Lap Sau
拉手
Literally: pulling hand
Lap sau, the pulling hand, is a short, sharp wing chun tug that drags the opponent's arm down and opens the centre line.
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Lap sau, literally the pulling hand, is a wing chun technique in which a vertical arm with a gripping hand pulls the opponent's contact arm down and so opens the centre line. It is performed as a short, sharp tug that must be released immediately so the next attack can follow at once; it is not a sustained grip. The English Wikipedia records the name with the characters 拉手. In chi sau practice, the partner moves from bong sau into lap sau, uses it to drag down the opponent's striking arm, and strikes at the same time with the other hand from wu sau; lap sau thus adds to bong sau the pull that bong sau alone lacks. It serves to pull the opponent's arm out of the way or to unbalance him and disrupt his structure. The eWingChun glossary notes that it is usually trained with both hands in the Biu Jee form. In a fighting-focused approach, a fully executed lap sau leads to seizing the opponent's arm with both hands at once, that is, to a two-on-one control.