Ways to Play Chi Sau
by Sifu Nick Francis
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While I was training with a student this week, we made comment of a shared discovery. In one perspective, yes, we are learning Wing Chun. In another, and much more important a realization, it is through learning Wing Chun, we are actually learning about ourselves.
Have you ever considered that Wing Chun is actually much less about fighting than it is about who you are and who you are choosing to become?
To me, to choose Wing Chun is to choose self-discovery and to pursue a path toward expressing our genuine selves.
I observed this in simplicity this past week. While I was sitting and working from a local Starbucks, I watched thousands of people walk past in the couple hours I was there. While sipping my cappuccino, the uniqueness was obvious, profound and spectacular.
Not one person that walked by looked the same!
None were the same height. None were the same shape. No one walked the same. No one dressed the same. No one talked the same. Why is this? Of course we know why... Because none of them were the same. They were all individuals!
The differences I saw were only the visible ones. There were many more I could not see.
Thoughts. Experiences. Preferences. Passions. Goals. Struggles. Desires. Relationships. Hopes. Etc. My conclusion was, without a doubt, each one was one of a kind! Of course there were commonalities: • Everyone was wearing clothes (Thank goodness!!!) • Everyone fit into some type of descriptive demographic (Old, young, college, grade-school, single, married, etc)
All were different. All were spectacular in their own way. All were compelling in some way! All had strengths, weaknesses and specific, defining experiences and talents.
This observation related to the conversation we have been having here the past couple months. If you recall, it stemmed from the idea and compliment my Sifu had once received from my Sigung, Grandmaster Ip Chun.
In summary, Sifu once told me, that when visiting his school in Leeds in the UK decades ago, Grandmaster Ip Chun remarked about how all his students played Chi Sau differently. (You can revisit our past conversation here)
This led me to the next obvious question...
How many ways are there to play Chi Sau anyway?
Typically, we are tempted to state of the obvious, the observable: • Playing strong • Playing tense • Playing passive • Playing to a script • Playing as a mirror reflection • Playing with a strategy • Playing without a strategy. • Playing competitively • Doing nothing, Not playing at all.
... the list goes.
Is this what Sigung meant? In playing Chi Sau, was he referencing that which cold be seen? Or was there more that he was aware of? Just because we all first experience the visible attributes of playing Chi Sau, this doesn't mean we're playing correctly. The path should in no way to be confused with the destination.
The description is not the prescription. The destination is that which is yet still out of reach! The goal... self-mastery! Is the way we play Chi Sau limited to personality? It should not be! Is the way we play Chi Sau limited to an energy style or pattern? I certainly hope not! Does Chi Sau entail a certain strategy or personal goal that measures an achievement? Perhaps, but this is where things can be deceptive and where we can quietly drift wayward.
So, what did Sigong mean?
I am convinced that Sigong meant that each practitioner is distinct, marvelous and spectacular! And Chi Sao is the manner in which this reality is on display. Let's return to my analogy. The point isn't that a thousand people walked by. To be more definitive, I'd like to point out that a thousand individuals walked by!!!
"Individuals" is the quantifying word. One distinctly different, specific person walked past me 1000 times. In Wing Chun, in Chi Sau... It's not how we all play. It is who we all are! It is who we are all becoming!
Grandmaster Ip Chun, when describing the Wing Chun practitioner has said,
"50% of your Wing Chun will come from your teacher and 50% will come from you."
Playing Chi Sau differently should never be an excuse for playing poorly, celebrating mistakes, or using it as a tool for comparison. Playing Chi Sau is about measuring and developing that which cannot be seen. In fact, the less that can be seen, the more evidence there is for self-mastery on display. • Ego morphs to the supportive partner. • Combativeness becomes oneness. • Anxiety drifts into laughter. • Competition turns to encouragement. • Loneliness fades into belonging. • Pursuit of skill arrives as a gift of peace. Maybe the right motive isn't actually to measure what we are accomplishing in Wing Chun, but rather what we are surrendering. It is here that we allow Chi Sau to be the revealing context where Wing Chun flows out of us freely. After all. What is Wing Chun? Is it not an art? Tell me then, how do you tell when a piece of art is good?
Maybe when....
• It is honest • It is pure • It is authentic • It is humble • it is beautiful • It is revealing • It is connecting • It is compelling Quite simply, the goal in my opinion, is that when we see everyone playing Chi Sao differently, what we are seeing is each practitioner expressing their 50%. And once we do, this is where we see the differences shine. I don't like to minimize Chi Sau to the idea of a fight or competition, when it becomes just that, it's an unfortunate race to the bottom. Yet this is what our Chi Sau can quickly become when we rush into the ideas of what we think Chi Sau should be. Chi Sau isn't something we can imitate if it is a dynamic reflection of who we are becoming.
So, how many ways are there to play Chi Sau?
Maybe it is better to recognize that "No Chi Sau should ever be played the same!". Every person's Chi Sau is a unique as they are. The best Chi Sau then is one that uses it to discover, celebrate and express one's uniqueness in the world!
You can only become the best you!
Chi Sau is the context we have to discover, develop, and display our best selves. |
"The Lancaster Wing Chun Association exists to build people through learning traditional Ip Man Wing Chun in a safe and supportive environment." |
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