Even within the various 'wing chun' lineages the meaning and execution of Chi-Sau exercises are differently interpreted. I also remember seminars given by my Sifu and Sigung where the same exercise looked every time different. Identical verbal instructions along with varying technical demonstrations of a Chi-Sau section.
For many very confusing, is it on the other side a sign of function. If your training or demo partner is taller, shorter, stronger, weaker, faster, slower, more aggressive or rather defensive, well this should effect your responses.
Let's agree that within Wing Tsun Kung Fu the Chi-Sau exercise has next to other goals the premise of learning to detect via physical contact the direction, the speed and even the strength of an opponent’s attack.

Wing Tsun offers unique Chi-Sau sections, which usually don't exist in other 'wing chun' lineages. You could also call them two-man forms, which combine in each section a certain number of techniques, attacks and defenses, counter-attacks and counter-defenses. Chi-Sau sections can guarantee that the instructor does not forget to teach certain scenarios, does not exclude certain techniques or applications that he/she personally dislikes (or didn't train enough!).

Assuming the knowledge of Wing Tsun Chi-Sau exercises, here today a few thoughts on how to make your training more effective. I often encourage my students to purposely make mistakes. If you always try to do everything by the book, you might be surprised when your skills misfire when working with a, to say the least, non-cooperative training partner.

Exercise 1 – Distance:
1a) Try varying your exercises by going into the furthest distance at which you can still manage to maintain contact with your training partner.
1b) Resume in the regular (optimum) distance, dictated by how we learn the angles and positions of techniques in our Wing Tsun forms.
1c) Now try to work in the closest possible distance, for example with almost completely collapsed Bong Sau or Tan-Sau.
Train until you can respond in time and successfully in any distance. The three examples could be of course be extended into any distance.

Let's resume tomorrow with exercise number 2! Visit us again!