the shoulders aim

[rojcewiczj]

I think a very important commonality between striking and grappling is the use of the shoulders, or upper back, to aim at the opponent. Once the shoulders are remotely locked on to the opponent,
meaning directional and not necessarily through contact, ones structure is aligned in such a way as to redirect your opponents force, or the rebound force when striking your opponent, back to the ground.
It seems to be a sort of universal postural rule that the shoulders be re-oriented in such a way as to best deal with opposing force. When walking about or standing, the prime resistance is related generally to gravity,
so people walk with their shoulders directed upwards. When lifting something we keep our shoulders facing upwards. But when facing an opponent who is in front of you, the shoulders should adjust in
order to be directed towards the opponent. This can be more subtle, such as in boxing, or quite obvious, such as in Olympic wrestling, but in both cases the shoulders are aimed or locked on to the opponent so that the full force of ones actions is directed towards the opponent.

What are your thoughts on this? It seems to me that Chinese martial arts contains some reflection of this principle, particularly in xinyi liuhe and some other practices, but often the shoulders remained directed upwards, as if
one only had to contend with gravity, is this do to some lost of practical sensibility?

[dspyrido]

Shoulders dont have to be angled forward until there is impact but in high speed situations it helps to have them forward. But more importantly it is to have the shoulders down with the large muscle groups in a neutral (relaxed) position. Artifically forcing them forward creates tension which will be a blockage on the reflection you mention (for striking). Boxers are taught to force them forward to create compression on the gloves but without gloves this extra tension is not required and is detrimental to a more complex type of short strike where the reflection hits the ground and bounces back.

In grappling shoulders also can be used to create grounding. Similarly they can used to roll forward or back to create space. They are pretty useful when blocking a linear choke on the air passage.

Your comment on xinyi does not reflect my experience. Shoulders down, elbow down, chin in & sink the body but raise the head. Back bows, shoulder bows, elbow and knees bows. The shoulders can be forward facing in moves like snake or horse. The twisting moves with the one shoulder forward are designed to build the core & create openings.