Wen Hsiu Quan

"Hard" styles of martial arts like Karate and Muay Thai are known to condition the body's weapons by striking wooden poles, punching bags and the "makiwara"(a striking post with a thick rope, straw mat or cushion stuffed with sand attached to it). These methods are effective in conditioning the palms, fists and feet. These exercises harden the bones of the impact area. The muscles of the torso can also be toughened by repeated punching and striking. I just want to state that patience is necessary and that the object is to see how hard you can be hit without injury. Simply injuring yourself from the start serves no purpose. The object is rather to use your mind to strengthen your body. A simple experiment will illustrate the principle that applies here: When you are able to channel your qi, summon your qi to flow through your entire body. Feel your stomach's muscles become hard like steel. Now- maintaining this feeling of power- punch yourself in the st

If you have practiced karate in a registered dojo you will most probably have spent hours on repetitive basic technique (Japanese: kihon ) practice. The techniques performed during these sessions often appear different from how they would look in a real fight. This is especially true of the traditional schools. Chinese Kung Fu is no different. An excellent example is the taolu (forms- or as they are called in Japanese : kata). The techniques performed herein are too slow, long, obvious and/ or unguarded to be used in a real fight. Bruce Lee himself did not deem it a good idea to waste one's time on them.* So what purpose do they serve? Truth is- preparation for combat is merely one of the functions of taolu practice. One of the main purposes, though, is force training. In Wen Hsiu Quan there is a differentiation between combat forms and force training forms. One of the keys to understanding the reason for this differentiation lies in the exercises outlined below: 1. Horse St

To begin my discussion on force I'll state that the Chinese principle holds that qi - or energy- is converted into force during the execution of martial arts techniques. Characteristics of good force include the ability to hit hard, the ability to withstand blows, stamina and physical strength. I'll deal with all the exercises in my force training programme in due course. For now I'll start with my Qigong exercises and gathering Qi. The first video shows the first two exercises. While performing the exercises the mind is calm and following the breathing. Inhale raising the hands and exhale lowering the hands. As shown- I repeat it ten times. The second exercise is very helpful in teaching you to feel your own Qi. Inhaling, feel your hands rise by themselves- very much like Helium balloons. When exhaling feel the pulling force between the palms and the earth. Feel gravity pulling the whole body down. Posture is very important. The basic principle is that the upper b

If you have stumbled across this blog I would hope that you are interested in Chinese Martial Arts as much as I am. The Chinese Martial Arts have always been, and still are evolving and adapting. New styles develop without us knowing. You may not realise this, but all the martial arts styles on earth rely on the same universal principles, but are different from each other due to the approach taken. Wen Hsiu Quan (Wen Hsiu Fist) is actually my approach to the Chinese Martial Arts- or, if you would, my style of Kung Fu. It was developed after a study of Shotokan and Shukokai Karate followed by research into the Chinese roots of Karate. This study took an interesting turn to the Shaolin style Chinese Boxing and Taijiquan. The actual techniques that I will demonstrate over time herein were derived from Shaolin Kung Fu, Taijiquan (Tai Chi), Baguazhang (Eight Trigrams Palm) and Hsing I Quan (Form of Mind Boxing). Kicking techniques are mainly Shukokai Karate, Wing Chun Quan and Shaol