Alan and Jef Sutherland Chi Sao 2016

Alan vs Sutherland

Lots of internal skills being used to control and release power. Timing and position skills been shown to the trained eye.

Jef reviewed his experience playing chi sao with Alan –

My take on this interactive with Alan Orr.

It’s hard to see what’s going on if you don’t understand CSL’s methods so for those who are interested, here are some of my observations.

0:04 Alan bridges with a front kick which makes me tense up.
0:05 uses connection into my spine via my right arm to up root me. This causes me to step back until I regain posture ( Alan is waiting for this!).
0:07 I attempt to find his centre and push him back but Alan de links causing me to dip forward. What follows is a chop to the throat, palm to the face, forearm to the bridge of the nose, shot to the floating ribs,( liver or kidney-take your pick!). Punch to the face, lap sau another punch to the face another lap sau, another palm to the face and a punch to the abs. I’m now playing catch up (smile emoticon)

0:12 I finally catch up, regain my composure and think of what I learned in the seminar. I attempt a right spreading hand or Tan sau to draw Alan in and follow up with a palm strike to his chest.

0:13 Alan senses that and rides my right spreading hand with his left fook sau and converts that into a punch which lands a fraction of a second before my palm strike.

His punch comes from his root but my palm strike comes from my shoulder (also my energy is floating up due to me feeling pressured which disconnects me from my coupling to the ground).

In this moment you see me lifted slightly and I end up bouncing back due to my own palm strike on Alan’s chest combined with his punch. His forward momentum borrows energy from my strike and returns it to me via force flow cancelling to the ground and back up in a fraction of a second. Notice my forward momentum just prior to my palm strike. Alan reads that and handles my force nicely.

This is Wing Chun!

Those attending the seminar might remember Alan talking about the perils of striking or pushing without a good coupling to the ground. You end up bouncing off the other person if they have good root. I think0:13 is a good example of this.

If you want to improve you must invest in loss.

Thanks for the lessons Alan. You have raised your skills to a great hight. I’m full of admiration for you! (smile emoticon)