Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 404

Chī Sáu with Someone who Holds our Hands Tightly

When we Chī Sáu 黐手 with somebody who holds our hands very tightly, we will always find it uncomfortable and want to get away from their grip. This is what the opponent wants, they grab hold of really tightly to make us move out of that position and make us use a lot of force to fight back trying to get either the top or the bottom hand out and make us have to fight against the force pressing down on us. So, we use too much energy trying to pull out, then we will become tense and so they can take their bottom hand away and hit us.  Once we become tense, we will lose our sensitivity and become slow to react and not fast enough to defend ourselves, which means they can hit us more easily.

In this situation, we must relax and just keep a safe distance so that they cannot hit us without stepping forward. Once we relax and find a good distance, then they will use more energy trying to hold on to our hands. Then when they try to hit us, we can respond faster than them. Attacking is not always a good way to win. If we relax and wait for them to move first, we can appear weak, even when we are not. This is the Wing Chun way, we should not panic, just relax and wait.