Master Tse’s Wing Chun Notes #91

Siu Lim Tao part 3 – Bong Sau 膀手

The next application of Siu Lim Tao 小念頭 part 3 is one of the most famous Wing Chun hands – Bong Sau 膀手. We must be good at Bong Sau and it might take three years to become good. At first everyone’s Bong Sau used hard energy, then slowly, with a lot of Chi Sau 黐手, their Bong Sau uses less energy and eventually become light. A light touch means your Bong Sau is good now, but it is still not high level yet. With a lot more training of Siu Lim Tao, one leg Siu Lim Tao, your Gong Lihk 功力 will become stronger and then the Bong Sau will go back from soft back to hard and strong. However it is very different now as the Bong Sau is held by Gong Lihk which is flexible and you can manipulate its energy. When your opponent is soft you can use a hard Bong Sau and when they are strong, you can use a soft Bong Sau. At the beginning you use the Bong Sau by contacting the opponents hand two fingers above your wrist, but now you can start to use the middle of the forearm, so you can change to Wan Lan Sau横欗手, or divert to the elbow area so then we can use Cup Jarn扱肘and all the elbow techniques.

To reach this level needs five years of constantly practising Chi Sau with over 100 people. This is the way to be good at Wing Chun.

Michael Tse