Wen Hsiu Quan

"Martial arts are for smart people" I have heard some laypersons say. When you actually start sparring at a dojo you start realising that your intellect is not of much use, though.  Sure- knowledge plays a huge part in your success as a martial artist, but we do not just seek to accumulate knowledge, but also to develop our minds. This is done by subjecting ourselves to training that does not only challenge us emotionally as well as mentally. I have realised at a very early time in my training that a lot of my performance has suffered not because I have not given it enough, thought, but actually because of thinking too much. We as humans are capable of thought and it is wonderful, but it also interferes with our intuitive responses. While you are thinking you are not actually seeing what is right in front of you. A lot of details that can be sensed intuitively get drowned out by the noise in your mind that you have created yourself. Regarding...

I am a big fan of training with weights. It is just a pity that we don't get these ankle and wrist weights much heavier than what they are. There is something left to design for someone. :D I wanted to show you how I perform Bassai Dai with this equipment. You can see what came of the first attempt at filming it here: My second attempt looks like this: The heaviest part of this whole thing is the vest. I am not really fast while wearing it. I guess I could use simpler attacks to be faster, but then again- I believe in training hard and fighting easy. :D If there is one thing for which I never stop being grateful it is the opportunity to train. Right now- at the age of 37 my training has survived moving to two new homes, 6 jobs and restrictions on which part of the yard it is okay to practice in. For a while I even managed to keep dojo days open. Don't stop training, people! Have a great week ahead!

This video came up on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djreminisemusic/videos/10152665556038869/ Those of you who have managed to train yourselves to ignore pain will know how these guys manage to take so many blows to the groin. This actually reminds me of a lesson I have learnt as early as in high school. Some of you might remember my post in memory of Wolfgang Goldner. It was in 1996 and I had a PR baton (over here we call it a tonfa as well, but I saw that people in the US use the term "PR". Can somebody be kind enough to spare me the googling and comment the meaning of this abbreviation? :D) At that time I was very happy to show off this really cool arm-lock that I got from an issue of Terry O'Neill's Fighting Arts magazine. In it this guy called Massad Ayoob demonstrated self defence techniques for policemen (and there was also an article about how proper martial arts technique could have made the Rodney King incident less of the fiasco it was back...

I have finally finished the fourth book. :) From next year this blog shall have some of the content of these books every day. One thing I like and encourage in martial arts is that all of it can be tested and experienced. This also applies to the books on martial arts that I have read. In the time to come I will also not just invite you to try the things I show in the instructional posts, but encourage you to do so. I would also like to see and hear more from you men and women who also practice martial arts. Have a great week ahead! 

https://youtu.be/Ar1B1YLIJPg I love this song from the Crash Test Dummies. Some of you who don't know who they are are probably far too young to remember them. In their song "Here I Stand Before Me" the singer sings that his mind's eye is missing from his body. Well, I can probably say I am missing an entire network of chakra points and meridians! Fact is we have been taught that our bodies look like this inside... ... and it would most likely be what we find if we were to dissect our bodies. Studying martial arts the way some of us have, however, we know that- in the heat of battle- we don't experience our bodies like this. What good does it do us? Well... the way we think of our bodies actually play a large part in how they perform. A body-builder will probably tell you that thinking about the muscle you are working during your workout actually makes that muscle work harder. So doing the muscle actually develops f...