–Preface–

The following text is part of a series documenting my time in Tucson, AZ, in the Spring of 2025, for Augustine Fong’s Wing Chun Gung Fu Federation Annual Seminar. The series is broken into short digestible parts, some describing my experience in Tucson generally, and some with detailed notes from the seminar.

Friday, 25 April, 2025 – The Seminar

—Siu Lim Tau Notes:

Sifu Fong has developed many minute details to practice when performing Siu Lim Tau. I did my best to document them.

All motions use a “twist and lock” concept. The forearm twists and locks in place for each technique, causing the joints to be connected and thus structurally supported.

The same goes for the shoulder and hip, which use the “roll and lock” concept, connecting joint to body.

Sap Ji Sau at the beginning of the form is a low seung gaang sau, high seung taan sau, and then chamber.

First Section – The techniques extend a total of four times – one taan sau, and three fuhk sau. This was also how the form was performed in Guangzhou. This in contrast to a total of four extensions – one taan sau, and two fuhk sau.

First Section – Use the Outside, Middle, and Inside elbow positions. These are positioned on the side of body, midway forward, and front of the body. This would need to be demonstrated.

Siu Lim Tau techniques can be divided into two planes – the vertical plane is covered by taan sau, fuhk sau, and wuh sau; and the horizontal plane is covered by laan sau, bong sau, and faak sau.

The elbow does not leave the body. The elbow starts in the outside position on the body (i.e. chamber), and when it reaches the inside position (front of the body), the technique transitions to reverse motion (i.e. wuh sau).

The wuh sau comes back until it is one-fist from body. The elbow may not go completely back to the original outside position.

This way, with the elbow staying connected to the body, the body better supports the hands.

Siu Lim Tau First Section Breathing Exercise – Move without moving (the Dao)- the elbow is still while breathing. Bcause the elbow is connected to the body, the technique naturally moves in and out with the breath. When you inhale, the chest expands, and the taan sau extends. Then, you hold the taan sau in place as you exhale. This way, the taan sau extends with each breath.

• For the first two extensions (taan, fuhk), extend the technique on the inhale, and contract on the exhale.
• For the second two extensions (fuhk, fuhk), extend the technique on the inhale, and contract on the exhale.

The above breathing technique was a little tricky to understand, and I believe I will need to practice this more to understand it completely. The idea was that the arms move naturally with the body.

There was a brief discussion about how the Pineal Gland in the brain functions as a form of Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP). This discussion was not meant to be parapsychological in nature. I believe, we meant the Pituitary Gland, which is partially responsible for regulating the stress response in humans. By affecting this in our opponent, via a body posture or eye gaze, we can affect the internal movement of their body. I didn’t really take notes on this, so someone can correct me if I misunderstood.

A double-punch is added in the Second Section of Siu Lim Tau. This comes after the seung jaht sau, and is followed by a repeated seung jaht sau. To do this, perform a straight punch with both fists, left over right and repeat with right over left.

The idea behind the double-punch is to practice two hand techniques, in which the wrists cross (i.e. paak da) while in Siu Lim Tau.

We discussed bent elbow techniques in Section Two as “inside the box” techniques. Techniques which were “outside the box,” or straight elbow, were “long bridge” techniques. I think this was already known, but I wanted to note it down anyway.

I asked about the deui gok kyuhn or angle punch, at this point, as I find that some students are surprised to see a horizontal fist in Wing Chun. Sifu Fong clarified that there is indeed a horizontal fist strike, as in the Biu Ji form. There is also a punch which starts from the opposite side of the body and cuts the center. For example, place the right fist just inside the left shoulder, then punch to center. In Guangzhou, this was called “saam sing chuei,” or three-star-hammer. That was because of the three points of directional change (i.e. chamber, shoulder, center). Sifu Fong referred to these two strikes as inside and outside angle punch.

Siu Lim Tau Section Three handles two “gates.” The upper gate covers the top of the head to the low elbow line. The lower gate covers the shoulders to the groin.

I see the analysis here, but I don’t think the word “gate” is appropriate. Perhaps zone. I think the word gate is overused to describe too many things. I don’t recall the word “gate” being used that much in Chinese, but perhaps it was in some circles.

The elbow position changes throughout the Third Section. Hopefully I understood this correctly.

• The middle elbow position occurs during the first kau sau jaht sau portion.
• The outside elbow position occurs as the bong sau drops to taan sau in that portion.
• The inside elbow position occurs in the taan sau gaang sau portion.

Remember not to ignore the chambered hand. Energy should be directed to this hand in coordination with the active hand, in order to balance the movements.

—Chi Sau Notes:

Chi Sau is learned after Siu Lim Tau.

Remember to chase the target, and not the hands.

The first thing to learn, aside from the roll, is the stop-point strikes (as I call them), which come from single sticky hands. These strikes should lightly touch the opponent.

• From taan sau, roll to front palm strike, then roll back to taan sau.
• From fuhk sau in the low position, straight punch inward at the level of the fuhk sau, then return to fuhk sau.
• These, as with the rest of the chi sau “breaks,” should be relaxed, and the receiving party should not be concerned with blocking until they are comfortable with being touched.

The above breaks develop into a continuous flow.

As an example – from the low position fuhk sau, straight punch in, then change to an inside paak sau, to the opponent’s opposite fuhk sau, and drop the elbow and punch with the bong sau. That is, punch, then paak da. This should be timed so that the paak sau responds to defensive energy, and the punch occurs as the bong sau would naturally be dropping.

As another example, the laap da break goes like this – perform a laap da, and opponent performs a bong sau and laap da to you. From here, you bong sau, and the wuh sau hand transitions to a taan sau under the opponents laap sau.

This position resembles a standard roll, with taan sau and bong sau. The taan sau hand then rolls and does a straight palm strike (bong da).

After the palm strike, the same hand returns to a outside jaht sau, while the bong sau hand transitions to an elbow drop and straight punch (jaht da).

Each of these motions should be in response to defensive energy.

As another example, the paak da break goes like this – as the opponent’s riding hand begins to lower, shoot across with your riding hand to perform a paak sau. Your controlling hand was transitioning from bong sau to taan sau, but instead transitions to a straight punch, resulting in a paak da.

After this initial paak da, the punching hand retracts to a bong sau, while the paak sau hand shoots in with a straight punch (bong da).

This concluded my seminar notes for the day.