The Secret Siu Nim Tao

by Udo Butschinek
Imprint
Copyright © 2017 by Udo Butschinek

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be
reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express
written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief
quotations in a book review.

Faszien Dresden
Udo Butschinek
Lingnerallee 3
01069 Dresden
Germany
Email: udo.butschinek@gmail.com
Website: www.faszien-dresden.de
Phone: +49 1575 1971158
Imprint
Introduction
What the founders knew about the human body (which modern
masters have no clue about)
Strength and Power
Everyday movement
Proprioception
Body structure and posture
What Siu Nim Tao is NOT
What Siu Nim Tao is REALLY about
How REALLY to practice Siu Nim Tao - Instructions
Starting
Things that happen in Siu Nim Tao
Summary and final words
Want to learn more?
Online-course
Seminars
Acknowledgements
Introduction
My martial arts career started somewhere in the mid-seventies,
when the "Kung Fu" series with David Carradine as Kwai Chang
Caine was aired on German television. I had no idea about what
Kung Fu or martial arts was. But somehow it made a big impression
on me. It was only 25 years later, when the series was re-published
on DVD in the UK, that I got a grasp of what the series was all about.
It was a fantastic introduction to Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, and
at the same time a completely far-out genre-mix between Western
and martial arts movie.

Anyway, this got me started - literally. I trained kicks and punches,

rolled on the floor and saw myself fighting enemies. Just like Kwai
Chang Caine. My parents even bought me a school bag with a fly
kicking character and the words "Kung Fu" above it. My
schoolfellows thought I was actually in a Kung Fu club, which earned
me a lot of respect.

A few years later, I joined a club - a private Tae Kwon Do school. A

friend and I one day came across some flyers which were spread at
our school. I was 11 at that time. It announced the opening of a new
Taekwondo School in town and had a fly-kicking man on it. Which
looked really cool and appealing to me. As it turned out, the Tae
Kwon Do school would open directly opposite of our secondary
school. I decided to give it a try and went to a trial training. I was
hooked.

The next 8 years I trained Taekwondo with some short interruption. I

started to meet people from other martial arts, like kickboxing. One
of my TKD co-students was also a boxer. After training, we would
train together for another hour, and he would show me boxing
techniques and how to rope-jump.
One day, a schoolfellow told me that another schoolfellow had
shown him some very impressive self-defence stuff during recess
which he had acquired in the last 3 months and how superior he
was.
I was curious, so I asked the guy what it was he was practising. He
said it was "Chinese boxing". He asked if I was interested in
sparring. And I was!
I started with a high round kick - next thing I knew was, I had my
testicles kicked and a series of chain punches in my face. I dropped
to the floor, holding my crotch in pain. I thought, “Wow - I need to
learn this too”.

So, I started my first lesson in "Chinese boxing" which turned out to

be WingTsun in the Leung Ting lineage. What I was introduced to
was really impressive. There seemed to be a logic and system to it.
In Taekwondo, you learn a series of isolated kicks (and one punch)
and then you try to randomly apply these to an opponent. Either
you're lucky and hit or you don't. But there's no real system.

In WingTsun I learned that a systematic approach is possible.

For the next 15 years, I was an avid student of WingTsun, trained 3

or 4 times a week or more. Took private lessons, went to seminars
and everything.

But after a while, doubt dripped in. In theory, the concepts were
convincing but transfer to real-life application was not.

For example, there is a principle in WingTsun that says that you don't
put your head forward to protect it from being hit. But whenever I
saw highly graduated WT students, I noticed that they did not - or
could not - follow this principle. I asked myself why they are not able
to do so, although they've trained it for years (I will provide the
answer later).
Another example: Although 4 principles were taught for Chi Sao
(move forward, stick, yield, follow) you never saw it in sparring fights.
Not even close. All there was - no matter how highly graduated -
were front-kicks and chain punches.

These are just 2 examples of a series of inconsistencies between

theory and practice.

There were only two possibilities: Either wing chun did not work or
something was missing.

This started me to look into other martial arts and wing chun styles.
One day, I came across a book entitled “Wing Shun for insiders”
written by a German body therapist who was a trained body worker
and martial artist. He revealed some basic anatomical principles that
answered my questions. All of a sudden, I knew why highly
graduated wing chun masters could not keep their heads back when
moving. The answer was simple: their body structure would not allow
it (what that means will be explained later). I booked a weekend with
Frank and after only 10 minutes it was clear that I had trained Siu
Nim Tao (and Chi Sao) entirely wrong for 15 years. I became a body
therapist myself and started training Siu Nim Tao in an entirely
different way - which lead to amazing insights and results.

In the following, I will explain some fundamental anatomical

principles. How your body and movement actually works and what
implications there are for practicing Siu Nim Tao.

I am convinced that the original founders of wing chun new about

what I am about to reveal to you - whoever they were (you don’t
believe the fairy tale of the nun, do you?). It just has been lost during
the centuries as not every student, who himself became a teacher,
was of the brightest kind.

So let’s start with some fundamentals.

(A quick note: When I write “wing chun” in small letters, I mean all
*ing *un styles regardless of any specific lineage).

P.S.: If you want to learn the Secret Siu Nim Tao first-hand, then I’ve
put together an online course and am open for seminars world-wide.
See chapter “Want to learn more?”.
What the founders knew about the human
body (which modern masters have no clue
about)
Try to spontaneously answer the following question: What is needed
in order to keep a body upright?

If you're like 95 percent of all others you might have imagined

something like "bones", "a skeleton" and "muscles". This is in
accordance with the classical model of the human body: Muscles
keep the skeleton actively upright. Consequently, you have to train
and strengthen your muscles. You always have to actively keep a
posture by contracting muscles.

The model that I - and all body therapists - work with is a bit different.
We view the human body as what is called a “tensegrity model”.
Tensegrity is a made-up word derived from the words “tension” and
“integrity”. It is a structural principle used in architecture. All
tensegrity models consist of rigid elements, like wooden rods, and
flexible elements which connect everything.
 “Tensegrity Sphere” photo (and model) by Jonathan Lin. Creative Commons BY-SA 2.0

The result is an entity with the following traits:

● It stands erect without forcing itself to do so or by being

supported from the outside
● It has a specific structure
● It is flexible and reacts to external forces but gets back to its
original form when the external form is removed

Try to transfer this to your body. There are rigid elements - your
bones, your skeleton. All these elements are interconnected by a
flexible element. This connecting and flexible element is called
fascia.

