WING CHUN - Rising energy through vs. physically 'straightening' the spine

www.mindfulwingchun.online
An important topic! Relaxing (and later directing energy) upwards through the spine to activate the Nim Tao state.
*A note about this channel the lineage:
Sifu Nima King is the owner and team leader of Mindful Wing Chun, a CST Wing Chun school in Hong Kong with affiliations around the world. Mindful Wing Chun is wholeheartedly dedicated to passing on the internal wing chun method as passed down by Grandmaster Chu Shong Tin who was the longest serving student of Grandmaster Ip Man. Chu Shong Tin lived with Ip Man for 5 years (1950-1955) and was coined the title ' the king of siu nim tao' by his master Ip Man.
He was a legend in the world of Wing Chun (in particular the internal method of wing chun) and spent 64years passing it on full-time before he passed away in 2014. Nim King practiced under hin in Hong Kong for 9 years and established Mindful Wing Chun under CST's guidance. Nima is also on the board of Directors for the 'Chu Shong Tin Alumni' which is a group of senior students of CST that were hand picked by him to establish the Alumni and to uphold and continue his teachings and Wing Chun legacy after he passed away.
Grandmaster Chu Shong Tin was a very humble and low-key Wing Chun Master therefore its only after we began putting his videos online, that people started to hear about him. In fact, majority of the main Wing CHun teachers (of the Ip Man lineage) who began practice in the 50s and early 60s (apart of Leung Sheung and Lok Yiu) were trained by CST even-though they were Ip Man's students. This is due to CST being the most snr and main teacher of Ip Man's school in those days.
Nima was lucky to start his practice under CST in 2005 because that's when CST decided to change his teaching to all internal practice so that he can pass on "Nim Tao' and 'Nim Lik' (the mind power/energy cultivated through internal Wing Chun practice) to his students.
Nima, even though a non-chinese and much younger than the other students of CST, attained a high level of these final teachings. He now mainly teaches the seniors within this lineage and also travels around giving workshops and is working on an online program so that master CST's teaching can have a greater reach.
www.mindfulwingchun.online/
You may contact Nima/Mindful Wing Chun through:
website: www.mindfulwingchun.com.hk
facebook: / mindfulwingchun
facebook 2: / sifunimaking
fecebook (personal): / nima.khezrnejat
Instagram: / mindful_wingchun
Instagram (personal) : / nima_king1
Long live the genuine and internal art of Wing Chun / Ving Tsun!
Mindful Wing Chun - Chu Shong Tin (Ip Man) Wing Chun / Ving Tsun - Hong Kong
www.mindfulwingchun.online/

[@zhasilo]

Thank you, Sifu Nima King. This is the treasure left by Grandmaster Chu!

[@MindfulWingChun]

My pleasure. glad you enjoyed it and thanks for leaving a comment

[@katiemelin9317]

I studied wing chun at a physical school in Indiana and with a solo instructor in Texas. Neither addressed it in this way; I really love the idea of combining Mindfullness with Wind Chun as well, since I originally started Wing Chun to give me a break from almost daily trauma-based nightmares. I can really use this now when doing some of my excerices. Thank you for posting these. (Also because now that I live in Japan, I don't know of any practitioners here and can review some of the things I learnt before.)

[@MindfulWingChun]

My pleasure Katie, Im glad to hear you find these kinds of videos useful. Since you're interested in the Mindfulness aspect of the practice, I strongly suggest you check out our online school mindfulwingchun.online which goes through everything systematically in a step by step process as it was taught by master Chu. All the best !

[@user-vg9bv1be5m]

This was absolute gold for me SO GRATEFUL THANKYOU

[@MindfulWingChun]

🙏🙏

[@spawn314159]

as always, thanks for posting this treasures.

[@MindfulWingChun]

Always a pleasure mate

[@johnrogers4983]

Amazing as always, thanks a lot!

[@MindfulWingChun]

happy to help John, cheers!

[@leoramirez4024]

that's so amazing,,WC is really awesome,, I never thought that WC goes that deep into internal martial arts

[@Gieszkanne]

Normaly it doesnt.

[@MindfulWingChun]

Yeah Leo, sadly majority of the Wing Chun world doesn't know about this internal aspect of the art, which is actually its essence. Whoever the creator/s was must have had the intention to pass on this important aspect because they even named the first form Siu Nim Tao, with Nim Tao meaning intention, min, idea etc. I always think we were so lucky that this aspect didn't fully die and hopefully with the tool of social media and internet more and more people will have access to this important essence of the art

[@thunderflower7998]

Hi again:) One vital question….did Yip Man ever talked about the mindfulness..internal irk the same way your master defined it? We have never heard any soul till now from Yip man’s family lineage talk about it and even further show us that intruding sneaking in energy that debilitates the opponent…. Greetings from Hellas/Greece

[@jodanmawashi]

Thanks so much for sharing, this is exactly where I'm at with my training. I picked up a lot of helpful hints and now I need to go practice them

[@MindfulWingChun]

Awesome to hear. Glad you found this helpful and all the best in your practice!

