Wen Hsiu Quan

Now... with a lockdown having started in the third month of this year, carefully adapting to each new stage of our protracted state of emergency and having to get used to a new job that just about takes up all of my time these days- we woke up one morning and found that this entire year had passed. So- what have you done during all this time? Have you put off all commitments and plans for when things start looking better? If you have I would not judge you or blame you. Hell- I remember seeing on Facebook how quiet the "Law of Attraction" group had become when the shit had really hit the fan. Faith seemed to have been in short supply. The people that had really kept me going were those who had suddenly begun doing what I had been doing for the last 30-odd years- exercising in their own yards... Martial arts may contain mostly techniques for fighting opponents in the physical realm, but my biggest hope for any martial arts student is that he or she cultivates an indomitable war...

Hello, everyone!  I know it has been a long time since I have written anything. I have started at a new job that has me a lot busier than I have expected myself to be and I had to work on a couple of Saturdays. Saturdays are of course the days on which I attend to my blogs. It felt good to have today free to attend to my book as well. It is still a work in progress and I will let you know on Facebook, Twitter and Patreon when it is out. All in all- I still train. Even though I now have to wake up earlier in the mornings to train I still take the time to train. That will never stop for as long as my body remains able to move. The chapter at which I am now is an analysis of the Five Animal Combined Set of Shaolin Kung Fu. This set is somewhat different from the taolu that we see in Wushu competitions nowadays. I feel it is a good idea to look at the forms that were designed for training rather than performance purposes. Many of you already know that I regularly practice my Karate kat...

If you have not yet seen Sensei Iain Abernethy's videos then now would be a good time to start. The video below would not mean as much to you if you have not been studying Karate for at least 3 years. In some styles it may take even longer to see the katas that he discusses.  What many of us experience when practicing kata is that the movements do not make any sense. Here in Bassai Dai for instance we have two blocks that are not followed by any kind of visible attack. So- what are we to believe? That the opponent will just walk away if he sees that you have blocked the only two punches that he was willing to give to this fight? That is where Sensei Iain helps a lot. After watching the first of his videos I have made a point on finding out what he has to say about the obscure movements of every new kata that I have learnt. Sensei Iain does not do Kung Fu, though. I have thought that I have Kung Fu pretty much figured out. On Kung Fu pages and in Kung Fu groups online you may get el...

I admit that Ninjutsu fascinates the hell out of me. Thanks to Stephen Hayes and Ashida Kim I have been able to learn sword techniques, shuriken throwing and of course- some interesting unarmed fighting techniques.  The Mi Lu Kata- or Lost Track teaches techniques that rely on misdirection to get past an opponent's defense in a fight. I am not certain whether this kata has any ties with the Mizongyi (Lost Track) Boxing that is attributed to the legendary Huo Yunjia. I am not even certain whether this kata exists outside of Kim's school on Ninjutsu. I have however, had a lot of fun learning it and have started practicing it again. With the details about Ninjutsu having become even more uncertain in this day and age than how they were 40 years ago I doubt that anyone is able to say for certain exactly how Ninjas used to fight in the 17th Century. What I am certain of, however, is that these techniques do not seem like fighting techniques used by Japanese warriors at the time. I c...

Learning this form was not much fun as the first video that I have watched on this featured a woman doing the form at top speed. I have already accepted that the way your form looks depends partly on who you learn it from. Not much further away on the internet, I have found this variation: Nonetheless- I enjoy having this form in my program. I have always wanted a kata that features a hurricane kick. :) The number of katas I know now stands at 27. I have also created 8 forms of which I plan to keep 4. 3 of them got discussed in earlier blog posts. Even though I have gone and learnt this many katas I think that regularly practicing the katas that you know is more important than learning new ones. Sure- every once in a while you would pick up a new technique from a kata that you have not yet practiced. Still- it will only become of any use if you have practiced it enough. Well... there is only one more form that I would like to show you, but that will have to wait for next week. Now I ha...

My introduction to Kung Fu was the 48 Form Set of Taijiquan that was created in the 1950's. I have only gotten the feel of actually channeling qi into martial arts movements, though, when I learned Shaolin Kung Fu. That had led among other things to me creating a custom made Taijiquan form (The words "form" and "set" are sure to confuse a lot of people who do not study Kung Fu. Since Karate people call katas "forms", however, I also call Kung F sets "forms"). I was satisfied to have my Taijiquan form for practice of a Wudang based martial art and the 5 Ainimal Set as a faorm for practicing an art from Shaolin. Then- as you know- I have started writing my book on Kung Fu forms. So- I have looked through my collection of martial arts material and found this video from a while back.   Now... for a long time I was happy to practice my 20 katas from Karate, rotating them in groups of 2 to be practiced two days every week, but then I have decided t...

  Can you learn a form from a book? Well- I have tried. With interesting results.  The video below shows Sifu Wong Kiew Kit. He is doing a form that I have learnt from his book on Shaolin Kungfu. Below is a link to a video of me doing the same form.   The differences tell us that there has been a miscommunication about some parts of this form, don't they? Nonetheless- I am happy with the version that I am doing. After all- I have been practicing it for a long while now before I saw this video. No lightning came from the sky to punish those who have adapted traditional forms for the sport of Wushu during the 1960's. Nobody gets punished even for making up their own forms so- just relax...  Had I belonged to a Kungfu club or school, however, I would have taken care to do the form as it is taught by that school.  Changes in forms are actually a common occurrence in Asian martial arts and I have learnt at least two versions of a number of forms in one style of ...