More Strategies

Today we touched on a couple more strategies for staying calm.  Both were for chi-sao – specifically for stage 2, when there is an attacker and a defender.  Often, when a student is in the role of defender, they are only responding to what the attacker is doing and so they don’t feel in control and thus don’t feel calm.

Strategy number one is to accelerate the motion of what their partner is doing.  If a punch comes in, push it past the target.  As it recedes back to chamber, push it past where your partner wants to rest it.  If done correctly, this will make the attacker feel out of control, almost as if they aren’t throwing the strikes at all but like the strikes are being pulled out of them.  With the attacker feeling out of control, the defender will feel in control – thus calm.

Strategy number two is to trap an arm.  Look at your partner’s triceps.  Watch them as they strike.  Find opportunities to push their triceps against their chest, thus making it so they can not use their arm.  If you’ve ever had this done to you, you know just how annoying it is – how much it makes you feel out of control.  Again, if the attacker feels out of control then the defender is in control.

One may ask, isn’t accelerating a punch or shoving someone’s upper arm against their body an attack?   If so, it is an attack that is permissible when one is the defender.  If it helps to think of it as an attack or to think about being an attacker even when cast in the role of the defender – use it.

Check the student’s thoughts here.