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"Putting The Chi Back Into Chi Sau"

By Si-Fu Scott Baker, Ph.D.

The sticky hands exercise is an intricate and essential part of any Wing Chun training. However, there are many who misunderstand this exercise and may be missing the true purpose of chi sau. The exercise of chi sau in Wing Chun is an evolving process where two practitioners learn to move with each other as if they were stuck together. At the most elementary level it appears that the exercise is designed to teach the student to stick to his partners arms, moving as they move.

However, the real purpose of chi sau becomes apparent in the more advanced stages, when the practitioners have learned to perform the exercise while extending chi into their limbs. While developing proficiency with the chi skills within the chi sau exercise one notices that their is an inherent sticky nature to chi. Perhaps the appearance of the exercise, and the inherent stickiness of energy, has produced the common interpretation that chi sau is "sticky hands", a simple exchange where the participants stick to each others arms. Although the appearance of the exercise may support this assumption, the experience of performing chi sau as a chi kung exercise does not.

The Chinese term chi ( ) is widely used and understood throughout Chinese kung fu circles. It is most frequently used to represent the idea of "life force" or "energy". It may refer to an individuals life energy or to the universal energy of life found throughout the world. Chi is also frequently used to mean air or breath. Among some Wing Chun circles the term chi sau is expressed using the character "chi" ( ). This character is uncommon and appears to be a constructed character that has been created to express the idea of "to stick or cling" while maintaining the "chi" pronunciation. The fact that this character was created to represent the chi sau exercise instead of the more common Chinese term for "stick" alludes to the probability that those