Hung Gar techniques in chi sau

[Tholf]

In parallel with my Hung Gar training, I do a few hours of chi sau one night a week for the last few weeks with a tai chi teacher. He also plays chi sau with other stylists (eg mantis, Choy Lei Fut, Wing Chun) and mixes techniques from those styles in wherever they work. So far I've focused on "emptying the cup" and learning his approach (including learning joint locking exercises and a few tai chi exercises like nine palace), although it's unavoidable that I've ended up thinking about some HG theory like the application of the 12 bridges.

As my Hung Gar training is largely form based (application is explained to us, but we don't regular training in the application or variations on it), I'm hoping some of you who play chi sau or similar can give me some specific tips on using HG in chi sau. Specifically:

1. What HG techniques are useful as "go to" techniques in chi sau that I can try out? For example, I've found wu dip jeurng useful, as well as using the crane beak to pull and strike. Any suggestions on other HG treasures to use would be great.

2. How much do you use gong vs yau? The teacher I play with is mostly soft in his approach and I've followed this approach (a) partly as part of the empty cup approach to learning new stuff and (b) partly as I see this as a good way to focus more on yau, as my HG has always leaned more towards gong. Accordingly, I've avoided using "smash through" or "overpower" techniques so far in favour of remaining soft and using bridges like wan, fen and bik. Do you guys rely more on gong?

[Frank Bolte]

ok, this is what we do,here in the Phils..we do some sort of chi sao in a small square..the square is just big enough for 2 people goal is to push ur opponent out of the square.
we start out of a small stance and single armed..one arm extended so both wrists meet..from there everything goes grabbing,pulling,pushing,lifting..it probably looks wilder than tai chi or even wing chun..the reason is all my students started hung gar this year so they are all new to this...but even me Im new to this since I didnt learn this but I like to try things..Myself I use mostly yau when my students try to push hard so I redirect their force but after a while they figured this out and now they are more careful so I use gong and tai or wun with force(im phisically stronger than most of my students).. techniques are wu dip or hok ying but also tiger (as in grabbing or pulling)..but here specially in the small square u can use ur stances as well to off balance ur opponent for example dropping in a low horse and shoulder push ur opponent out of the square (technique from ggffk)...
maybe not a big help but at least a comparison

[HungFamilyFist]

As my school is Hung and WC, this actually comes into play a lot. My problem with it at first was that i was trying to use a lot of level changes, which got me pounded. When i say level changes, i mean that i was using float and sink, for example, raiding and lowing, twisting and turning my centerline. In wing chun, this is a problem because much of it is based on controlling the centerline(yours and your opponents). It is a problem in chisau especially because if you turne your centerline away from the opponent, they can easily take advantage of that within the rules of chisau.

Once i adapted Hung gar ideas into WC fundamentals, my chi sau improved. So what techniques you ask? As franky mentioned, Wu dip jeung is handy, which is similar in shape to WC's "Po Pai Sau". When your submissive arm is in taan sau, and you feel the moment, you can run it on top(using Huen) of the opponents arm and apply tiger ideas to that.

I use hard and soft, but try to stay soft. Chi sao teaches you to stay soft and go with the flow. If your opponent presses, let it pass, etc. Many people have a tenancy to tense up and try to overpower. I try to avoid that for this specific excorsis. i use hard energy is when the opponent has a soft bridge and i want to crush it.

[PM]