“Stop using your reach” was the advice I was given long ago in chi sau. My reach was in fact a massive advantage. When playing chi sau with anyone shorter than me (at 6’2″ that was most people!), I had a massive advantage. I used it well. By keeping someone just at the end of my reach, they couldn’t land any hits on me, while I could on them! It was a simple strategy which served me well for some time in class – even if it was a little short sighted!

After several years of leaning into this strategy, (no pun intended), I could deal with most of the class at chi sau. However there was a flaw in my strategy! Suppose I couldn’t step back to maintain my advantage and I was forced to fight at closer range? Or, if someone had a better or equal range to me? My Sifu told me I should stop using my range and give up my advantage. I did. The result was that I started losing much more frequently!

This was a massive blow to my ego of course, as I had been “winning” using this strategy for quite some time. However, another way to look at it was that I now had many more teachers in class, who were better than me again. Perhaps not at my full range, but certainly at their range. This is a tough pill to swallow; especially when you’ve been elevated to “teacher” status and are “instructing” people who are now getting the better of you!

The same scenario happened to me after I left training for a while, and came back a year later. Many of my juniors had overtaken in me in skill level. But rather than think that I was defeated, I chose to think otherwise. I now had a class full of seniors who I could learn more from.

Stop Using Your Reach – What If You Don’t Have A Good Reach?

If you don’t have a good reach, you will probably gravitate towards another favourite technique, or advantage. Perhaps you use your right hand more in chi sau because it’s stronger or faster? Or you are familiar with a specific technique, because you’ve drilled it down to perfection. I had a great lap sau technique I used to perfection whenever someone blocked across the centreline. it worked every time! I could pretty much guarantee my pak sau, lap sau technique to land a hit on most other students, if not instructors.

But again, while practicing what I was good at, I was neglecting to build a larger arsenal of “tools” in the chi sau “box”. Only when I laid down my “favourites” was I able to learn something new again.

Unlock Your Next Level

As you work your way through the Wing Chun system, it’s inevitable that you’ll gravitate towards the tools and strategies which work for you and which you have trained the most. To keep growing, it’s worth noticing which of those tools you are using to the detriment of your growth. For me, it was using my reach. By giving up my reach advantage, I was able to step into a whole new world of development which I hadn’t previously noticed. The hard part was that it “seemed” like a step backwards, because my skill level took a drop! But in reality, I simply unlocked the next level of my training. By giving up an advantage, or a favourite technique, you open the door to something new.

A good time to practice this is with a beginner. If your skill is much higher than someone, give up your right arm hits. Or use only turning techniques. Use only your left arm for attacks, or decide only to defend. Use distance, evasion or redirection rather than tension.

Here’s another example of when this idea hit home for me. During a gathering several years ago, I noticed I was getting burned out using my jamming techniques. A “jam” is when you tense up your arm at the moment of impact in order to prevent an attack, such as a pak sau. In the inter school gatherings, we would play chi sau for several hours. So after a few hours of using my jams, I was completely burned out. I had no energy left to jam any more! So the attacks were getting through.

Instead of using jams I had to use my body position and relaxation instead. So I used stepping and turns to evade, keeping my arms relaxed. I wasn’t as good at that skill as I was at jamming. But it “unlocked” a whole new skill set within my Kung Fu which I was less aware of before.

Summary

“Stop using your reach” was the advice I was given after I had become fairly good at using it. So as a caveat to this post, I would also say that using your reach is also a useful tool. So if you do have an advantage, make sure you know how to use it too! It takes a while to get to grips with Chi Sau in the first place, so this post is really aimed towards those who have been training for a while. If you’re a beginner, you need to first discover what works and get it working for you in chi sau before you can discard it to learn something new.

If you have a favourite “leaning” in your Wing Chun, use beginners and those less senior to practice your next level of “unlocked” skill! Just defend. Use only your weak arm. Experiment using turns or evading. Once you’ve learned some Wing Chun, you’ll naturally gravitate towards what you’re good at, rather than what you suck at!

To keep growing, it’s useful to observe this leaning so that you can keep on getting better and continue to enjoy your training no matter what level you are!

See also my post on how to keep learning Wing Chun and not get stuck.