Wen Hsiu Quan

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. :) 

When I first took up karate I started with Shukokai. Despite the fact that Shotokan was a long established style and much older I was taught that the Shukokai method was the best of the two. Later on we moved to a place with no Shukokai school and I got the chance to study Shotokan for 2 years. Where Shukokai virtually discarded hip rotation at the time and chose a head-on shomen facing kamae I got a chance to learn to fight from the sideways, hanmi position. With my study of Jeet Kune Do I took a big liking in the hanmi position and did my best to copy the fighting stance in Brue Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do. When Taijiquan and Hsingyiquan came into my life I replaced the springy on-the-balls-of-the-feet fighting stance with a more grounded and stable base from which I could launch more powerful attacks. This new base also enabled me to utilise my grappling techniques much easier. Shaolin Kung Fu taught me the value of the old ways and my kickboxing manner that I wo...

Have I ever mentioned on this blog that I am an attorney here in South Africa? Well- if not- now you know. What I am going to discuss here is a subject touched on in a conversation with a Shotokan black belt last year. It is about the extent to which martial arts technique is allowed by law. I have not studied the law of other countries, but if Roman Law is one of the sources of the law in your country the principles I discuss herein will most likely apply in your country as well. I'd love to hear from lawyers in other parts of the world regarding their views. Now- I am not going to give you a lengthy article quoting statutes and cases. That- I'll leave for my colleagues in the legal fraternity if they ask nicely enough while I am in a good mood. What I do aim to accomplish, however, is to give the martial artist the proper frame of mind with which to function within the law. Well- here are the principles: 1. We are not to fight to punish: ...

I like grappling, but don't get me wrong- I am not a wrestler or MMA fighter. The big attraction that arts like Judo and Aikido held for me was that I was able to throw bigger and stronger opponents, not because of strength, but know-how.  Now I must want lay-persons that a reliance of technical cunning is very attractive to a lot of us, but it is a disease rather than a way to victory. Technique has its place. In Wenhsiuquan it has a big place! But the other elements of strength and tactics also play a major part in a fight. While I am busy with the book I managed to take a set of pictures that touch upon an aspect covered in the previous book. Since the new book is going to be on defense and not throwing I thought it a good idea to write a post about it. As the first photo shows I have stepped past Shairley's downward sword attack. The second picture shows her ready to take a fall with just a sweeping motion of my arm. In a photo from my previous boo...

 I am actually busy nursing an injured leg back to health and now find myself at that stage where it is feeling a bit better and I am itching to get back to training. I will, however, stick to light Taijiquan practice for this next week and take up the heavy stuff the week after. Meanwhile- I am working on the second Wenhsiuquan book. This one is about defense. Instead of Chen Feng and Chris I got help from another couple. Vic- who you will not be seeing in any photos, because he operated the camera- and Shairley Yang- volunteered to help out with some of the photos. By some- I don't mean just a few, mind you... Shairley is well known here for her cheerful- and playful nature and we got a lot of it during the shoot. She actually made this a lot more fun than what I thought it would be. I hope you all train well. I'll be sure to let everyone know when this book is finally ready. Have a great week!

I don't know if any of my black belt readers got this, but this bit is meant for those of you who have not yet reached black belt level (or if your style does not have belts- those who are still ranked as beginners). You may by now have found yourself in this situation at least once: You have learnt how to punch, kick and block. You have even learnt a really cool technique like a roundhouse kick that you like very much. Then- during free sparring practice- you want to whip out this favourite technique and wow the audience- only to get beaten up and not given a chance to use it. Laypersons will tell you that it's because fancy techniques don't work. If you take my advice, however, you will find that even the fancy techniques work- in their time. So what does this have to do with selfishness?  Let's put it very simple- each attack and defense has its time. Just as blocking when there is no attack coming is silly so a straight attack when an opening f...

Some of you may have heard this story before: An elephant walked into a village. It attracted a lot of attention from the villagers who all stopped what they were doing to go and look at this unusual animal. Five of the town's blind were taken to the elephant so that they could touch it and get an idea of what such an animal is.  The one who had a feel of a tusk got the idea that the elephant was a spear. The one who got to feel its leg thought that an elephant is a tree and so forth... Now- any one of these blind persons could start at any part of the elephant and get a different first impression, but after working his/her way through all the other parts they could get an idea of what the whole elephant is like. In martial arts- combat is the elephant. Each system that has been developed to date is the result of a certain perspective on fighting or even a result of the study of a certain aspect or aspects thereof.   If you have recently taken up...