Originally Posted by
-木叶-
黐 - chi
[1] stick sth to/on/together, especially using a sticky substance such as glue
[2] stick with; stay close to
Practicing chi sao is to practice sticking to the opponent's arms as much as you can. This is because once the opponent's hand leaves (no longer sticks) to your hand/arm, his arm is free to strike, and becomes unpredictable.
This is also why, when training on the wooden dummy, mook yan jong, sifu will
ask you to also "chi jong", as in sticking to the wooden arms as much as possible.
I tend to disagree that chisao is only a small part of training, in fact it is a very integral and important part of wing chun training. People will argue that in real
fighting situations, it is hard to really apply chi sao techniques.
However, one has to apply what is learnt into the situation and not follow like a wooden block, move for move. I believe once this can be done, wing chun will be applied in a deadly way.
A person who chisao/gongsao (Gongsao here also means sparring with opponents from another discipline) more often than another who does less, will be more effective in combat. A person who does chisao, will be more effective than another who doesn't know MA.