Returning to Weston-Super-Mare

Went to the Friday club in WSM last night, my back having got a fair bit better after a couple of weeks of pain. Only 4 of us students were there at the beginning. Ed Arthur turned up towards the end of the session.

Got paired up with lil R again as I did last time, which is good as it meant I got back into things gently. We were practising the pre-Chi Sau 黐手 applications: dealing with attacks.

Any hand coming in is your opponent's bridging hand. It doesn't matter if they are using a punch, trying to grab, shoving you with their hand, or just pointing. Any of your techniques will deal with these equally effectively.

Tan (taan1) Sau 攤 手, Bong Sau (?), Jut Sau (given up using a dictionary), Paak Sau are all usable.

In the instance of a non-attacking bridge coming in, don't be over-agressive. Make your shapes, but make it look like it's not kung-fu: tan and wu (guard) looking like a "what?" gesture. As their bridge is always just that: their bridge leading them to attack you. Because you've made contact with their bridge and that's dealt with, you have to be ready to deal with the attack.

So you've got one hand bridged, your other hand needs to seek contact. If you haven't already hit your opponent with it (contact!) then block their incoming attack. So say you've pak'd an incoming arm, your back hand needs to go into Tan if not a punch.

Also practised someone coming in with both their arms at you (which Liam mentioned happened to him recently). Fut sau for the bridge, break their stance by pinning into the elbows. I tended to go for a circling motion to the outside of the elbows, but it worked ok.

Finally, dealing with the hook. Sifu (and I've seen this from Andy before) uses a Tan into the hooking arm, while knife-stepping in/the opposite side of the attacking arm - going with the power. This gives you a better angle, distance from the attacking arm and the opening to counter. That's going round it.

Going straight down the line, as Liam enquired about, there's no way any of your Siu Nim Tau and Caam Kiu techniques will 'exclude' the incoming attack. The only thing you can use is an elbow guard, palm raised to cover the back of your head. Use this, as you go straight down the line with another elbow. Kind of Bie Jee, but probably inspired from other arts too.

Then did a bit of Lap Sau drill, which I hadn't done for years! Was told by Sifu that I don't let go of the opponent's arm once I've lap'd it until I feel contact from them lap'ing my punch. It's only a drill, which I felt might give your opponent the 2-for-1. There was something Sifu did that allowed you to use a fak sau early, but can't remember how...

Also learned an application of one of the first Wooden Dummy techniques during a quick spot of Chi Sau wid Ed: freeze the Bong Sau, roll the shoulder slightly (and the whole arm) to hook under opponent's Tan Sau and once in contact 'change' the line by going to Tan Sau for example while stepping - just like in the form.