DEVELOPING SILENT TALK
The Fighters Edge
by Ron Heimberger
"We must be able to hear what is not spoken and see what is
unseen" - Sifu
The physical limitations of the ocular sense make information received by the eyes
concerning the intentions of an enemy difficult to decipher and often misleading. Studying
almost any fight in detail will reveal martial arts practitioners struggling to apply
every skill they have at their disposal, but losing simply because they could not
anticipate the enemy's intentions. But then again, it is impossible to read an opponent's
intentions ... or is it?
During any kind of activity, reports from motor and nerve sensors in the skin, joints, and
tendons provide information to the practitioner in the body's own language. This is a
language to which the muscles that govern the body respond. These reports come from
pressure and movements that are placed on our motor and nerve sensors. This language or
inner-body communication called "silent talk" is the key to finding the correct
solution in any fighting situation. Silent Talk, like any foreign language, is developed
through listening, interpreting, and responding, and is built on a foundation of
sensitivity. Silent Talk allows the practitioner to perceive his opponent's position as
well as monitor the practitioner's own position. Unlike the visual sense, this process of
receiving impressions is unfalteringly correct and difficult to confound.
To build Sensitivity the practitioner needs exercises designed specifically for this
purpose. These exercises are known by many names, including Tai Chi Chuan's "push
hands' and Wing Chun's "chi sau" or "sticky hand" training. No matter
what name is given to these exercises it must be remembered that without understanding
Silent Talk, sensitivity training is incomplete. The following three steps and their
associated principles will enhance sensitivity and allow the martial arts practitioner to
experience Silent Talk.
Step One--Listening:
When practiced correctly and frequently, the sensitivity exercise of Chi Dan Sau (single
stick hand training) develops the practitioner's ability to hear the information that
comes from the body's sensors. There are three types of sensors: muscle sensors, joint and
skin sensors, and equilibrium sensors. Each of these sensor groups are capable of Silent
Talk. This communication allows the body to hear the messages of cold, hot, thick, thin,
coarse, smooth, direction, weight, power, and all other messages that are felt rather than
seen or heard. Even when blindfolded, the practitioner who has mastered step one will be
able to tell the difference between these messages, because the body recognizes those
differences. (The Body in Question by Jonathan Miller, Random House, Inc. 1978) Since the
physical pressures of fighting upon the sensors of a beginning student create a demand on
the whole body's economy. Chi Dan Sau leads to efficient expenditure of the body's
resources. Because it monitors and refashions the practitioners muscular tension levels
from one moment to the next, constant Chi Dan Sau lessens the demand on any one part of
the body making the body more efficient over all. It also tells the practitioner what he
is doing and what is happening to him as a result of what he is doing; whether movements
are going according to plan, or whether they are being obstructed.
This increase in the efficient use of energy is accomplished through correct and
consistent practice with as many training partners as possible. Practice sessions create a
variety of signals which the body can hear. If listened-to this process will allow the
practitioner of the exercises to become highly proficient. The practitioner must develop
the ability to listen to these signals, it is not enough to simply hear them.
There is a vast difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is simply recognizing
the signals. Listening will allow a practitioner to understand the significance of every
message created through the pressure and force of the enemy's movements. Listening allows
the practitioner to interpret and anticipate the enemy's intentions. Listening can only be
accomplished if the practitioner learns to hear not only sounds, but also the Silent Talk
going on within himself.
Step Two--Interpreting:
After the practitioner can listen to Silent Talk, he must take advantage of the
opportunity to interact with the energy applied by an opponent. This is accomplished
through the Double Stick Hand drills of Chi Seung Sau. This exercise sharpens the state of
nerve sensors in the skin, enhancing one's ability to sort the useful information from the
non-useful whenever contact is made with the enemy, As the name 'stick hand" denotes,
the Wing Chun practitioner's contact with an enemy creates a vital communication link, and
like telephones connected with a wire, communication is lost once the contact is broken.
This step is very important to the development of Chi Sau, simply because ocular
communication is too slow, and as many fighters find to their dismay, it is not always
reliable. Anyone who has enjoyed a magician has witnessed how easily the ocular sense can
be deceived. Since an enemy's actions are essentially a foreign language, the practitioner
must learn to interpret them before an effective response can be made.
