Brendan Lai, the famous Praying Mantis teacher, once told a student of mine that the trouble with Westerners, as far as Kung Fu skills went, was that their shoulders were too tight. According to report, he expressed some embarrassment after voicing such a general criticism. But it’s true. Some non-Asian people do tend to be tight in the shoulders. It’s such a problem that many teachers spend hours after hours of making nothing but shoulder corrections.

As usual I see a few more shades to this. For one thing I don’t think that tightness is the whole problem. Westerners also seem to express themselves a lot with shoulders where, in some other cultures, the hands, eyes or entire body might be employed. People like to raise their shoulders for any reason whatsoever. I have students who lift their shoulders when they raise their eyebrows. It gives a whole new meaning to the word “quizzical.”

My second point is not a criticism of Western body development! Western people are notoriously and fortunately strong in the upper body. From a martial perspective some of these people can generate far more power than others. While this is a benefit though they may use the shoulders too much, the old hammer-and-nail response. But let’s not be overly-critical of something that actually can be useful.

Given all this, shoulder training for Kung Fu should be considered an essential. It used to be a subject common among traditional instructors but has been somewhat forgotten in recent years. Maybe it would help to remind ourselves of the many other uses of the shoulder in martial training.

Here are some special training methods we use.

1. Hitting with the shoulder. Striking shoulders against shoulders, heavy bags, walls and other stalwarts is proper training. Adding hip strikes, body turning, tightening the neck (a bit) and also learning how to absorb blasts and bounces without ending up feeling like a human tuning fork can only improve your martial skills.

2. Shoulder circling. is not just for general flexibility but to relax the neck, to allow easier maneuvering with weapons, to free the shoulder blades, to help with Chin Na and Shuai Jiao actions. Shoulder circling is one of the keys to reversing grappling threats and finding leaks in the opponent’s defense.

3. Controlling delivery. From the feet to the fist can be a long journey. The shoulder is one of the way stations and plays a vital role in making any delivery as deceptive as possible. A good martial artist can fire from anywhere on his body. I used to stand amazed at Joe Lewis’ shoulder and hip fakes. They were so authoritative and believable that people would almost stumble over themselves before he even began his attack. The shoulder is one of the best spots in the body from which to launch the attack that either never comes or arrives at a completely unexpected place.

4. Escape route. Many Chin Na and Shuai Jiao movements attempt to capture and control the shoulder in one way or another. Good shoulder skills can make you far less vulnerable to these locks and captures. Shoulder escapes can be dangerous especially because students—predominantly male—have a natural aversion to moving their shoulders through certain angles. Indeed many students are so stiff that when threatened with a shoulder restraint they end up tightening down on themselves sometimes causing rather severe and mostly self-inflicted muscle tears or worse.

Shoulder training can also help prevent injury. It has been estimated by some medical practitioners that a huge percentage of men over 55 have rotator cuff problems.

Shoulders should be strong and flexible at the same time. Certain areas of Kung Fu training take care of this almost automatically. Staff and spear are classic exercises for loosening them but also for learning to control the shoulders. Shoulder training can start almost on Day One. Some styles perform stance training with the hands cocked at the sides. But there are a number of styles which match each stance with a specific hand position. If practiced correctly this develops shoulder training right along with leg work, especially with stationary positions while holding weights or weapons.

Normally I suggest some specific exercises but this time I want you to examine your forms and look for the training. It’s there, I guarantee, and has been there all along. Don’t shrug it off.

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