Wen Hsiu Quan

I like grappling, but don't get me wrong- I am not a wrestler or MMA fighter. The big attraction that arts like Judo and Aikido held for me was that I was able to throw bigger and stronger opponents, not because of strength, but know-how.  Now I must want lay-persons that a reliance of technical cunning is very attractive to a lot of us, but it is a disease rather than a way to victory. Technique has its place. In Wenhsiuquan it has a big place! But the other elements of strength and tactics also play a major part in a fight. While I am busy with the book I managed to take a set of pictures that touch upon an aspect covered in the previous book. Since the new book is going to be on defense and not throwing I thought it a good idea to write a post about it. As the first photo shows I have stepped past Shairley's downward sword attack. The second picture shows her ready to take a fall with just a sweeping motion of my arm. In a photo from my previous boo...

 I am actually busy nursing an injured leg back to health and now find myself at that stage where it is feeling a bit better and I am itching to get back to training. I will, however, stick to light Taijiquan practice for this next week and take up the heavy stuff the week after. Meanwhile- I am working on the second Wenhsiuquan book. This one is about defense. Instead of Chen Feng and Chris I got help from another couple. Vic- who you will not be seeing in any photos, because he operated the camera- and Shairley Yang- volunteered to help out with some of the photos. By some- I don't mean just a few, mind you... Shairley is well known here for her cheerful- and playful nature and we got a lot of it during the shoot. She actually made this a lot more fun than what I thought it would be. I hope you all train well. I'll be sure to let everyone know when this book is finally ready. Have a great week!

I don't know if any of my black belt readers got this, but this bit is meant for those of you who have not yet reached black belt level (or if your style does not have belts- those who are still ranked as beginners). You may by now have found yourself in this situation at least once: You have learnt how to punch, kick and block. You have even learnt a really cool technique like a roundhouse kick that you like very much. Then- during free sparring practice- you want to whip out this favourite technique and wow the audience- only to get beaten up and not given a chance to use it. Laypersons will tell you that it's because fancy techniques don't work. If you take my advice, however, you will find that even the fancy techniques work- in their time. So what does this have to do with selfishness?  Let's put it very simple- each attack and defense has its time. Just as blocking when there is no attack coming is silly so a straight attack when an opening f...

Some of you may have heard this story before: An elephant walked into a village. It attracted a lot of attention from the villagers who all stopped what they were doing to go and look at this unusual animal. Five of the town's blind were taken to the elephant so that they could touch it and get an idea of what such an animal is.  The one who had a feel of a tusk got the idea that the elephant was a spear. The one who got to feel its leg thought that an elephant is a tree and so forth... Now- any one of these blind persons could start at any part of the elephant and get a different first impression, but after working his/her way through all the other parts they could get an idea of what the whole elephant is like. In martial arts- combat is the elephant. Each system that has been developed to date is the result of a certain perspective on fighting or even a result of the study of a certain aspect or aspects thereof.   If you have recently taken up...

Welcome back! Hope you have an awesome New Year! While I was away from this blog to fully celebrate the holidays I have used the off-time to step up my training. As an added bonus- I got this weighted vest as a gift from my parents! This is a really awesome Christmas gift. :) I definitely recommend training with it! I am entering 2015 with stronger legs and harder kicks because of this. :D Something else that is on its way is the Wenhsiuquan Book on Defense.  Train hard!