Wen Hsiu Quan

  Modern martial arts are to a large extent what had happened when classical martial arts met Western Boxing. The foremost reason modern fighters will give you for using a short fighting stance when sparring or fighting is that a short stance is more mobile. Is a shorter stance more effective, though? Well...  Let's have a look at that... Can you attack more easily from a short stance? Can you defend more easily from a long stance? Do this simple test and tell me what you find... With punching one can indeed spring into the attack and cross a long distance to land a punch on a target. The feet and body are both out of reach in the beginning, but that changes as soon as you shoot that hip forward... This is of course effective in competitions where fighters start off away from each other. This enables you to go in, score your point, and get out of reach again In the case of a long stance we see that the body may be out of reach, but the lead foot has already arrived on the scene. No

A joyful and prosperous new year to all my followers! I have noticed for some time that I have been preferring certain angles of attack during my training. This is a natural consequence of staying mindful of the opponent's centre line and the limbs that you have to get past when attacking. For a long time, especially in one's early years of Karate, we get used to square off with our sparring partners. Free sparring at this stage is then usually a manner of moving back and forth with the most dominating fighter driving his opponent back most of the time. Sooner or later we realise, however, that while increasing the distance between ourselves and our opponent's may keep us safe for a while that safety does not last and- we find it impossible to counterattack from so far away. One of the reasons why I choose a slightly long stance is that the space between my feet give me enough room to make the space that I need to move back just far enough to counter with a kick. That dista

I have not been writing anything for this blog for a while now... However- I have managed to put some time into this book and- eventually- managed to finish it! You can find it here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/59796457 My latest book Those of you who have been following my blog know that I mainly train alone. Form practice is a large part of this training. This book focuses on Kung Fu forms and shows techniques from Shaolin and Wudang, the two main sources of Kung Fu, in order for you to put together your own set or taolu (which is Chinese for kata ). I have also taken a well-known set from Shaolin Kung Fu and give you an analysis of the set in order to help you better understand how these sets are put together and how each of the parts thereof work. The book is available to all Patreons who have joined my Patreon site. I will make more material available soon!  

  Hello, everyone. It seems I had a case of writer's block that has kept me from writing posts lately. When you practice martial arts every day, however, there are a lot of things about it to write about, but what you don't bother with, because you tend to reckon that it is too mundane or obvious to write about. Well... maybe for experienced martial artists... Then- I end up realising again that there is not only an entirely new generation to whom we can pass on much of this seemingly redundant knowledge, but also a record to set straight with a new generation of experts. This post is about two old enemies. Some say they were never supposed to meet, but meet they did. The one was set on knocking the wind out of you, the other was... well... now its role is disputed, but everyone was sure at the time that it was his job to stop the other from achieving its goal. These two are of course the Front Kick ( Maegeri in Karate) and the Lower Parry ( Gedan Barai to Karate people). Gedan

This year started with me in a new situation.  No longer working for just myself and with less free time than before I have been spending less time on the book and this blog now sees me for the first time as well. Early morning workouts have become shorter and more hurried. I am however still taking whatever time I can to learn new things.  I enjoy Yoga as much as Qigong these days and have made it part of my workouts. https://web.facebook.com/marthinus.boshoff.3/videos/3258081497594422 I am glad to say that I am now more than halfway done with the book. I have also received an offer from a friend to help with Youtube videos. Let's see how this year goes...   

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