"Sticky hands only"

[[Censored]]

I once met a guy at an Aikido school who wanted to learn some Wing Chun. He had approached a WC instructor and asked to learn "sticky hands only", and not any of the other stuff. He was refused.

Have any of you teachers run into such a situation? How did you, or would you, respond?

[yuanfen]

If a person had serious disabilities, I would devise some
sticky hand practise motions for him for self defense.

But in the case of someone like the aikidoist you mention- I would
decline-wishing him well in his aikido.

[sel]

i would have to decline also. at my school it takes at least 4 - 6 months before we start double chi sau. there are some schools which start the student on chi sau from day one so i would suggest them as an alternative.

[Mr Punch]

I would politely suggest to him that it was like learning only the tenkan principle in aiki, or only the irimi principle, or more pertinently perhaps, only the ikkyo principle, and that as such it didn't bear sufficient value on its own, or bear much direct relevance to the art/skill set as a whole.

If he didn't get it I would then explain that it was like saying to a beginner aikidoka "Harmonise with this" and attacking them at random, without having first taught them any principles or techniques, and expecting them to learn the principles of harmony from it.

If he still didn't get this, I would pull his girly pleated skirt over his head and *****-slap him senseless!

Sel's answer is good too.

[dezhen2001]

LOL Matt!

Those guys who wear girly pleated skirts can make you hit the ground rather hard though... or maybe its just me

dawood

[aelward]

I get the same thing from other martial arts folks all the time. They don't want to learn Wing Chun, but they want to learn sticky hands.

I generally tell them that it can't be done without actually learning Wing Chun...

[Ernie]

i have had this happen to me often at my gym '' were i work out not train ma ''
there are many different martial artist there and they know what i do so they ask me and of course i am more than happy to show them the shell of chi sau .
and they get very excited and run around pretending to do wing chun .
i get really excited as well, while i'm resting between my work outs i get to hit all these silly people as they ask to chi sau with me .
kill 2 birds with one pak sau....

[[Censored]]

If I were in this situation: I would first advise him sincerely that sticky hands without the WC foundation would be near-useless. If he didn't believe me (and they never do), I would let him pay the money and take the class.

I would tell him to go sit in the corner while we practice the forms, footwork, sandbag, etc. When it's time to practice chi sao, I'd let him join in, but wouldn't correct his posture because that's not part of "sticky hands". I would let the other students use him as a live dummy, and if he tried to fight back with outside hands, I'd tell him to only use his sticky hands.

Everyone wins!

[reneritchie]

[Whoops, Censored beat me (or rather him ) to it, so edited out]

[kj]

I like your perspective, [censored]. There is something very economical about enabling people to both make and learn from their own choices.

Regards,
- Kathy Jo