[@deSusatyo_channel]

Thank you for sharing

[@MindfulWingChun]

My pleasure. Will keep em coming :)

[@paul-andrewbridge3617]

Thanks Nima, I will check this out. Please keep sharing your knowledge, it is of great value. Much respect.

[@MindfulWingChun]

Many thanks for the kind message Paul. and will do :)

[@paul-andrewbridge3617]

Hi Nima, I love these video's, thank you for sharing. Please could you let me know if there are any books on the subject?

[@MindfulWingChun]

Hi Paul. Have you read CST's Book Of Wing Chun already? there are 2 volumes that describe each form

[@spawn314159]

Nima, i know i discussed with you breathing with SLT alot. and in realtion to meditation and Anapana breathing,.. Well.. im finding that using all 3 states of breath is important for this relaxation, and im finding that alot of forces happen in the 'hold' state of breathing, so breath in.. hold... breath out.. and on that hold i get the mental relaxation idea generated, and on the exhail it all seems to relax,., and physicaly i can feel tingling all over,.. expanding shoulders seems to help relax back too, i feel totaly different when i 'think' i have this expansion correct, and my movement changes too, its really freaky. Can also tense up muscles directly on in breath, then think relax on hold.. then relax on the out breath,.. also mula bandha seems to be important for relaxing sacrum, shoulder tensing (like pang force in tai chi) then relaxing is important for middle back, really starting to get it,.. but just like Sigung Chu says in the video, its easy to loose the state :/ even when i feel some other emotion like excitement that ive done it! its gone and lost hehe maybee im just so tense that i gota tense up first to feel the relaxation happening, and i also find that i might have to go like a bodyscan,.. relaxing everyhting first, then trying to get the deeper level of relaxation after

[@MindfulWingChun]

Hey man, thanks a lot for sharing that experience with us. appreciate you taking the time! And yeah I think at the beginning, whatever way we use to elicit a relaxed state is helpful because at first its hard to really know what relaxation is so to get a glimpse of it even if its eliciting it through breathing, relaxing sounds/music, being in a very relaxing atmosphere like in nature, doing it straight after a massage or jaccuzi, etc. Later, just doing SNT is enough, without having to do anything with the breath, or having the best atmosphere etc. At this stage we can 'put on' the state seemingly at will like a switch. So to use other things as a training wheel, so to speak, is totally fine and later we take off those training wheels

[@user-vi5qe4mj7m]

Priceless! :) If you could do an English subtitles for Chinese interpreter it would be great!

[@tancl7589]

Swap o p , W

[@danroldan1074]

Nice idea 👍😊

[@MindfulWingChun]

Yeah Eddie's accent is sometimes not the easiest to understand. If you let me know which part you don't understand from the video let me know and I can summarize and write it here for you guys

[@brianleong1427]

Dear Sifu Nima, thanks for another great video video! Hope you can help to answer a few questions. In your experience, on the average, how long would it take for a student to be able to taigung and apply it in wing chun? What is the format of a normal practice session in Grandmaster Chu's school? Any plan to have a seminar in Malaysia?

[@MindfulWingChun]

Hi Brian, The time of achievements depends on so many factors: . the length of each days practice . the frequency of practice . the correctness of the practice . the teacher practiced under (it makes it much easier if you have someone that is better than you on this path so that they can guide you on the right way) . the starting condition of the student's body (some people may have injuries or misalignments, others are much more tense, some have lack of mobility in some joints and so on...) . the type of focus used for the practice (the mental state of the student) and at Sigungs school, we used to stand and practice the form (in particular SNT) for hours every day and some of us also practiced chi sau and striking (on the hanging bag). And perhaps one day I'll visit malaysia. This Year i will only be doing seminars in Sydney so for all who are interested in our teaching please try and visit us in HK :) hope this helps Brian. Cheers, Nima

[@vinethsousmand3136]

Hi Nima, thanks for sharing the videos, I have a few questions which might be interesting. Firstly, is it possible to train taigung and rising energy in the spine whilst you are lying in bed when the muscles are already relaxed. Secondly, did CST have a limit to how much of nim tao he could exert per day, did he get physically tired from it?

[@MindfulWingChun]

Hey mate, 1. Yes absolutely, it can be done in all positions. In fact in my online school www.mindfulwingchun.online I do encourage people to work on relaxation while laying down. 2. No you dont get physically tired form it, on the contrary it is very uplifting and invigorating for the body (as well as the mind)

[@YIQUANONE]

You can develop energy flow from set posture, but it is much faster and easier to develop by pole standing postures.

[@thorick590]

that's right... but I think most martial artists in the western world don't know what pole standing postures are, and even if they see them, will wonder what they are good for and ignore them...

[@MindfulWingChun]

Yeah actually I personally spend the first couple of years (of 6hrs a day) of my training under master Chu here in Hong Kong doing standing practice

[@ruachhakodesh01]

Please do better with the sound. The audience is missing valuable information... Use a shotgun microphone instead of an omni -directional. Sound was great in the beginning.

