Wen Hsiu Quan

It is not often when I see something from Jackie Bradbury on Martial Arts Forums, these days. Her latest blog post has struck a chord with me, though. The post titled "The State of Filipino Martial Arts Today" confirmed to me that martial arts all over the world face the same dillema. Or maybe not the arts themselves, but the people trying to keep others interested in them (and those who earn money from teaching them...) In her post Jackie invited the reader to comment and give his input. With Karate in this country- when it reaches this point- they don't ask the public what they want or what their views are. A Shihankai (Masters' Group) meets and then decides the fate of karate for all who study it. And a lot of changes were made this way- Shotokan had gone from full contact sparring to non-contact to semi contact to full contact with head gear to semi contact without headgear to full contact on the body with minimal contact to the face- wit...

I run my law practice from my father's study. It has become my office last year in August. As a result a lot of my father's things are still there.  I was actually searching for a textbook on the Law of Delict (some countries might know it as the Law of Torts) when I came across this firearms training manual. The pages I share from it are about mental conditioning. As a person who had never learnt any other way to fight besides Asian martial arts I was surprised at the relevancy and soundness of the advice in this manual and how closely it resembled what I have learnt from karate. I am not a fan of firearms and I do not practice with them. This textbook reminded me, however, that although there are a lot of people who fight out there with no training, but that when your life is at stake, you'd prefer to be trained and prepared. Take care, everyone! 'Til next time!

Hello again in 2017 and an awesome new year to all of you. My Chinese friends are just waiting for the end of this month before they pass out the New Year's wishes again- this time with a red envelope or two, but for us- this is a new year filled with glorious prospects (Quiet, you negative folk there in the back!) I am privileged enough to still have relatives who give me gifts on Christmas and this time around my martial arts gift came from my mother (she has actually given my martial arts training a lot of support in spite of the strain of tolerating a son that uses his spare time to kick and punch. :D  This year's gift was what you see in the first 3 photos below.  Ironically enough- this is what the WKF allows on their competition floors nowadays. The mitt you see in the last 3 photos is what they do not allow.  I remember when I saw these half-open mitts advertised in a Taekwondo magazine back in the 90's. I have since seeing the ...

Hi, everyone! This year has come to its end and as is the custom with me I will be taking a break from blogging. So- this is the last post from me for this year. I feel like taking a break from all the martial arts talk you usually find here and tell you a bit about a pet peeve of mine that has haunted me ever since I have become an Admin to a wonderful community on G+ called Martial Arts Forums. Martial Arts Forums had less than 1000 members when I joined. It now stands at 1 202 members and I have noticed that it is getting a lot of attention. Now- I don't know whether the Community had this before I joined, but it seems that a lot of requests to join the Community come from either an automated source or just people who have just created an account. As a result I have hit the reject button quite a bit this year. The following types of profile got the boot from me this year: 1. Profiles representing a business that has nothing to do with Martial Arts: Really guys- i...

I like my routine. I'd lie if I say that it has never been disturbed. One group of people with whom I have grown more and more comfortable giving a Saturday to every once in a while is my karate school.  I have noticed that I don't find Sensei John on the internet if I search WSKF South Africa, but definitely when I search "Shotokan Karate South Africa". Yesterday's year end training for brown and black belts was at Hazyview's dojo. This awesome class room is situated on the farm of Sensei Danie Janse van Vuuren and his wife Sensei Sandra. It was once a tobacco shed.  Sensei Danie told me that the mats and equipment you see on the walls were donated by one of the students- Vincent Galaca. He has recently passed his Shodan Grading. Due to the rubber pistols being there we got treated to a gun disarming demonstration from Sensei John. That was after an intense kihon session with Sensei John (still stiff!), a really harrowing...

At my karate class I am known to stubbornly insist on using kicks not normally practiced in our dojo. Most of these kicks come from my Shukokai days. This particular kick, though, has undergone some changes over the years as I took up Chinese martial arts. I refer to both the reverse roundhouse kick and the back spinning kick as the reverse roundhouse, but recognise that the faster version is done with the lead foot while the back spinning version is more powerful and employs the rear foot.   In karate this kick is usually done by doing a front kick or side kick past the target and then to hook the the sole or heel of the foot around to hit the target from the side. I do not find this version very powerful and substituted it with the Dragon's Tail form that involves whipping the leg around and through the target from the side. A problem that reared its ugly head a while ago, however, was when I did the kick against a wall (don't ask) I saw t...

Before I began my study of the martial arts I have regarded shouting as a natural part of fighting. That is what we do when we are angry, right? Let me rephrase- that is what we do when we are angry and brave enough to show it. Without the mental conditioning of martial arts training a loud voice tends to instill fear in most of us. Hell- even with my mental conditioning I find being yelled at unbearable. Even if it doesn't scare you, you must admit that it stirs one emotion or the other in you. Now before I type out my observations over the years- let me share what I have been able to find on the internet thus far. One of these videos shows a teacher of some Japanese martial art demonstrating the effect of a sudden yell on an unsuspecting student and then- from two of my favourite movies from China- Princess and the Seven Kungfu Masters and Kung Fu Hustle the "Lion's Roar" done by female characters in these movies: https://youtu.be/vrRWGsHttDY https://youtu...