Wen Hsiu Quan

Chinese and Japanese martial arts share breathing as one of their common cornerstones. Learning to coordinate your strikes with your breathing and at the same time when certain muscles are to relax and when to contract is vital for powerful strikes. I do a lot of talking in the video- so I will stop typing now. :) 

When I first took up karate I started with Shukokai. Despite the fact that Shotokan was a long established style and much older I was taught that the Shukokai method was the best of the two. Later on we moved to a place with no Shukokai school and I got the chance to study Shotokan for 2 years. Where Shukokai virtually discarded hip rotation at the time and chose a head-on shomen facing kamae I got a chance to learn to fight from the sideways, hanmi position. With my study of Jeet Kune Do I took a big liking in the hanmi position and did my best to copy the fighting stance in Brue Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do. When Taijiquan and Hsingyiquan came into my life I replaced the springy on-the-balls-of-the-feet fighting stance with a more grounded and stable base from which I could launch more powerful attacks. This new base also enabled me to utilise my grappling techniques much easier. Shaolin Kung Fu taught me the value of the old ways and my kickboxing manner that I wo...

Have I ever mentioned on this blog that I am an attorney here in South Africa? Well- if not- now you know. What I am going to discuss here is a subject touched on in a conversation with a Shotokan black belt last year. It is about the extent to which martial arts technique is allowed by law. I have not studied the law of other countries, but if Roman Law is one of the sources of the law in your country the principles I discuss herein will most likely apply in your country as well. I'd love to hear from lawyers in other parts of the world regarding their views. Now- I am not going to give you a lengthy article quoting statutes and cases. That- I'll leave for my colleagues in the legal fraternity if they ask nicely enough while I am in a good mood. What I do aim to accomplish, however, is to give the martial artist the proper frame of mind with which to function within the law. Well- here are the principles: 1. We are not to fight to punish: ...