Lat Sau Jik Chung

Lat Sau Jik Chung - translates as "when the hands disengage, go straight forward" is a major concept in Wing Chun. This concept is an extension of the centerline principle, it is actually one of the most important and yet neglect ideas in Wing Chun. In the Old days, when a Wing Chun practitioner attacks and crashes into the opponents' arms, his attacks, covers, or blocks, there will be arm pressure, which creates a spring load. Whenever this spring load happens and the opponent disengages his arms,

Wing Chun should attack straight forward instead of chasing the opponents' limbs.

 

Although this direct principle is was drilled in relentless in Ip Man's original school, for some reason it is largely forgotten in today's modern Wing Chun world. Wong Shun Leung RIP went as far as to say that Lat Sau Jik Chung is one of the most important principles in the entire Wing Chun system! Yet today, we often see people chasing after the limbs of the opponent, blocking more than once or checking a limb more than once when the opponent disengages and falling for fakes when the opponents' limbs move around instead of just attacking!

 

The concept of Lat Sau Jik Chung was first introduced carefully and slowly in the first section of Sil Lim Tau. It is very easy to move the limbs forward and attack from say a Fook Sau or a Tan Sau as represented in the form but it is not so easy to do when there is pressure as the eyes tend to trick you - this is why the form is done so slowly.

 

Chum Kil is different. Instead of a Chi Sau context as shown in SLT where the arms start with contact, in Chum Kil, it shows Lat Sau Jik Chung from a more realistic combative context, where you are intercepting a punch from no touching to touching and how do we apply Lat Sau Jik Chung when the opponent disengages. More importantly, Chum Kil shows what to do when we are using Lat Sau Jik Chung but what happens if we do not have enough short power to cause enough damage. This is all

covered in the first movement of the Chum Kil form right after the opening movements. Perhaps if more students were taught the conceptual meaning of the form's movement, Lat Sau Jik Chung will once again appear in the Wing Chun world!

 

If you are interested in this kind of work, check out our Chum Kil Level 2 Training Program - everything is explained and demonstrated with applications in a progressive step-by-step manner. See you there!