Fascia surround everything in your body. There is not a single

muscle, muscle fiber, no organ, not even a single nerve that is not
surrounded by fascial tissue. And all these fascial tissues are
connected. In fact, the fascia system is itself your biggest organ and
consists of trillions of cells. If I took away all your bones, organs and
nerves, a hull would remain that's not only recognizable as a human
body but as YOUR specific human body. In exaggeration, one could
say that you are a fascia. Without fascia, a normal functioning of
muscles, joints, tendons, and organs is simply not possible.
If this sounds somehow weird then lookup a picture of a dissection
done by Gil Hedley entitled “Entire superficial fascia of female form
off body as autonomous organ”:
http://www.gilhedley.com/ghgallery.php
Strength and Power
Fascia have lots of attributes and functions in the human body. E.g.
they are extremely important for strength and power. Fascia
generate forces through stretching and tension - think of a rubber
band. They also convey these forces to different parts of the body
among chains of muscles. Muscles “merely” multiply these fascia-
generated forces. If your fascial net is in parts not “free” and for
various reasons stuck together, forces will not be conveyed properly
and economically. Which will make you weaker. I once had a client
(a wrestler) about 1.95 meters in height and 120kg in weight - pure
muscle. A week after his first body therapy session he went to the
gym to do some deadlifts. Within this week he had improved from
moving 140kg to 180kg. He was awestruck. After pondering what he
had changed he came to the conclusion that nothing had been
different - except his visit in my practice. So he called me and asked
if it could have something to do with our session which I confirmed.
Now that some sticky parts in his fascial net had been released -
forces could be better conveyed through his body. And thus he had
become stronger - with no additional training.

In fact, you may be shocked when I tell you that muscles are
performance inhibitors par excellence. The more muscle training you
do - and the bigger you become - the less power you will have. By
the way: Why would you do extensive strength-training when your
style does not (or at least claims to not) rely on strength? There is
no way that you come to an inner style by using methods of outer
styles.
How is it that strength training and growing muscles make you
weaker? Don’t we see that the biggest guys in weightlifting move the
biggest weights? There is a reason why there are different weight
classes, right?
This certainly is true. But moving a bigger weight in absolute terms
does not mean that you are now stronger from a relative perspective.
In fact, it is easy to show that your strength per kg body weight drops
the bigger you are.
Just look at the following table. These are worldrecord-numbers
taken from the website of the International Weightlifting Federation
(at http://www.iwf.net/results/world-records/):

Class Snatch kg/kg Clean & kg/kg total total kg / kg

(kg) bdw Jerk (kg) bdw (kg) bdw

<=
56kg 139 2,48 171 3,05 310 5,54
<=
62kg 154 2,48 183 2,95 337 5,44
<=
69kg 166 2,41 198 2,87 364 5,28
<=
77kg 176 2,29 210 2,73 386 5,01
<=
85kg 187 2,20 220 2,59 407 4,79
<=
94kg 188 2,00 233 2,48 421 4,48
<=
105kg 200 1,90 246 2,34 446 4,25
<=
115+kg 214 1,86 263 2,29 477 4,15

You can clearly see that while absolute strength goes up, relative
strength per kg body weight goes continually down. From 2.48 kg
per 1.86 kg per kg body weight is a reduction of about 25%. Please
consider that I am being nice here: For the heavyweight class, I have
estimated an exact 115 kg body weight while in reality, I suppose
that they are way heavier. This is also true for the other classes - for
my calculations, I have always assumed the maximum body weight.
So real differences might be even bigger.

Why is it that you get relatively weaker with respect to weight moved
per kg body weight?
As I said before, your fascial-net is responsible for conveying forces
across your body. Now, every muscle is wrapped in (and connected
with) fascial tissue. You can think of ground meat wrapped in clear
film. The ground meat is your muscle, and the clear film represents
the surrounding fascia. At each end, the tissue will twirl and get
denser thus be firm, yet flexible. This goes straight to the bone and
the periosteum (which itself is fascial tissue) respectively. You can
think of it as a bonbon-form:

This is a nice model of, say, your calf muscle: The ground meat (for
hygienic reasons i used a cloth here;-)) surrounded by clear film is a
part of your gastrocnemius muscle while the ends are tendons - the
lower tendon being your achilles-tendon.
You can consider your body to be a chain of interconnected
“bonbon”-muscles.

Now when you start lifting weights your muscles get bigger. What will
happen to the "clear film" - i.e. the fascial tissue around your
muscle? Think about it - tension on the surrounding fascial tissue is
increased. It is as if you were inflating a balloon. At a certain point -
sooner than later - the fascial tissue will lose its ability to store
forces. It will lose its rubber band characteristics. Also, the ability to
convey forces across body parts is reduced (and by the way, the
mobility of respective joints as well).
This is why weightlifters get weaker in relative terms. Interruptions of
force conveyance in one part of the body weaken the body as a
whole - because the weakest chain link determines the strength of
the whole chain. Releasing fascia can fix this to some extent.
Are you still doing extensive strength training?
Everyday movement
Another important trait of fascia is that they adapt to the dominant
way in which you use your body daily. Recurring postures and
movements determine the form of your body and your mobility and
flexibility. If you sit a lot, this will impact your body negatively. When
you sit on a normal chair - according to official advice, by the way - it
will look something like this:

Look at what will happen: First, your pelvis is forced into a forward
position. This will shorten your front and - your spine is connected to
your pelvis - as it does so, will lead to a round back and a head
forward posture. This is compulsory from an anatomical point of
view. You can test it for yourself, even when standing. Try this: Stand
upright with your feet hip-wide apart and your body weight evenly
distributed on each side. Now slowly move your pelvis forward as far
as you can and keep it there. Notice what will happen to your front,
your shoulders, your head and your spine:
 ● Your front will be concave
● Your shoulders curl in
● Your head comes forward
● Your lordosis (in-curve in your lower spine) will be gone

The reason why this happens is that your pelvis is connected to your
chest. E.g. your abdominal muscle (musculus rectus abdominis) is
directly connected to your chest. It starts at the pubic bone and ends
at the breastbone. Think of it as a rope. Now when you move your
pelvis forward you will reduce the distance between pubic bone and
breastbone which will loosen - i.e. shorten - the rope. When this
shortening happens, the rest must follow as it is also connected.

