Wen Hsiu Quan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCH6pCzyT4g https://www.facebook.com/groups/taichisecretmovements/ I always believe that if you really want to know the essence of any style- you should study its kata. Styles without kata- well... it's just that much less fun. So far- I have been lucky enough to have an instructor who taught me the application of each movement in the kata I have learnt. I have also learnt later on that not all forms are a rehearsal of combat techniques. Often the kata in itself is an exercise to develop speed or power. In this post I will give a couple of hints on understanding kata better. Here are some pointers: 1. A slow kata is meant to develop power and technique. This means that you pay should pay attention to aspects such as your stance and breathing, when your muscles have to be relaxed and when which muscles have to tense. 2. Fast katas are meant to develop speed and agility. This is no chance to take shortcuts through movemen...

Depending on the type of competition or whether it is a real fight or competition it is very important to know what  distance is close enough to touch the opponent and what range is close enough for some real damage. This fight probably comes to anyone's mind when we think about fighting a taller opponent. The Legendary Musashi Miyamoto is said to have fought a samurai called Kojiro. Kojiro's advantage in combat lay in his sword, which was longer than what was the norm at the time. Musashi, however, remedied the situation by beating Kojiro to death with a wooden oar which he had modified to fight with. I am not going to deal with projectile weapons and guns here. Everyone knows that the range of those is far longer than even a 7 foot staff can muster. What I will discuss, however, is what assumptions about range are wrong- and even dangerous- and which approaches deliver the best results.  First of all- It is not always a good idea to stay out of your o...

Judo is not the only grappling art, neither is Taekwondo the only art that uses kicking.  It would also help to know that the developers of most of these arts we see today had something to work from. Now kung fu fanatics would be quick to tell us that "all martial arts under the sun come from Shaolin", but that statement ignores the fact that the Thai and Indonesian people have been kicking and punching long before Shaolin even existed. So did a lot of people in Asia, actually... Karateka would actually also have to admit that their styles are a lot younger than jujitsu and Chinese martial arts (in other words- kung fu). This knowledge has been lying around in my mind gathering dust, but may be new and useful to some who are considering which martial art to take up. I'll give a list below of some of the most well known main styles and their most obvious attributes- along with the arts that had developed from them: Japan (Tradition: Buj...

Bruce Lee himself was more than willing to do away with katas, but definitely not sparring. He also referred to shadow boxing as "homework for sparring". I am certain that a lot of coaches and instructors will also tell you that you can't expect to be a competent fighter without sparring. I agree to a certain extent- as you will need to have some data on what to expect in a real fight. One training tool I wish to introducein this post is the imagination. I did give a short reference to it in a post of a couple of years ago, but never spoke about how to use it in a way that works. I have left our Shotokan dojo in 1998. From this time I have been practicing by myself. The first things I have discarded were the katas that were always the same pattern of techniques, but not quite the stuff that would get me out of trouble. From that point on I began imagining attacks of all kinds against me during practice. I'd feel the panic of being cornered, the qui...