Master Tse’s Wing Chun Note #52

Seung Chi Sau雙黐手 – Why Do We Need to Roll Hands?

In the class one student asked me, “Why do we need to roll the hands?” This is a good question. The reason is we must start somewhere. If both of us begin Chi Sau without moving then we can remain still for long time. Then our Chi Sau will be based on who can move quicker, our training will just focus on speed and reaction, but this does not require good technique as long as we move quickly and attack first. Although this is one of the methods used in Wing Chun, it is not the most important. If we want to reach high level do not focus on too much on speed and power, it should focus on relaxation and the structure of the body and movements.

While we are rolling hands together, we can see how correct our hands are changing from Taan Sau攤手 to Bong Sau 膀手 and back again, and also from the upper Fuk Sau 伏手to the lower Fuk Sau伏手. We might be able to get the position right when we are still, but we must also get it right when we are moving.

Also, when both of us are moving, we can feel our opponent each time they change. If they are wrong, then we might be able to attack them, and of course if we are wrong then the opponent has the same opportunity to attack us. So during the rolling of the hands we can really interact with each other and changing hands, leads to many different situations. So rolling hands is important part of training and helps maintain our hand skills.

Michael Tse