This is exactly - and even more so - what’s happening when you’re

sitting on a chair. If you do this for a long time, your fascial net will
stay in this position even when you’re standing up. Not only are deep
fascia in the front shortened but also fascial tissue around your hip-
flexor (Psoas). This will dislocate your pelvis and consequently other
body parts as well permanently (while we’re at it: This is oftentimes
the reason why people have lower back pain - their front and hip-
flexors are shortened. When they stand up, their body-front will be
pulled down. As the body “wants” to be upright - but can’t be - the
erector spinae in the back have to help and thus are permanently
contracted. As this is not their job, this will lead to pain at some point
- it’s like trying to hold a 10 kg weight with your biceps permanently).

Someone once estimated that the average person sits around 11.5
hours per day. As fascia adapt to your dominant posture and
dominant movement pattern, the outcome is clear: A shortened front
and a head forward posture. A round back and a dislocated pelvis is
not just an aesthetic problem. It severely impacts your health - not
just your spine, but your inner organs as well. There is no way to
lengthen this by any gymnastics. Fascial tissue is really tough. Just
think about it. If it is true that fascial tissue adapts to the dominant
posture and movement patterns, then what use could there be in
attending a 1.5-hour yoga session twice a week? While you're sitting
11.5 hours, i.e. 690 minutes a day which is 4830 minutes per week
and given that you will stretch your front within a yoga class for 10
minutes twice a week means 4830 min : 20 min per week! Even if
you did nothing but stretch your front for the whole of your yoga
class it would still be 4830 min : 180 min! This is a factor of almost
27.
What this means is: The biggest lever is your everyday movement.
This will highly impact your ability to move economically and
efficiently. Your training - according to the anatomical principles I
present here - is on top of this.

The fascial net consists of trillions of cells, and it is made of collagen.

This collagen is produced by so-called fibroblasts. You can consider
fibroblasts to be little spiders permanently weaving the fascial net
according to current usage. Something is taken away here and
added there or strengthened here or weakened there. In this way,
your individual fascial net is woven and adapted to your dominant
pattern of movement.
Proprioception
Our fascia network is crisscrossed with nerve endings. In fact, the
fascia network is your largest organ. As Robert Schleip puts it:

"It is now recognized that fascial network is one of our richest

sensory organs. The surface area of this network is endowed with
millions of endomysial sacs and other membranous pockets with a
total surface area that by far surpasses that of the skin or any other
body tissues. A myriad of tiny unmyelinated 'free' nerve endings are
found almost everywhere in fascial tissues [...]. If we include these
smaller fascial nerve endings in our calculation, then the number of
fascial receptors may possibly be equal or even superior to that of
the retina, so far considered as the richest sensory human organ.
However, for the sensorial relationship with our own body - whether it
consists of pure proprioception, nociception or the more visceral
interoception – fascia provides definitely our most important
perceptual organ." (http://www.doctorschierling.com/blog/fascia-as-a-
proprioceptive-organ-and-its-relationship-to-chronic-pain)

This organ is responsible for the so-called proprioception.

Proprioception is “the ability to sense the position and location,
orientation and movement of the body and its parts” (Jaap Van der
Wal). Without this ability, you would not be able to grasp your nose,
as you would not be able to feel the current position of your nose or
hand. You can think of proprioception as a 6th sense.

Improving proprioception is the basis of practically every sport - and

the more complex the movement patterns, the more important. This
has already been recognized very well in Russia at the time of the
Iron Curtain and great importance was attached to the attention and
perception of athletes. This was way ahead of the training methods
in the west, which - according to my impression up to the present
day - were mainly concerned with strength and endurance.
The nerves in your fascia network are directly connected to your
brain. More specifically, the sensory and motor cortex. In this area of
the brain, there is a neuronal representation of your body. Different
areas of the body are represented differently. The number of
neurons for the lips is greater than for the feet.

Now this "map" of the body (which is also called "homunculus") is

not a kind of hard-wired unit from birth but is subject to the input from
the environment. The homunculus of a watchmaker is certainly
different from that of a blacksmith.

A sensory homunculus - By OpenStax College - Anatomy & Physiology, Connexions Web

site. http://cnx.org/content/col11496/1.6/, Jun 19, 2013., CC BY 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30148008
It is possible to change the proprioceptive ability for different parts of
the body by providing appropriate input. This applies both to the
positive and negative.

Research has shown that proprioception in patients with chronic pain

is severely impaired and fascial structures in the affected regions
show pathological changes. This corresponds to my own
experiences.

If certain parts of the body are no longer used at all, not only the
fascial structures in the respective area are glued together, but
sometimes also so-called "sensory-motor amnesia" occurs. The term
refers to the state in which certain muscles are permanently
contracted without the person being able to intentionally relax this
muscle. There is simply no longer any connection between the map
and the body part. This causes movement restrictions and pain.

By providing appropriate input, we can improve the quality of our

brain maps. The better and more detailed your brain map is, the
better your movement will be.

Now, not all movements are equally well suited to improve the quality
of brain maps. Movements that are most likely to lead to qualitative
changes in the brain maps are curious and explorative, innovative
and interesting, but above all slow, gentle, attentive and not painful.

You can already see from this description that there is a big
difference between the dull movement of a weight with a certain
number of repetitions and the described form of movement (which
does not mean that proper weight training would have no use - it
does. However, I wouldn't put the emphasis on weight training).

If you want to remain flexible and painless into old age, it is therefore
critical that you work on proprioception. That you improve the quality
of your brain maps will automatically improve your quality of
movement. Which in turn means that a functioning body is as well
mental as a physical issue. Let that sink in.

