visisted (except one) seemed to prefer a much lower height- generally about belly to chest level. I see advantages and disadvantages to both styles but I was just wondering what height other people practice Chi Sau at and what reasons or advantages do they see for practicing at that particular level.
For my own opinion I think that Chi Sauing lower allows you to remain more fully grounded in your stance (making offbalancing people a good bit easier), gets you used to guarding your lower body with your elbows and makes some of the more complex techniques a bit more practical. But it does seem to me to make the applications of some of the techniques in Chi Sau more difficult to realise as well as leaving you a bit unpracticed at guarding your head. As for Chi Sauing higher I think its useful for basically all the opposite reasons its good for learning to guard your head but it seems to be easier to offbalance someone who 'rolls' higher, it seems to make your shoulder muscles more flexible but it can make you a bit unpracticed at guarding low and so on... I would be interested to hear anyone elses opions on this.