Tai Wu Sau 提護手 – for rapid emergency response against straight punches above & smothering your hands
Tai Wu Sau 提護手 is an emergency upwards wedge, for when your hands are low (like they normally are naturally) or at least when the opponent is punching over the top of them. With little time to react, or little space to move, an upwards wedging block like Tai Wu Sau may be needed.
If you don’t have the time & space & speed to bring down an oncoming punch (with Gam Da) and you don’t even have time & space to slap it aside (with Jak Jeung), because your hand is lower than theirs, and theirs is already almost hitting you, this may be the time to intercept quickly from below using Tai Wu Sau – simply lift your forearm to meet their forearm and take it off course.
Upwards interception is quicker than the sidewards or downwards slap when your hands are below and smothered by theirs, for example, if their wrist is directly above your wrist. It doesn’t put you in such a dominant position, but it blocks the punch immediately, which is the main thing. It’s more of a desperation move, but if you’re careful, you can stay balanced with it too.
There are many variations to an emergency upwards interception. We’ll focus on two versions of the sharp wedging variety in this tutorial. The sharp cutting Wing Chun way (which is also found in Tai Chi), and the dampening Tai Chi way (which is a bit more graceful).
The sharper Wing Chun way
The very first move in Ip Man’s wooden dummy form routine is a great example of Tai Wu Sau 提護手, the main Wing Chun technique for an emergency rapid upwards interception from a non contact position (Bong Sau 膀手 is the main equivalent from a contact position – more on that later).
Tai Wu Sau is done with the wrist higher than the elbow, in a classic high guard hand structure.
It’s also similar to Tai Sau 提手 (‘lifting hand’) although that generally refers to the Cheung Kiu 長橋 (‘long bridge’) version of the same technique. Seung Cheung Kiu Tai Sau 雙長橋提手 (Double Long-Bridge Lifting-Hand) is the upwards ‘Paint The Fence’ action, from the movie The Karate Kid (1984); and Seung Cheung Kiu Gam Sau 雙長橋撳手 (Double Long-Bridge Pinning Hand) is the downwards action in the same Paint The Fence technique.
It’s also often called Jong Sau 樁手, when referring to the first move on the wooden dummy (Muk Yan Jong 木人樁), because it is technically done as a form of Jong Sau here, but when I teach Jong Sau I generally teach it as a near-fully extended stiff-arm fend, using a knifehand structure usually called Fak Sau 拂手 in Wing Chun or Sut Sau in JKD – I near fully extend this knifehand into the adversary’s neck or chest to respectfully keep them back while taking the dominant position in case hands start flying, and this is the ultimate purpose of a Jong Sau. I also teach the Tai Chi way of doing Jong Sau which is more of a back-hand fend using curved arm as if holding a ball in front of your chest. As for the initially dummy form technique, which is often called Wu Sau, I am calling it Tai Wu Sau to specify the upwards energy and distinguish it from other forms of Wu Sau. I appreciate Tai Wu Sau is rare terminology, but I think it’s best for clarity on this course.
Enough with the vocab now. The fact it’s found at the very start of Ip Man’s wooden dummy form routine is a testament to how important this move is, as well as its relevance as an emergency interception at the very start of a fight.
The softer Tai Chi way
Each variation of Wu Sau has its unique purpose. This version is most commonly associated with Tai Chi, but similar moves are also seen in Wing Chun.
This is roughly the best structure for intercepting quickly upwards from a non-contact position, and sticking without bouncing off, and holding structure without collapsing and without tensing up in a way that turns your arm into a lever that can then get you thrown by a skilled opponent. The Wing Chun way that wedges up more sharply, may be a faster move but is more liable to bounce off or create tension that can be countered. So this move is for when you have slightly more luxury of time but still need a rapid interception from below and want a dull impact that doesn’t rebound, disconnect or shake you off balance.
The ideal point of connection
With enough space & time, you’ll ideally make contact with your wrist hitting their wrist when doing Wu Sau. This is the safest and most balanced way to do this move, buying you maximum time & distance, giving you plenty of room for error. If you make contact higher up their arm, nearer their elbow, it can smother their ability to divert energy into their elbow, but this is only relevant if they’re not committing to a heavy punch with momentum, and their fist will be closer to hitting you so it’s far more risky. Still, if lacking the time & space & speed for wrist-to-wrist interception, you may have no choice but to go closer to their elbow, which is much more risky, giving you less time and less room for error, especially if their arm is longer than yours.