Improving proprioception is one major function of Siu Nim Tao (and

also Chi Sao, by the way). I am always in awe how much ahead of
their time the wing chun founders were.
What I have just depicted is also part of methods like Feldenkrais or
Alexander Technique. But these methods have only been developed
in the late 20th century. But wing chun has it all built in - always had.
The founders and developers truly must have been some clever
chaps!
Body structure and posture

Fascia determine the form of your body as a whole and also of body
parts. The way e.g. your biceps looks is determined by the
surrounding fascia. Body therapists distinguish between a posture
and a structure. While your posture is something that you do actively
like pulling in your tummy, straighten your back, holding your head
above your shoulders etc., your body structure is what is there when
you're not thinking about your posture. Body structure denotes the
relative position of several parts of your body to each other.

Just think of a pencil. A pencil can stand upright if you put the flat
end on a table. This is a labile equilibrium. Now imagine you would
cut this pencil into 7 parts of equal length. If you wanted to have the
pencil upright by putting all parts on top of each other, there is only
one way to do it. Without the construction collapsing, that is. All parts
have to be exactly in line. Should one or more parts be rotated,
shifted or even tilted - there cannot be any equilibrium but only
collapse.

Your body consists of exactly 7 segments:

1. Feet
2. Lower leg
3. Upper leg
4. Pelvis
5. Upper body
6. Neck
7. Head

Due to your body's history of movement and posture - and in

accordance with your dominant way of movement on a daily basis -
these body segments can be rotated, shifted, tilted or bent. That
does not mean that your body collapses. This will not happen as
there are muscles and a fascial net that keep everything together.
But what will happen is that now muscles and fascia are under
permanent stress and pull at your skeleton. Muscles will keep
segments in their place and work permanently. When your pelvis is
rotated and/or shifted, the body has somehow to compensate for
that.
A body therapist can “read” this structure and see where tensions in
your body are. He (or she) can even say whether your body is fully
functional or partly (or completely) dysfunctional.

There is a straight connection between a body structure and its

function. Think of a car. If it has a flat tire, say on the left side, the
whole car will be tilted - i.e. be lower - on the left side. It follows that
the function of the car is restricted. You may still be able to drive with
it, but it is uneconomical as more fuel will be needed and eventually,
it will be completely wrecked.

As an example, we may look at a forward-head posture. This is a

commonly seen structural feature. When your head is in front of your
body, your neck muscles and especially the trapezius have to work
to keep your head from falling off your shoulders. The structures
around this area will become hard and stiff over time, and the normal
function will be decreased. More often than not, this also leads to
neck pain and headaches. If I were to work solely on the neck part, I
could possibly alleviate pain for a while. But after a few weeks (or
sooner) it would return. Simply, because the structure has not been
changed. The head belongs above the shoulders, not in front of it.
So working solely on the neck does not solve the problem. We have
to work on the body as a whole and e.g. open and straighten the
front line, maybe work on the position of the pelvis and also work on
the feet and legs. As soon as the head is above the shoulders again,
pain will be gone for good and function returns. That's how important
body structure is.

There are many so-called kung fu "masters" who sit or stand in fine
postures on photos. But as soon as the camera is off, they will
slump. Their body structure is broken. I could show you numerous
videos of kung fu masters with dysfunctional body structure. They
cannot possibly be able to practice real soft martial arts as their
structure does not allow it (this is - by the way - the reason why
highly graduated WingTsun students could not keep their head back
- their structure would not allow it. They were too short in the front.
Which is no wonder when you are doing sit-ups regularly).

Why is body structure (rather than posture) so essential?

Now, first think of two dogs in a fight. You’re asked to bet your money
on one of them. One limps, has an inflexible spine and can’t open its
mouth on one side. The other can move normally. On which one
would you bet?
I am not talking about severe disability here. Displacement of body
parts, i.e. shifts in body structure, hinders normal function. Hindered
normal function means uneconomic movement and instability. A
displaced pelvis makes you stiff and unstable. The same goes for a
round back. I would always bet on the more functional of two
opponents.

Body structure in the human body does a lot for economy and
stability. Your pelvis is the centre of your body and extremely
important. Are you wondering how to “answer” a wrestler attack? A
right pelvis position is more than half the rent.

Let's get back to our pencil cut into seven segments. Ideally, there is
a plumb line which goes straight from top to bottom in the middle of
our pencil. Now as a human, we do have joints which need a bit of
free play. In side view, there are four joint axes (an axis is an
imaginary straight and horizontal line through a joint):

1. Ankle axis (which connects feet and lower leg)

2. Knee axis (which connects lower- and upper leg)
3. Pelvis axis (connecting upper- and lower body)
4. Shoulder axis
Now each of these axes must have a certain ideal position relative to
the plumb line. Deviations from this have severe consequences for
economy, stability, and functionality.

Here you see the plumb line in the middle and the relative position of
each axis, denoted by the red dots:

1. The ankle axis is slightly behind the plumb line

2. The knee axis is slightly in front of the plumb line
3. The pelvis axis behind it
4. The shoulder axis slightly in front of it

For obvious reasons, this line from axis to axis is called the zigzag-
line. It is the basic structural characteristic of the human body which -
under natural circumstances - is and should always be present.
Simply because this is what guarantees economy and stability.
You do not have to take my word for it, as you can simply test it for
yourself:

First, we are going to test for economy. Stand normally upright.

Relax. Now move your pelvis extremely far forward. This will result in
your upper body being moved backward and your legs forwards. You
have moved your pelvis axis forwards. Try to stand this way. Feel
how your abdominal muscles and the front of your upper legs are
working. Feel the pressure on your lumbar spine. Would it be easy to
stand like this for 30 minutes?

