Bong Sau
膀手
Literally: wing hand
Wing Chun covering technique with a falling diagonal arm that deflects the opponent's pressure down across the centreline.
Quick Facts
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Using it as a preventive block instead of a reactive one, a stiff arm instead of a springy one, freezing in position instead of returning to attack, and starting the motion from the shoulder instead of rotating at the elbow.
Katas containing this technique
About
Bong Sau (膀手), literally wing arm, is a Wing Chun covering technique. The character bong means shoulder or wing, sau means hand. The arm falls diagonally, the palm hangs loosely away from the centreline and the wrist curls downward, covering the body's centre. The motion originates from rotation at the elbow, not from the shoulder, and according to one source the arm bends like bamboo instead of blocking rigidly. Bong Sau deflects incoming pressure down across the centreline, unlike Tan Sau, which spreads pressure outward with a rising motion. According to the same source it has a transitional function: it arises from an attacking position when downward or inward pressure collapses the attacking line, and as soon as the pressure eases the arm returns immediately to attack. It exists in low, middle and high variants depending on where the pressure acts on the centreline. It is one of the basic techniques of the form Siu Lim Tao (Siu Nim Tau). In the Kwan Sau technique it combines with Wu Sau into the pair high Wu, low Bong, in which the arms circle as the body turns.