In your first few weeks of Wing Chun you’ll hear plenty of unfamiliar words. Many of them are Cantonese, and they can feel like a foreign language, because they are one. Don’t worry: nobody expects you to know them on day one. This glossary explains the terms beginners hear most often, in plain English. Spellings vary between schools because Cantonese is written in different ways in English, so you might see some of these spelled slightly differently elsewhere.
People and places
Sifu
Teacher or instructor. In Wing Chun it carries a sense of respect, a bit like a father figure in the training family. You’ll hear students call me Sifu.
Sigung
Your teacher’s teacher.
Si-hing and Si-je
Senior training brother and senior training sister: students who started before you.
Si-dai and Si-mui
Junior training brother and junior training sister: students who started after you.
Kwoon
The training hall or school. Ours is the full-time centre on Stourbridge Road in Halesowen.
Kung fu
Often used to mean Chinese martial arts in general, but the phrase really means skill gained through hard work and time. You can have kung fu in cooking or calligraphy too.
The forms
Siu Nim Tao
The first form, often translated as “little idea”. Performed standing in one place, it builds structure, relaxation and the basic hand shapes.
Chum Kiu
The second form, often translated as “seeking the bridge”. It adds turning, stepping, bridging and kicks.
Biu Tze
The third empty-hand form, often translated as “darting fingers”. It deals with recovery and emergency techniques.
Muk Yan Jong
The wooden dummy, and the form practised on it. It comes after the three empty-hand forms.
Yee Jee Kim Yeung Ma
The name of the basic Wing Chun training stance, with the knees bent and drawn slightly inwards. Most people just call it “the stance”.
Luk Dim Boon Kwan and Baat Cham Dao
The long pole and the butterfly knives: the traditional weapons of Wing Chun, taught to advanced students much later in the syllabus.
Hand techniques
“Sau” means hand or arm, so you’ll hear it a lot.
Tan sau
A dispersing or spreading hand, palm up, used to deflect an attack along the centreline.
Bong sau
A wing arm, with the elbow raised and the forearm angled across the body. It redirects force rather than blocking it head-on.
Pak sau
A slapping hand, used to redirect an incoming strike.
Fook sau
A controlling or bridging hand, resting on a partner’s arm to feel and control it.
Lap sau
A pulling or grabbing hand, used to control a partner’s arm.
Wu sau
A guarding hand, held on the centreline to protect.
Jum sau
A sinking hand, dropping from the elbow to deflect.
Training methods and concepts
Chi sau
“Sticking hands”: a sensitivity drill where partners keep their forearms in contact and roll, learning to feel and respond to each other’s movement. It’s a drill, not sparring.
Dan chi sau
Single sticking hands, where one arm of each partner works at a time. It usually comes before double-arm chi sau.
Centreline
The imaginary line running down the middle of the body. Much of Wing Chun is about protecting your own centreline and working along your partner’s.
Chain punching
Rapid, continuous straight punches delivered along the centreline.
Applications
Applying a technique with a partner in a controlled way to understand how it works. For adults at our school, this is the heart of partner training.
Structure
Correct body alignment, so that force travels through your frame rather than collapsing it.
Around the school
Sash
The coloured sash worn around the waist to show a child’s grade. Our kids’ classes use sashes, starting with white. Adults don’t wear sashes; they progress through numbered grades, 1 to 9.
Grading
A session where students demonstrate the skills of their current stage to move up to the next.
Bowing
We bow in and out of every class as a sign of respect for the art, the instructors and each other.
Keep learning
You’ll pick these words up naturally just by training. If you’d like to go over them between sessions, our online Halesowen Wing Chun Digital Academy includes a structured syllabus with video. Find out more on our Learn Wing Chun Online page.
Hear them in person
The best way to learn these terms is on the training floor. Book your free trial class, or read more about our weekday evening classes on the Wing Chun classes in Halesowen page.
Sifu Alan Bagley, Wing Chun Halesowen