Now do the opposite. Bring your pelvis way back so that your upper
body is parallel to the ground. Relax your arms. Let your back be
concave. How does that feel? Is it easier than the posture before?
Could you stand like this for 30 minutes? I guess you could.
When your pelvis axis is behind the plumb line you are mainly using
your strong glutaeus muscles which makes standing upright
effortless. The first position does not use the glutaeus but puts a lot
of stress on your abdominal muscles. Which makes it really
uneconomic.
Now let’s test for stability. First, bring your pelvis forward again. Now
let somebody pull on one of your arms. You will notice that he/she
just needs a thumb and forefinger and very little power to pull you
forward, even if the person pulling is some weight classes below you
(I am only 70 kg and have done it easily with men weighing 120 kg
or 140 kg).
Now bring your pelvis back and have someone pull again. You will
notice that the other person now has to pull much harder. If you bring
your pelvis more back the more the other person is pulling (while not
resisting in your arms and shoulders) it is almost impossible for any
person to break your balance.
So if your pelvis axis is behind the plumb line, if this is your body
structure, you ARE stable no matter your size or weight. If your
pelvis axis is in front, you are unstable, no matter your muscle mass.
This is how important structure is.

Another critical structural feature you must have to be economically

efficient and stable is that your front from pubic bone to your neck
has to be a long and convex line. Only if this is the case you can
stand effortlessly upright. You can see what is meant by that in the
picture above. If this line is shortened - e.g. by sitting a lot and doing
sit-ups - your head will be pulled forward and at the same time, your
chest will be pulled down. Also, your pubic bone will be pulled
upward, which dislocates your pelvis.

Ideally, your pelvis should have a slight anterior tilt relative to the
femur. I will explain what that means. Think of your pelvis as a coffee
cup with two handles. Attached to these handles are one rope on
each. Now if you pulled on the front string, you'd spill your coffee at
the back. If you pulled on the back, you'd spill it at the front. Pulling
on the back means that you are using your m. erector spinae and
anterior tilt. Pulling the front means using you m. rectus abdominis
and posterior tilt. A posterior tilt results in a flat lower back with no or
almost no lordosis. This is extremely unstable. You can test it again
for yourself by having someone pull your arm. On the other hand, an
anterior tilt is extremely stable. You will be long in your front line, and
it is very hard to be pulled forward now. The combination of a slight
anterior tilt of the pelvis and a pelvis axis behind the plumb line
makes you solid as a rock.
Just think of a weightlifter lifting some really heavy weight:

Photo by Yasunobu HIRAOKA, Creative Commons BY-ND 2.0

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/)
If the pelvis had a posterior tilt, the whole structure would collapse.
Lifting this weight would be impossible (try it yourself if you do not
believe me).
While we are at it: Many people fear a hollow back (or a
“hyperlordosis”) and hurting their lumbar spine when the pelvis has
an anterior tilt. This is where the combination of pelvis axis and
pelvis tilt comes in. Your lumbar spine is only in danger to be hurt
when your pelvis axis is in front of the plumb line, while at the same
time the pelvis has an anterior tilt. This totally changes when your
pelvis axis is behind the plumb line. Really: A lordosis in your lower
back is part of the natural curve of the spine and distinguishes you
from a monkey.

To sum up: To be effortlessly upright and at the same time be able to

move and stand economically and stable, these structural traits are
necessary:

1. Pelvis axis behind the plumb line

2. Anterior tilt of the pelvis
3. Long and open concave frontline
4. Position of all 4 axes according to the zigzag-line

When it comes to Siu Nim Tao, this will be of special interest.

Remember that this has to be a structural trait of your body and not
something that you do actively. You don’t pose.

A short note on the zigzag-line. The basic human pattern of

movement is called "folding". It occurs naturally in all toddlers. This is
where you can observe it in pure form. Folding means that the 4
axes are moved towards one another. Think of an accordion. When
all axes are the closest, you are sitting in an Asian squat. Increase
the distance to its max, and you are standing again. Your daily
movements should be in accordance with this pattern. When you
pick something up from the floor, you do not bend down with your
knees locked and a round back. You use your knees and fold, i.e.
bring together the axes. This will lengthen your front and activate
your psoas. You are moving within your fascial net. If this is tricky for
you, or you cannot easily do a squat, this is a sure sign that essential
tensions in your body are suboptimal (on the reverse: being able to
squat does not mean that everything is ok).

A decent structure as outlined here enables you to move

economically and be stable without working with and contracting
unnecessary muscles. Only then are you able to practice “soft” wing
chun.
If you want to explore your own structure, have somebody take a
photo in side view. Don't fool yourself and don't pose. Just stand
relaxed as you would when nobody is watching. Then take some
graphics program and draw a straight line from bottom to top, with
the lower end of the line being slightly before your ankle. Now, look
where the axes are regarding the plumb line. If their position deviate
from the ideal positions, that's a problem.
What Siu Nim Tao is NOT
If you believe you’re practising “techniques” in Siu Nim Tao, then I’m
afraid to say you have it fundamentally wrong.

If it is true that wing chun is an inner style that has no techniques but
is based solely on principles - then how could you possibly practice
techniques in Siu Nim Tao?

If you’re not practising techniques, then how can there be any

applications of Siu Nim Tao movements?

You are also not practising any "basic moves", "defences", or

"strikes". Well, in a certain sense Siu Nim Tao contains some basic
moves but for the real purpose of Siu Nim Tao, they are not - or
would not be - necessary. You could do any move, as long as you do
it in the way explained in the following directions. The predefined
moves you do in Siu Nim Tao are first there to relieve the student
from the demanding task to be creative. It is easier to follow a given
set of moves. At the same time, all Siu Nim Tao moves contain
everything that you can naturally do with your arms, hands, and
joints in the complete range of motion (without force, that is).

You are also not practicing keeping your arms - or heaven forbid
your elbow - on your central line. From an anatomical perspective,
this does not really make sense. When your arms are hanging
loosely on your sides, and you now swing them to the front of your
body, your elbow is surely not on any "central line". The same is true
when your arms swing back. When you try to hold your elbow on a
central line, it is not possible without forcing your elbow to do this -
which is quite the opposite of being "relaxed". This is simply
determined by your body's anatomy.
Finally - never are you practising something against some imaginary
opponent.
What Siu Nim Tao is REALLY about
First Siu Nim Tao is a way to work on your fascial web. Its main
purpose is to free your body from fascial restrictions and so-called
"Sensory Motor Amnesia". Sensory Motor Amnesia - an expression
coined by Thomas Hanna, the founder of Hanna Somatics - means
that there are muscles in your body that are constantly contracted
and there is no way for you to relax them voluntarily. The connection
between your brain - that is, your motor cortex - is disconnected.
This leads to pain and restrictions in movement. Siu Nim Tao helps
you find these permanently contracted muscles and re-establish a
connection and enable you to relax them again.

