Relax Your Shoulders

One of the most common difficulties students encounter is relaxing the shoulders. The confusion begins with the instruction itself: what exactly does it mean to relax?

First of all, rather than only relaxation of the shoulders, I would add that it is in fact non-use of the shoulders. Naturally, your body works as a whole, conditioned by the activities repeated in daily life. Think of it like kung fu - you want frequent, repetitions to make something a natural reflex, yet we have been doing this our whole lives without even realising. Each time you reach for a glass of water, walk to the kitchen, turn on a light switch, or change gears in the car, you have been “practising.” That’s why we are all so good at those things. Only now we want to introduce a new function, which is to deal with the forces applied by another person in combat. This is more complex and the shoulder that has been following your arm up to reach for the sugar on the top shelf is not the shoulder we want for this task.

Since the body condition produced by daily-life “practice” is not optimised for applying Wing Chun techniques and principles, we have to separate and isolate the individual components of the body before reintegrating them methodically. What we are looking for in the shoulder is for its involvement to be minimal to non-existent. The goal is to release all tension in the shoulders so they can rest down in their natural place while softening (and slightly concaving) the chest. This is accomplished through extensive Siu Lim Tao training, focusing on softness, not using your shoulders and not allowing them to follow your hands forward and back. This is one of the reasons Siu Lim Tao is done so slowly - giving you the opportunity to refine and embody details such as these. It is also important to keep in mind that being relaxed is different for each person and actually evolves over time with practice. There is no right or wrong; as long as you are actively making an effort to keep the shoulders down, relaxed, and uninvolved, you will improve. To be successful in this style, it is most essential to achieve and understand the basic postural and conditioning criteria.

You can also practice releasing the shoulders outside of training, as we are often holding them up due to other environmental causes. You might catch yourself with a raised shoulder while holding the steering wheel in the car or while beating eggs when you make your morning omelette. Being mindful and persistent during and outside of training is the key. Stress is also often tied to tense and raised shoulders so practices that ease and relax the mind, such as meditation, will also help a great deal.

When we apply Wing Chun, properly conditioned shoulders will ensure your balance is not taken when executing strikes or techniques and will also give you a connection to the rest of your structure. The muscles in our arms are relatively weak compared with those of our core and legs, so naturally we want to use these to absorb and generate power rather than the shoulders. If your shoulders are up and/or tense, the power stops there and the arms are forced to take on the load, leading to significantly reduced efficiency and injury of the rotator cuff.

Although simple, a good shoulder condition can be difficult for many to achieve - but that’s kung fu: time, effort, achievement. Another tenet of relaxation practices is happiness. You are more relaxed when happy, so enjoy the training process, put a smile on your face and get to work!