What are your thoughts on Pak Sau as a technique? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N8fAbptNYE What are the advantages/disadvantages? Have you used it in a practical situation? did it work? not work?
Greetings kffaner, Welcome to MAP. Since you are the one starting the thread and posting a link, please also share your thoughts on the questions you are posing to others. I think the instructor claiming it is solely a WC technique that others adapted to their style is silly. The idea of moving an arm slightly out of the way with that specific move or similar ones is not the invention of WC. CLF has it and it was not taken from WC.
From a Wing Chun point of view, Pak Sao is a principle and not a technique. It can be used in many different angles. Many misconceptions exists today in Wing Chun circles. I think some people get their information from Google in a copy/paste fashion, when they open a Wing Chun school. Pak does not means slap as most schools interpret it today. It translates as clap, trust me there is a huge difference. Some of the stuff I´ve seen, that really violates the Wing Chun principles is when people face their opponent centerline to centerline. The attacker is doing chain punching, and the defender is using Pak Sao in an almost 45 degree cutting angle towards the attackers centerline. It violates the Wing Chun principles because it gives away your center with a bigger and stronger opponent. Wing Chun is supposed to come from a woman and against a stronger adversary this will not work. While we are at it. Tan Sao often translates palm up. But it means dispersing. So if you do Wing Chun and your partner does a Tan Sao on you and you don´t feel like your punch and energy is being dispersed, he is not doing it right. Otherwise Pak Sao is very versatile and effective, and many different systems incorporate some variation of this open hand perry.