Done properly, you can unwind tight fascial tissue by stretching

fascia. If you want to know how it feels when fascial tissue is
stretched, try this: lie down on your bed, sideways. Now let your
lower arm reach over the edge so that your lower arm from behind
the elbow downwards reaches over the edge of the bed. Now relax
and do nothing. If you are really relaxed, you will, at some point,
notice some movement in your fingers that’s not initiated at will. This
is your fascial tissue moving. This may go along with some tickling
sensation or as if you had a thin silk glove on that is slowly pulled
down. Then very, very slowly - as if in ultra-slow motion - move your
fingers and hand up. This will intensify this sensation. You have
stretched your fascia. This only works when activating as little
muscles as possible. This is important when practising Siu Nim Tao.

Using muscles as little as possible is not only something that you do

in Siu Nim Tao. This is generally the way to move efficiently.
Movement happens when we let go. Not when we contract muscles.
You can easily test it for yourself: Stand upright. Now contract the
muscles of your legs as hard as you can. Also, your glutaeus
muscles. Hold it for a few seconds and now … walk! You will notice
that you can’t walk at all, or at least not gracefully, unless you relax
your muscles. Movement happens when we let go.
You may have heard that you need some pre-tension in your pre-
fight stance in your legs to start explosively. From this perspective, it
does not make sense at all. Writes Stuart McGill, who has worked
with numerous top-athletes: "the best sprinters are astoundingly
relaxed while in the starting posture. The rate of force development
upon the gun is equally astounding, as is the rate of relaxation for
the speed phase of each reciprocating segment motion.". If the
sprinter was contracting before starting, he would lose. That simple.

Charlie Francis, former Olympic sprinter and then coach wrote:

“... the number one secret to greater speed is relaxation! It allows a

faster and more complete shutdown of antagonists, quickening
alternation cycles and permitting more force to be delivered in the
desired direction with less energy consumption. Relaxation must
become second nature in every drill you do and every run you take.
You may feel that you aren't generating enough force while relaxed
(a perception that gets a lot of sprinters into trouble in big races), but
remember, only the net force counts! The net force is the amount of
force delivered in the desired direction minus the force generated by
the antagonist muscle at the same moment.”

Letting go and practising consciously will improve your movement

quality. Your general movements will become smooth and graceful.
This, in turn, improves the effort with which you move.

Principally, there are 3 forces moving the body:

● Gravity
● The elastic forces of fascia
● Muscle power

Gravity is always there. Whenever you move something downwards,

you can use this force naturally. This is only possible in total
relaxation. But using gravity makes you move more economically.
Also, gravity stabilizes and supports. Simply standing, you have to
allow gravity to support you from beneath. Feel your feet on the
ground - feel set. This, in turn, will easily stretch your fascial web
upwards.
As I said before, fascia transmit forces throughout the body. Fascia
work like a rubber band. They are passively stretched and then
forces are released. Whereas, muscles stretch and contract actively.
Contraction of muscles always compresses the body.
These three forces are of particular importance with respect to
practising Siu Nim Tao.

Done properly, Siu Nim Tao will improve your body structure. The
prerequisite is that you let go of your muscles and let your body do
the work. Do not contract any muscles by will. Standing in IRAS, do
not move your pelvis forward. By now, you should know why: Simply
because this would instantly make you unstable as your pelvis axis
moves forward, and the pelvis is rotated posteriorly. Only if you let
go, your body structure will improve over time - this takes a while - I
am talking about at least 9 to 12 months or even years - depending
on your starting point - as your fascial web changes only slowly.
Unless you see a body therapist, that is. A body therapist may do in
2 hours what would take years to accomplish by yourself. But
nonetheless, you can treat yourself by practising Siu Nim Tao
properly.

Another aspect of Siu Nim Tao is that you improve your

proprioception and body-awareness. Done the right way, you learn a
lot about where you are holding back and unnecessarily still
contracting muscles. Mentally, you go through your body all the time
to find out where you are contracting and how you are moving your
arms. This improves proprioception, which is essentially important -
how will you feel else in Chi Sao if you can't feel yourself and don't
know where your own limbs are?

At the same time, Siu Nim Tao is a kind of "meditation in movement".

You have probably heard of this before. But what does that actually
mean? There are different ways of meditating, but one is that you
have a secret mantra. A mantra is a phrase that you repeat in your
head over and over again. It might have a meaning, or it might have
not, like e.g. "OM-AH-HUM". The idea is to quiet your mind you
mentally repeat this mantra and whenever you notice that you have
been carried away by your ever wandering train of thoughts (and you
will be carried away believe me!) you return to your mantra and
concentrate on that again. Now the movements in Siu Nim Tao are
your mantra. When you notice that your thoughts are wandering, you
return to your movements and try to fill your head with that and only
that. Not in a tense way, in that you concentrate hard with all your
might. But easy and relaxed. It is all about being in the here and
now. This is something that children do naturally and adults have to
learn again.
How REALLY to practice Siu Nim Tao -
Instructions
You will not find any photos of Siu Nim Tao in this book. If you are
into wing chun, then you should already know the sequence.
Otherwise, look it up on the web - there are countless videos of Siu
Nim Tao.
All that matters is HOW you practice Siu Nim Tao. The exact
positioning of your arms are of no importance because this is YOUR
personal Siu Nim Tao. The way it looks is determined by the fascial
tensions across your body and is a result of your personal history of
movement.

There is no “correct” position or angle of any movement you do in

Siu Nim Tao. It always makes me smile when I see videos of ageing
sifus correcting their student’s Tan Sao by moving it about 1 or 2
mm. This is totally pointless if not to say baloney. Especially funny
are the baffled students’ faces, like “What the heck …?”. I believe
they will think about this correction for the next weeks and come to
no conclusion. They can’t - because there is no deeper meaning.
There is no correct “technique” in any absolute sense. When
practising Siu Nim Tao, you let go and let your body do whatever it
“wants” to do. In Chi Sao (or in a real fight for that matter) your body
has to adapt to the forces put on it. And in what position - say - your
Tan Sao is, depends on what your opponent does and you -
hopefully - adapt to that. The only correct Tan Sao is a Tan Sao
perfectly adapted to the current situation. And there are literally
endless possibilities.
Don’t be fooled by this mumbo jumbo. Stop wondering about any
“correct” technique. There are many - and none.