Footwork
As with slapping down or sideways, in all forms of upwards interception you will ideally sink weight into the leg beneath the hand that’s doing the block, immediately before the block receives the impact. Any stepping with that leg to line up the initial connection should be done prior to impact, else be ready for the impact to push you back a bit, and maybe throw you off balance. If it’s not really an emergency, and you have time for footwork, but stubbornly want to intercept up from below, then you’d ideally still step back with the diagonally opposite leg, for extra cover and alignment. There’s less need to swing the leg back in a circular motion here, compared to when you’re doing Gam Da, because Tai Wu Sau is more of a linear move and its counter-balancing leg should match it. But if you’ve got time & space for adjusting your stance when doing Wu Sau, you should generally aim to do a more dominant hand technique too (ideally Gam Da).
What about Bong Sau?
Upwards interception can also be done with your elbow being level with your wrist, to create a platform rather than a sharp wedge. This move is called Bong Sau 膀手 (meaning ‘upper-arm hand’). Here, instead of wedging inside the arc of their punch, you’re creating a platform beneath it. You can still wedge it up from here – your arm is like a balancing scale that can tip passively to either side or be asserted proactively if you prefer.
If the oncoming punch follows through, you can twist your arm even more to expose the palm and tricep, while rotating the torso on a vertical axis, then brushing or grabbing their punch off the top, using your spare hand, a technique called Lap Sau 擸手, to free up your initial hand for a counter attack – this combined brush or grab plus counter strike is called Lap Da 擸打.
When Bong Sau is done with a lot of forward energy, to pin them up and wedge them open from underneath, this can be called Lan Sau 攔手 (meaning ‘Bar Arm’ in Cantonese) which itself can be done from above or from below.
Bong Sau is by far the most complicated common move in Wing Chun. It’s mainly relevant in super close quarters, especially where you’re already sticking hands and are confident about the precise mechanics of the oncoming punch. It’s a collapsible structure – it can apply pressure but it’s always ready to collapse and transfer to Lap Sau 擸手 (grabbing hand – pulling the opponent’s hand aside with your spare hand), to open up a Fak Sau 拂手 (chop to the opponent’s neck) or a Gwa Choi 掛搥 backfist or Drilling Fist, using the same hand that did the Bong Sau. From here, after the initial counter strike, your backhand (that did the Lap Sau) is ready to follow up again.
Bong Sau can be seen in professional boxing too – Tyson Fury often did it against Deontay Wilder. But it’s a fairly complicated move – you really need to learn it through sticking hands with a partner. And it’s a non essential move since the sharper Wu Sau 樁手 solves the same kind of problem in a much simpler way that’s also better suited to most real self defence scenarios. So we’ll skip Bong Sau for now and focus on the Wing Chun and Tai Chi variations of Wu Sau 樁手 to solve upwards interception needs from a non-contact position.
Five Elements analysis
The Wing Chun method of doing an upwards thrusting Wu Sau is an expression of Yin Metal energy (Splitting), which perfectly trumps the attacker’s Yang Wooden energy (Piercing). So if someone is throwing a very straight & fast, penetrative punch to the centre of your face, and it’s already almost hit you, and your hands are low and too smothered to slap-block from the side, let alone from above, then the Wing Chun style Wu Sau is probably the ideal tool to counter that straight punch, both in practical terms and in Five Elements theory. If you want to cut Wood (or other organic material), you’ll generally want to use Metal tools (or other crystalline material, like ancient flint tools).
The softer Tai Chi method of doing Wu Sau (receiving a punch gracefully, to create a dull, non-rebounding impact) contains a lot more Yin Earth energy (Catching) than the Wing Chun version. This is generally going to be trumped by the attacker’s Yang Wood energy; but if you’re very quick, strong and confident in your technique, and are doing it at an appropriate time, you may be able to turn the tables. Indeed, while Strong Wood assertively counters Weak Earth, it’s also true that Strong Earth passively counters Weak Wood. Imagine stabbing a random patch of land in the middle of a field, with a sharpened hornbeam ironwood stick – the wood will generally do what it wants. But now repeat the process a thousand times in frozen rocky mountainous soil, with a softwood stick – that stick will soon become blunt and may even snap – it may even fail to penetrate the earth one time. Or embed a stick deeply into the earth, in the middle of a mature woodland, and leave it there for a thousand years – the earth will soon break it down and decompose it, then repair the hole as if nothing ever stabbed it. In these ways, strong earth can overcome weak wood, even though wood normally trumps earth. Hence I say, the Tai Chi style soft Wu Sau is only to be used when you’re confident you have enough time & space to do it comfortably. In a real emergency, when you know you’ll struggle to intercept the punch, the sharper Wing Chun style Tai Wu Sau is the way to go. Head movement may also help, but this should be used sparingly to avoid compromising your balance & power.
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