Step Three--Responding:
Quo Sau and Nuk Sau are the final exercises necessary in training Silent Talk and can only
be achieved after the first two steps are mastered. It allows the practitioner to respond,
knowing exactly how to advance or dissipate and how to attack or neutralize intelligently.
Also since pressure and power can only be felt not seen, the practitioner will know when
an opponent shifts--even slightly. This skill will allow the body's posture and technique
to reposition itself in relation to an opponent during combat. Training in this fashion
will make it possible to take information from the sensor nerves directly to the spine and
back to the motor nerves, bypassing the conscious thought and the need to analyze the
input to the sensors.
The Wing Chun practitioner does not take this marvelous system for granted, but actively
contemplates through all three steps how the body constantly communicates and copes with
the sensory stimuli of fighting. This communication allows the invisible forces of nature
to be used to their best advantage, as long as the three steps of Silent Talk are
respected by the practitioner.
When a good foundation of listening and interpreting is laid, it will be easier to reach
the advanced stage of responding. It is necessary to observe the principle of gradual
progression. Wang Yang Ming (1472-1528) a Chinese philosopher and military General wrote,
"One should work from the starting-point forward, and advance by gradually completing
each branch of study. The immortals have a good smile when speaking of small children: The
child in its mother's womb consists only of pure chi (vital energy). What knowledge can it
have? After birth it is first able to cry; a little later, to laugh; still later, to
recognize its parents and brothers; and after that it is able to stand, walk, grasp, and
carry." (The Philosophy of Wang Yan Min translated by Frederick Goodrich Henke, Open
Court Publishing Company, 1916).
From beginning to end Chi Sau concepts should be practiced naturally and diligently,
through the single and double exercises which include structuring of the techniques, Quo
Sau, Nuk Sau and the three fighting principles: Flexibility, the power of resistance to
traps or damage; Path, the course of action; Timing, the ability to move as one with an
opponent, not too fast, not too slow. Practitioners learn how moves are put together, and
after the first two steps have been mastered, they may then try to find the opponent's
lines, balance, force and energy.
Responding is the easiest step but it will not work if the first two steps are overlooked.
Once the practitioner knows and understands the first two principles, the third principle
of response may then be developed more naturally. Different situations with different
partners and frequent practice of varied positions and pressures upon the nerves of the
arms and feet during sensitivity exercises will produce a cumulative learning effect. The
net result is the body talking to itself in its own language. The practitioner then
becomes more fluent in the language of Silent Talk which is the fastest way to communicate
to the body the perfect position or angle it must make for attack and defense. Once the
practitioner actually hears the body talking and knows what it is saying, he can then
respond appropriately. This process is so fast, it will seem as if a supernatural ability
has been developed.
Chi Sau unlocks the body's ability to use energy in the most effective way possible, and
increases your fighting endurance. Chi Sau increases the sensitivity of the nerves in your
arms so that they are as sensitive as your fingertips (where there is a greater
concentration of nerves than anywhere else on the body). These skin sensors are not only
very quick in sensing the motions of the opponent, but they are also very quick in
directing the muscle motor nerves without analysis. With the slightest shifting movement,
the practitioner will be able to avoid the attack. This is how the Wing Chun practitioner
uses the principle of "avoiding the strong and attacking the weak" to his
advantage.
Reading your enemy like a book is a Wing Chun principle that concurs with a famous Chinese
general who said, "Knowing oneself and also one’s opponent will make one a
hundred times victorious in a hundred battles." The basis for knowing your enemy is
the development of silent talk through sensitivity exercises. Thus, the fundamental theory
behind chi sau or push hands is simply knowing your enemy, as well as yourself.
Once the umbilical cord of touch is developed, the practitioner can properly interpret the
constant communication; the constant silent talk intimately going on within. The first
time you hear this talk you will experience a feeling of surprise and astonishment. Is it
possible to read an opponent’s intentions after all? Only if you can place yourself
beyond human prejudices. By transcending the limits of communication set for normal
fighters, anything is possible. You now have the keys of mastery. But, even when laid out
in front of many, only a few will understand.
Send Email to the Wing Chun Kung Fu Council