[@MindfulWingChun]

unfortunately this was taken many years ago and we were using very basic equipment. there is nothing we can do about it now...

[@ruachhakodesh01]

Understood. But, it was future tense... Keep up the GREAT work!

[@shooten1st]

So is the tongue placed on the roof of the mouth during this process? It is done often during Tai Chi and Chi Gong to facilitate the movement of energy.

[@MindfulWingChun]

No we keep the tongue natural. I have played around with that in my meditations but not in SNT.

[@shooten1st]

Ah, Thank you and thanks for sharing all of these amazing videos of Sigung Chu.

[@lm2193]

11:45 Grand master always 'look' whether the energy had risen to the tip of his student's head, how he knew? what did he look at?

[@MindfulWingChun]

once the joints have opened up its clear to see the change. I (Nima) can see it as well, of course only up to my own level but the ones in this video are clear to see because the students are originally quite tense so its easy to see the contrast.

[@Swaggdocta23]

Come to the USA plz

[@MindfulWingChun]

one day my friend :) Im actually working on creating an online course to help people understand the correct method of practice step by step. So hopefully something will be ready within the next 6 months!

[@nicktruesdell6825]

Where are you guys located? I'd like to come visit

[@MindfulWingChun]

Hi Nick, We are based in Hong Kong and would be happy to welcome you to our school. I also travel around doing seminars. this year am in Chiang Mai, Sydney, Munich and maybe Auckland

[@nicktruesdell6825]

@@MindfulWingChun nothing on coming to America yet?? East coast specifically

[@swiperfox8794]

16:06

[@MindfulWingChun]

Yeah it was good for him to hear that from the man. Phil is a very dedicated student and he came to us with lower back issues from an old injury. He was doing 2 private lesson a week with us and always tried to apply the internal work during his daily activities. When this clip was taken, he had been doing that for around 6years so he was happy that his spine had healed up nicely!

[@user-kp3hd9wr4w]

I think the misconception is coming from yoga practitioner because yoga is popular in US They think both of them are kundalini state, but wing chun actually can be used without kundalini

[@MindfulWingChun]

So do you also rise up the spine in your practice? Any videos of it for me to have a look at pls?

[@user-kp3hd9wr4w]

@@MindfulWingChun I am not practicing yoga, but I am practicing aikido and there is similar concept to yoga, taichi and wingchun kzbin.info/www/bejne/p37LZmyKfN56oJIm

[@veganninja5886]

nice videos but theres really no way for you to explain what he's talking about. Its always just the spine, elongating, etc etc....but I really need to 'feel' what he's talking about rather than just listening to the same explanation over and over again.

[@MindfulWingChun]

Definitely. Intellectual understanding can only take someone so far. Experiential understaning is when there is a real knowing of the right path to practice.

[@veganninja5886]

@@MindfulWingChun Hopefully one day I can come see you in Hong Kong. I still love your videos though. It gives me inspiration to dive deeper into Wing Chun to see its full potential.

[@wycjkd]

提肛令內氣貫通丹田，膻中，百會

[@MindfulWingChun]

Sorry could u pls write this in English cause I cant read Chinese :)

[@user-ef7di2dc1t]

@@MindfulWingChun hes supporting the anus first method

[@peluchetaiwanes]

Pseudoscience?

[@angelobouhoutsos3060]

peluchetaiwanes Nature is much deeper then any science and always will be.

[@MindfulWingChun]

Grandmaster Chu shong Tin always tried to explain everything as much as he could in terms of science. For things that he couldn't explain with science, he would very openly say that he doesn't know what it is and how to explain it but that he can do it and show it and share his feeling about it. This phenomena of rising energy up through the spine (Seng in Cantonese) was one of those thing. This flow of whatever it was was very tangibly felt by people when holding different parts of his body like forearms, head legs, hand. You can see a video on this subject here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKm6pZxnra2kd80

[@workdays8280]

These guys should be the only guys who should be aloud to teach. Unlike William Chun vary pang rubbish

[@MindfulWingChun]

oh so after 200 negative comments, you finally mention that you're from William Cheung lineage?! man you have a lot of hate for this lineage and what we teach. This politics in Wing Chun is not something that CST got into and its not a game I'm going to play. I have too little time to spend on it. With running the biggest Kung Fu school in HK, an online school, 2 young kids, and my own training I don't have time for it. I suggest you spend less time on bashing the keyboard bad mouthing others and spend more time on yourself. It will make you and those around you happier. Its the best way for self growth, not by putting down other people. This is a wholehearted suggestion dude, its not worth the poison you put inside your body through negativity. Its what War stems from, its the source of the problem with the world. Start by making the change within rather than trying to find satisfaction by pointing outwardly to blame and put others down. Either way, wish you all the best in your path...

[@workdays8280]

What I would like to no is why all these fraud on KZbin teaching all this external rubbish. Waiting people money and time

[@MindfulWingChun]

lol, all the best to you dude :)

[@user-vg9bv1be5m]

This was absolute gold for me SO GRATEFUL THANKYOU

[@MindfulWingChun]

Happy to read that. Will keep them coming 🙏