Wen Hsiu Quan

Hi! I am glad to say that I have successfully developed the ability to kick my own head height with roundhouse and reverse roundhouse kicks at any time of day without warming up. It took a whole lot of training to get there, though. For years I have been unable to kick high without warming up first. Well... when I was 17 I had no trouble doing it, but then I had to grow older. Still- I have decided that as long as I am training- I can keep pushing until I get it back and I am happy to say that it is back and better than ever, because now I can also HOLD the kick at head height. That is the thing with anyone still actively practicing martial arts- we just have so many more tools available to help us in fights than a person who has just attended a self defense class or two. During my early karate years I have been warned by my Sensei that high kicks are really not suitable for self defence and that we should rather stick to low kicks whenever we have to fight for real...

I have obtained my law degree by studying at home. It is not so strange as the university with which I have studied is known for its long distance learning facilities. My first steps toward learning martial arts were also taken at home when I started reading book after book on the arts that I wanted to learn.  As can be expected- I was told that you can not learn this kind of thing from books and I believed it. Well... to a certain extent I still do, because I don't think I would have been able to get where I am without having studied at the dojos that I have joined. Thing with martial arts is, as we know by now, that it is not something that you just study by taking in information. It is something with which skills and abilities get developed by training. Much of what you get taught in a book or in a martial arts class is useless if you just commit it to memory. It is usually something hat has to be practiced over and over again or an exercise that has to be done on a regu...

My first two years of high school were not anything I'd like to remember. Kids loved picking on me and luck had it that I was stuck in a class with a large group of kids who threw stuff at me, stole my book case and had tons of negative remark to make about me. Also- because I was afraid of heights it was lots of fun to grab hold of me and dangle me over great heights as I screamed for dear life. Yes- that is how I met humanity during my formative years and I have survived it. For the record- I LOVE saying that none of those kids were Chinese or Black- so SUCK ON THAT anyone who  looks at me funny for having friends in these two ethnic groups... But I digress. What I have experienced in High School is what my generation knew as bullying. We of course had no cellphones and social media did not exist. You did not dare sass any adults in their face, because you would get the living daylights smacked out of you if you dared and if you wanted to insult a peer you f...

You know- I don't want to start trouble- especially not with my post about respecting other styles, but I have found that my time being absorbed in Karate has made my kicks feel all stiff and without power. Really- no offence meant against Karate. I just like my techniques to feel a certain way just as I love the smell of ginger and something else I cannot yet name in a Chinese kitchen. Few things in the world feel as satisfying to me as a Chinese Kung Fu workout. So- I have started to focus on the Kungfu component of Wenshiuquan. To explain briefly what the Kungfu component of my style entails might reveal that it is actually a most crucial component as it concerns the generation of speed and power. It is really funny that I have been able to grade all the way to 1st Kyu Brown in Karate, but had never really been able to punch powerfully. My kicks had stopping power, but that was only because legs are inherently strong limbs. The moment I have learnt developing the e...

Hi, everyone! I hope you have all been enjoying a peaceful and restful Easter Weekend. I have trained to the point of utter exhaustion today before I sat down at my desk to balance my books for this month- end and get some stuff ready for an annual audit us attorneys have to go through over here.   The training was a pleasure- even when I had to absolutely drag my arse through the last kata, but the month- end accounting took some will-power. Still- it could have been worse. You see- I have this habit of writing up fees into my bookkeeping system as I work. Middle of every month invoices go out. End of each month I balance books. Because I do not skip any of these steps I have been able to save a lot on accountant fees simply because I leave the accountants less work to do this way. Believe me- I don't always feel like doing this, but- I also know- and fear- what chaos will ensue if I let one of these tasks slip for even one month... One of the first things y...

When I had decided that I wanted to learn martial arts I was not content with just going to a dojo to train. As my belt rank went up higher and as I interacted with black belt students I have realised that the only learning you are truly guaranteed to get from your dojo is learning by experience. In Karate a lot of teachers have become teachers by attaining the required belt rank (In South Africa that is 2nd Dan and up...) and then choosing to teach. Knowledge of martial arts philosophy and history is not a requirement for any of these belt ranks.  I on the other hand wanted a full martial arts education. Part of my reason for this was that I love books and I love knowledge. I must say, however, that part of the puzzle in learning martial arts is gaining experience in fighting or at least sparring to truly understand what it is that you have to learn. So- I was only able to understand the styles that I have learnt after having experienced the cont...

Hi, everyone. Study any Asian martial art for long enough and you may find... ...that you still can't do any of the cool techniques that you may have seen in movies or online videos!  We know it is true. Many black belt students also know this to be true. There are a lot of martial arts clubs/ schools that do not even bother teaching these really spectacular and advanced techniques. You know the techniques I am talking about, right? Those crab scissor throws, back spinning sweeps and let's not forget- aerial techniques! The reasons teachers give for not teaching such techniques are usually one or more of the following: 1. They don't work on the street or they are useless. 2. They are not in the syllabus; 3. The instructor does not know them. About reasons no. 2 and 3 I am not going to write a lot. I am sure that by now we know that a lot of martial arts we see being taught today are watered down for a number of reasons. Yo...