These are the basic principles of practising Siu Nim Tao properly you
should take to heart:
● Move as slowly as you can - as if in ultra-slow motion. Going
through Siu Nim Tao may take at least 20 - 30 minutes, or even
1 hour.
● Contract as little muscles as possible. This also goes for your
legs. It also means not to press your adductors onto one
another. Neither do you tilt your pelvis forward, as it would
shorten your front (remember the body structure and the
position of the axes?)
● Your pelvis hangs in fascial “slings”. Let it hang there.
● A good feedback mechanism whether you are relaxed or not is
to feel your arm’s weight. This is a sure sign that you use
minimal muscles. Lifting your arm to perform Bong Sao means
lifting a weight of about 5 kg against gravity. If you cannot feel
this weight, you are still using and contracting too much
muscle.
● Along with feeling the weight of your arms, goes a slight
stretching tension and/or a tickling. Sometimes this may even
hurt a little. Congratulations - you are stretching on the level of
your fascial tissue.
● Never fully elongate joints. If you do so, you are contracting
unnecessarily and probably damaging your joints.
● Feel “set”, i.e. grounded while at the same time stretched
upwards
● In your mind, go constantly through your body from top to
bottom and try to identify parts where you are still holding back.
● Ask yourself constantly - how am I moving this arm or joint?
Can I do it more efficiently?
● Let go. Whatever your body does, let it happen. Do not work
against it. There are a number of weird things that may happen
if you practice Siu Nim Tao that way, which I am going to
describe later.
Starting
Start standing upright, feet hip-wide apart - do not hold yourself
upright. To voluntarily adopt a posture means to contract muscles
and thus be stiff. If you find yourself posing, relax - even if it means
you are standing with a round back. Your goal is to be upright
without actively adopting a posture. Let your arms hang loosely on
the side of your body.

Now move your lower arms slowly upwards. Upper arms loosely
hanging. Your hands hanging down, following gravity. There is a
roughly 90-degree angle between hand and lower arm. You should
already feel a tickling here - stretching your fascia. When the lower
arms reach an angle of about 90 degrees relative to your upper arm,
slowly turn the lower arm outwards. Do not clench your fingers to
form a fist. Just relax your fingers - naturally, they will be bent. Most
importantly: Do not pull your elbow backward, as this would again
mean contraction. Let your arms hang beside your body as they
would naturally do.

Now let your pelvis glide backward (pelvis axis way behind plumb
line and your upper body leaning forward - almost as if you wanted
to do a deadlift. The front of your body is long and convex, while your
back is concave). From here, open your feet sideways by getting on
your heels and moving your forefoot so that your toes are pointing at
roughly a 45-degree angle sideways. Beware to start this movement
from your knees, not your ankle. You have probably heard of "elbow
power". The same applies to your lower extremities. So open your
feet by starting from your knees. Now shift weight to your forefoot
and move your heels sideways (notice that Siu Nim Tao contains
information about how we stand on our feet, namely your heels in
the back and forefoot in the front with equal weight distribution).
You can now bring your body actively to an upright position or - if you
are a bit more advanced, you can relax here and wait until your body
moves upright by itself without you actively doing it. For me, this is
always a fun part, as it shows that your body has a tendency to be
upright.

Now you are in the starting position to practice. I said it before and
will say it again as it is critical: Do NOT tilt your pelvis forward as this
will shift your body away from the ideal axe's position relative to the
plumb line. This makes you instable, weak and lets your body
structure deteriorate.

Look at the picture above. As we have discussed earlier, the left

picture shows the correct alignment of the 4 axes along the plumb
line to ensure stability and economy. The right shows what will
happen if you tilt your pelvis posterior, as it is done in many wing
chun styles. Your back is rounded, the front concave, the pelvis axis
way in front of the plumb line and your head is in a forward position
(which puts a lot of stress on your neck by the way - consider that
your head weighs around 7 kg). Recently I came across an article in
a martial arts magazine where you could see a highly decorated Sifu
showing Siu Nim Tao where he was very near the right posture. You
want to do it differently.
Now from here begin your Siu Nim Tao moves. Do it in slow motion
and remember the basic principles mentioned above.
In the beginning, practising this way may appear to be a bit boring.
This is perfectly normal and will change after a while. This is what
every meditation student also has to go through. Stick to it. You will
find out that moving in slow motion for a considerable time requires
much more perseverance than going through it hastily. Or as I like to
put it: Any dope can lift weights, but only the hard-boiled can endure
60 minutes of moving in slow motion.

What really helps to move slowly and thus quieting the mind (and
making it even more fun) is to have some meditation music in the
background. I still use it most of the time when practising Siu Nim
Tao (unless I am not at home). I usually listen to the "Meditation"
stream from Radiotunes (https://www.radiotunes.com/meditation).
They are just awesome. But of course, you can use any meditation
music you like. Also, a good idea is to use meditation music with
binaural beats via headphones like Hemisync ®.
Things that happen in Siu Nim Tao
If you start practising Siu Nim Tao that way and really let go and
allow your body to do what it wants to do instead of forcing it into
preconceived ideas of a "right" Tan Sao or a "central line" several
funny things will happen of which I will describe only a small fraction
of which I know that all students who practice this way sooner or
later will experience.

● Your arms might start to move in some direction that you may
not have intended. Let it happen.
● This might go along with some trembling in your limbs.
● Limbs or other body parts might suddenly and wildly start to
twitch. You may slowly move an arm as for Tan Sao and then
suddenly your arm is pulled forward. There was a time when
my head was always pulled forward abruptly, like a pigeon
pecking for food. That must have looked really crazy from the
outside. It later ceased.
● Even to this day, I feel an increased salivation while practising
Siu Nim Tao.
● Your chest may be pulled upward.
● You might also find out that only thinking about a movement,
this movement will start all by itself. Without you doing it
actively. This is probably more advanced, but you can give it a
try. If you come to this level you will not feel your arm’s weight
but more as if they were moved by some outer force. Sounds
crazy, but it is true.

