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Written by siukee wan
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Page 2 of 2
Soft is not just about yielding or being relax but having the flexible ability to control energy. For example it may feel and appear to your opponent like your are using heavy force in order to neutralise when in actual fact you are only using a fraction of your potential strength.
Another good training drill would be to take turns pinning your training partner against a wall using the hands arms and body in a freestyle fashion. And the person against the wall however will be resisting by pushing his partner away. Once proficient in taking and absorbing energy, one should then be able push untrained people off with ease. And it is this type of esoteric energy we see so often demonstrated on stage when the smaller person challenge's a larger volunteer to push him of his Ma (stance).
Traditionally Chi Sao is best trained without looking directly at your opponent as this gets your body used to engaging the energies through touch rather than sight and it also isolates the senses for you so that
you can deal with energies in their pure form. Once one is able to engage successfully the energetics of the opponent then the next stage is to Chi Sao using Ma Bo (Footwork) and that's when the positional footwork is learnt. So at this stage the hands will have developed the skills to Control, Absorb and Neutralise without the need to yield and step back, which means footwork direction is either to the side or forward during this stage of the training. Off course in practice we will always find ourselves taking the odd step backwards, but the focus should always be to engage rather than to yield. Which is why its always good to allocate practice sessions when our backs is against a wall
In order for Chi Sao to be effective it must be trained to the final freestyle progression. And only then can the tools be used effectively in San Sao( free style sparring). From Chi Sao practice the hands develop the necessary listening and karma to detect weakness in the persons armoury whether they present themselves in the form of 'Holes' or just weak energy structures. The skills developed prepares us with the awareness to deal with Khum Na (locks and stand-up grappling). And during contact against strikes we develop the skills to allow us more control and dissipation of power. Thus the tools used during Chi Sau must be identical for the ones used in San Sau otherwise the Chi Sau progression will not be an effective one and becomes nothing more than a Dynamic stand alone exercise. Each tool inorder to be effective must be trained with the correct energetics and executed at the correct range.
This means in the case for striking the footwork must be fast and mobile and married to the arm postions if the tools are to be effective as Chi Sao is a short range system. To aid mobility and speed, 80% of the body weight is distributed evenly onto the soles of the feet as this allows for quick change of direction with minimal adjustments to the feet.
To learn the moves and techniques may for most take a year or so, but to master and understand the true Yi (Essence) of Chi Sao for some may become a life's journey. 
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