Wen Hsiu Quan

I am sure lots of us are aware that an actual fight is far from what our katas feel like. Nevertheless- I still regard kata as an important part of martial arts in this day and age. One thing it gives us- is the chance to slow things down and allow us to perform each technique at its best. One of the main factors that make our techniques less than ideal in a real fight is time. I used to break my head about this a lot, but have come to the conclusion that it is not necessary to do so. The fact is- your opponent is not part of the program. He is not going to act according to any plan you have. In fact- any plan you may manage to devise would be based on how he (or she) acts. As far as training goes- I regard sparring as a test and not so much as an exercise. Each encounter does give you new data to work on, but these encounters do go a lot better when we are prepared. Now- in my preparation for this test I do not resort to the traditional forms we find in...

Chinese and Japanese martial arts share breathing as one of their common cornerstones. Learning to coordinate your strikes with your breathing and at the same time when certain muscles are to relax and when to contract is vital for powerful strikes. I do a lot of talking in the video- so I will stop typing now. :)