At some point, you might feel something like a punch from deep
inside, somewhere in the stomach area. It will go like a jolt through
your body. Then nothing will happen for a long time until another jolt
comes. Over time these jolts will be more frequent until some day
your whole body will start trembling from deep inside your body -
without you doing it actively. You can provoke it voluntarily at some
point, but it will only happen when you let go.
What’s happening there? I believe that the trembling starts from your
core muscles - especially the M. Psoas. The first jolts you’ll
experience is your psoas starting to free itself. You can imagine that I
was awestruck the first time this happened to me. I only later found
out about Dr. Berceli who markets a method called TRE® that he
has developed. TRE stands for “Tension and Trauma Release
Exercise”. By a certain sequence of movements, they invoke the
exact trembling you will experience in Siu Nim Tao. On their website,
they say about TRE ® :
"Tension & Trauma Release Exercises (or TRE®) is a simple …
series of exercises that assist the body in releasing deep muscular
patterns of stress, tension, and trauma. Created by Dr. David Berceli,
Ph.D., TRE safely activates a natural reflex mechanism of shaking or
vibrating that releases muscular tension, calming down the nervous
system. When this muscular shaking/vibrating mechanism is
activated in a safe and controlled environment, the body is
encouraged to return back to a state of balance."
(https://traumaprevention.com/what-is-tre/).
They claim the following - ostensibly reported - benefits:
“
● Less Worry & Anxiety
● Reduces Symptoms of PTSD
● More Energy & Endurance
● Improved Marital Relationships
● Less Workplace Stress
● Better Sleep
● Less Relationship Conflict
● Reduced Muscle & Back Pain
● Increased Flexibility
● Greater Emotional Resiliency
● Decreases Symptoms of Vicarious Trauma
● Healing of Old Injuries
● Lessened Anxiety surrounding Serious Illness
● Relief from Chronic Medical Conditions”
That's a lot for a little shaking, isn't it? This is naturally part of Siu
Nim Tao. So, you do not have to attend a TRE ® Seminar. All you
have to do is practising Siu Nim Tao properly as outlined here, and it
will naturally happen. Although it usually takes a long time to come
into this state, there is a shortcut to come into this shaking. This is
inspired by some TRE ® videos I watched on YouTube and I have
successfully tested it with novice Siu Nim Tao students. To
experience the trembling and shaking, do this:

● Lie down on the floor on your back.

● Bend your knees so that the upper and lower legs have an
angle of about 90 degrees. Feet hip-wide apart.
● Now lift your pelvis as high as you can.
● Let your pelvis suddenly drop, BUT do not lay it completely on
the floor. It might slightly touch the ground.
● Your pelvis and lower body should immediately start to
tremble. If not, repeat. Try to be relaxed.
● It might help if you position your feet as you would in IRAS.
This way, your pelvis is freed.

Once you can provoke the trembling while lying on the floor, try
again while standing in IRAS. You can provoke the trembling by
stretching your knees a bit and then abruptly bending them again so
that you “fall into your knees”. Later, the trembling will start without
that “trick”.
The trembling can be really frightening at first and really heavy. In my
apartment I have a wooden floor. Sometimes the vibrations were so
strong that they were transmitted via the wooden floor to the other
end of the room, causing a closet to vibrate!
Summary and final words
Once you have understood that the body consists mainly of fascia
and what influence a flexible fascia network has on the performance
and flexibility of the body, it is imperative that you practice Siu Nim
Tao differently. Given of course that you take the idea of wing chun
as a soft martial art seriously.

The first wing chun principle of power says, “first free yourself from
your own force”. The main purpose of Siu Nim Tao is to help you
accomplish that. Siu Nim Tao helps you to free your fascia network,
to improve your body structure. This will enable you to move faster
and more economically and, above all, to transmit more power. Isn’t
that kind of Yin and Yang?

In order to do that, you really have to practice Siu Nim Tao very, very
slowly. It is even possible to just think of movements and have your
body do the rest. Without you actually doing anything actively. You
must let happen whatever will happen. Your body knows best. Your
“personal” Siu Nim Tao might look odd - so make sure you practice
on your own ;-).

Once you start practising Siu Nim Tao in that way, you start a journey
into your own body and your own self. You may get to know your
body in an entirely new way. This inevitably leads to a different Chi
Sao and a fundamentally different idea of wing chun in general.

I wish you all the best on your own journey.

Want to learn more?
Online-course
Chances are that you have read this book, found it all interesting and
will forget about it soon. Then this is just another book read and
never put into action. That’s probably the case with 90% of all
readers.

Don’t be that guy!

As a body therapist, I am always interested that my clients put into

action what I am telling them. Because I want them to have the best
possible results. And I also want YOU to get the most out of Siu Nim
Tao and especially this secret Siu Nim Tao.

This is why I have set up an online-course for you. I know that some
of my descriptions in this book may be hard to envision. Of course,
they are if you have never actually seen someone doing it.

In my online-course you will find about 1.5 hours of video material

where you can see me practising Siu Nim Tao in the way described
here. It also contains exercises to help you get to the core of Siu Nim
Tao fast and easy. All of this is demonstrated by me personally.

The online course is a step-by-step instruction to the secret Siu Nim

Tao. Don’t miss out on this!

Go to: https://secretsiunimtao.teachable.com/p/the-secret-siu-nim-
tao and enroll in the course now!
It’s like having private lessons with me, as you can also ask
questions below the lessons.
Seminars
If you are interested in live seminars to learn the secret Siu Nim Tao
first-hand, just drop me an email. I’ll be happy to hear from you.-
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Frank Demann who introduced me to the realm
of fascia and who provided the sitting-posture figure and kindly
allowed me to use it. Visit his website: faszien-senmotic.de

I would also like to thank Peter Scholten who drew the initial plumb
line figure used on the front-cover and in the book. I have used it
with some changes. Visit his website: senmotic-wiesbaden.de