Wu Sau
護手
Literally: protecting hand
Wing Chun guard hand held behind the lead hand, covering the body's centre and striking forward if the opponent breaks through the centreline.
Quick Facts
Katas containing this technique
About
Wu Sau (護手), literally protecting hand, is a Wing Chun guard technique. The written form combines the character wu, to protect, with sau, hand. The arm rises diagonally, the palm faces the centreline and the fingers point upward. It is held slightly in front of the chest with a lowered elbow and an aligned wrist, neither extended nor pulled back, with a relaxed shoulder. Wu Sau stands behind the lead hand as a backup hand and covers the body's centre; when the opponent breaks through the centreline it strikes forward immediately. It reacts to pressure changes by moving into other techniques: into Tan Sau, Fook Sau or Pak Sau under inward pressure, into Bong Sau when pressure drops, and into a strike when the line opens. Jong Sau is described as an extension of Wu Sau forward along the centreline. Wu Sau appears in the forms Siu Nim Tau (Siu Lim Tao) and Chum Kiu, and in chi sau practice. In Kwan Sau it forms the upper part of the pair high Wu, low Bong, which cyclically covers the upper and lower gate.