Dec 10 Chi Sao Boot Camp – What is Chi Sao?

When people say someone ‘phoned it in’ they usually mean it was an insincere effort. When Grandmaster Moy Tung ‘phones in’ a workshop, 15-20 or more men with three years to three decades of Moy Yat Kung Fu experience get together to work hard on challenging and powerful Ving Tsun training tasks for eight or more hours, leaving everyone happy, sweaty, sore, wiser, stronger and more relaxed. That happened again in Richmond, VA this past weekend, Dec 10-11.

Moy Tung made it to the workshop late afternoon Saturday, after navigating weather and mechanical challenges in his new business vehicle just received courtesy of Detroit Kung Fu – see pics and vids here.

While on the road, Moy Tung delivered Saturday’s 8-hour training program to Ryan via a cell phone call, with periodic check-ins to see how the workshop was progressing. The basics of advanced Chi Sao training included a few hours of Siu Nim Tao and Chum Kiu, and several hours of Tsui Ma and Chi Sao. Exercise variations and applications of detail were studied, including Sihing-Sidai roles, Luk Sao structure, Chum Kiu and Centerline concepts in Chi Sao and form.

In addition to the guys training when he arrived on Saturday, including sifus and students from the Richmond schools, Louisville, KY; Washington, DC; Virginia Beach and Charlottesvile, VA. Moy Tung graciously received two special guests from his sidai Sam Harris’ school in Fort Washington, MD. He spoke to the group and students for awhile and spent some time with sifus and his guests in his offices next door to the main training hall. The workshop was billed as an all-day Saturday-only event, but Grandmaster Moy Tung invited everyone for an additional half-day of training on Sunday.

Following the day of training, there was a gathering to celebrate kung fu family and the holidays at the Full Kee restaurant, an annual Richmond school tradition. Around 30 people came to dinner, including guests.

On Sunday, training continued for four hours with Moy Tung’s periodic presence, demonstrations and verbal instructions, when he was not spending private kung fu time with the various visiting sifus. He spoke at length to the group a couple of times, discussing training, fighting and living with Moy Yat Ving Tsun Kung Fu.

When he wants to, Moy Tung can create hours of productive training and other useful insights in just a few sentences – and he has a lot to say to kung fu-hungry guys. These moments were captured on video – see the trailer below. Full video may be released to Moy Tung’s inner circle.

At the beginning of the training, all students were challenged with answering the question, ‘What is Chi Sao?’, a question posed to Moy Tung by Grandmaster Moy Yat a long time ago. Not everyone could make it to the training on Sunday, but those who did heard Moy Yat’s answer to Moy Tung. The answer is actually in the full video, and it's a very interesting answer - one that some of you have heard before, some many times..