Have you ever dropped something and failed to catch it? Probably everybody has at one time or another. However, if you are a student of Wing Tsun for long enough, you might notice yourself catching those fallen items a bit more often.

The primary training that increases your reaction time is sticky hands, known in Wing Tsun circles as “chi sau.” Chi sau is pretty much confined to the art of late Grandmaster Yip Man. There are other Chinese martial arts that have similar drills, but it is most highly developed in the art of Wing Tsun.

The training exercise known as “poon sau,” is a rolling arms kind of drill that has two people facing each other that have joined their wrists together and roll their arms in the three classic “seed” techniques called Bong Sau, Fook Sau and Tan Sau. Different combinations of the hands are used but the essence is the forward pressure which, in Wing Tsun, is normally light pressure. No downward, side ward or upward pressure is allowed in this training. Over a period of months, the practice gradually brings about improvements in the ability of the trainees to cling to their partners arms by the subtle forward pressure.

At the same time, the muscles of the arm are conditioned to snap forward if a hand is freed. The challenge is to become soft as rubber so that one’s arms can behave like rubber in their ability to snap and flex with power. If one’s hand is freed, the reaction is instantaneous.

This action may seem artificial. The contact-type reflexes can be thought of as being dependent on the clinging and the pressure. However, the lack of stress necessary to make this work, creates a speed in reactions and movement that are unheard of in any other training. Becoming relaxed enough to make it work requires time and patience. Strength is not a factor. The relaxed lightness of the hands now has great speed and reaction time.

-Sifu Keith Sonnenberg

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