Wen Hsiu Quan

2 things I have been meaning to do, but never got around to until now were: 1- to design a logo for Wenshiuquan and 2- to record myself doing a traditional kata from Shotokan. I had a great time training this Saturday and this morning was devoted to an extra long Taijiquan and meditation session. Stay well and train hard. :) 

I'm sure a lot of readers will remember how Daniel-San spent days painting a fence, waxing a car,  sanding a floor and lacquering a wall in order to learn how to block.  Fact is- I loved my blocks as a Shukokai white belt. Despite having been shown the simple slapping block and pressing block for kumite I wanted to use uchi uke and all those other cool blocks. And yes- I love Bassai Dai  too. Later on (in my case as 1st kyu brown belt) I realised that my obsession with blocking was hurting my karate. Sure- I could deflect blows, attempts to grab me and the odd finger poke at school, but still sucked at kumite. The main reason for this was simple. Blocking itself does not do much (unless you are a master who is able to break someone's arm with that block- people like that exist!)- Blocking has to be followed by a counter-attack! I'm sure many readers have also come to this realisation early on in their training or were taught this universal t...

If it isn't fun you won't feel like doing it, right?

Somehow the first thing that seems to disappear when a style goes full-contact is traditional stances. Yes- I also know the story where Bruce Lee punched the martial arts master and told him that he does not pull or push. Some of you may have seen that as a master's blessing to let go of an odious part of your training. Well- fact is: MMA has taught us that punching and kicking only gets you so far. (I am still not a fan of MMA, but you can learn a great deal from watching MMA fights.) Further I trust that many will agree with me that the adversary that is probably going to test your self defence skills is not necessarily going to be in your weight class. Further- not all attackers punch, kick or swing a weapon at you. Many will push, grab and maybe even pick you up. In my post on footwork I have already touched on the subject on how stances help us move faster in a fight. What else do stances do for us? 1. First of all- proper stance gives techniques...

For the light, mobile fighting stance which is mainly on the balls of the feet we can thank Western Boxing and Bruce Lee.   This may not be the popular fighting stance in your dojo, but Chinese fighters did very well using it. And we have teachers saying that you can't move fast enough from this stance... I remember my days as a white belt (and even up to Brown Belt) obsessing over my footwork. Like many karateka we were taught a fighting stance that did not feature in any of our kata. Legs were kept bent and ready to spring forward, but we never leapt towards or opponents- or maybe we did, but very very low above the floor... At the time I made a point of retreating very quickly, but when the time came to counter-attack I was not so quick at reaching my target. Also- I often got hit on my way to attack. By the time my fighting improved, however, my opponents found themselves getting hit while they have not yet even finished attacking. They found...

The first sample of my first book on Wenhsiuquan came fresh from the printers yesterday.  Although I am very excited to see an actual printed copy I have to make sure that the book that goes out to the public looks like the type of thing I want to release into the world. This is about my martial art after all... In due time I'll post the link to a separate page on which the book can be ordered. At the moment I am certain that it will be available in South Africa. Because I have no PayPal account- or know of any other way to receive money from overseas yet- availability overseas is going to be very limited. Instead of writing about the entire style in one go I have decided to first write a separate book on each aspect that I feel deserves specific attention.This first book is about pulling and pushing techniques. That means it will explain the mechanics of throws and joint locks amongst other things. Other books to follow are going to be about kicking and...

Wolfgang Goldner I moved to Nelspruit with my parents in 1995. Back then we were 17. Back then as well I was fanatic about martial arts. On my second day in school I found Wolf giving a someone a quick demonstration of his techniques. Now- there will always be karate kids that get made fun of. I think it is safe to say that nobody would have dared to take this guy lightly... At the age of 17 his speed and technique was lightyears ahead of that of his peers and even those older than him. In 1995-1996 he was definitely the one guy that you would not have been able to beat up. Although Wolf had the ability to literally kill a grown man with his bare hands- he was one the least aggressive people I know. Not that it helped much- He still scared the living shit out of me. Wolf never told me what style he practised, but what he showed me was that a lot of black belts out there are not ready to face an opponent like him. Inwardly I am grateful for the fact that the ...