Wen Hsiu Quan

This is my third month with my Shotokan club and I am enjoying it more and more, I am glad to say. Usually the White River branch- that is sort-of like our hombu dojo- has a Saturday morning class for brown and black belts in White River. I have not made that trip yet. Quite frankly- club/ federation/ association activities are not a priority for me and I doubt that it ever will be. That does not mean that I do not enjoy it, though. I have just happened to land myself into a long weekend and received notification of our Lowveld Gasshuku. While part of my long weekend got spent on educating a certain Peter Barakan on why it is wrong to call Babymetal a mere"Idol Band" I reckoned "why not?"  So- that Friday evening I got the Saturday kit and had my Saturday workout then so that I could show up at Klipkopje Dam with my braai meat and karate gear to take part in a 3 hour gasshuku and the braai afterwards. Non-South Africans who do not know what...

Hi, Everyone Last night I got a group of four kids to teach for the very first time. Ages were 13, 11, 10 and 5. Because it was a self defense class I did not intend to give too much attention to strict karate basics. As the students struggled to make their techniques work, however, we realised that a good grasp of the basics is necessary- especially with regard to stances. What never gets old with teaching kids throws is when they start with "But he's too big!" and later on end up with that excited look when they realise they have just done that throw. Those are the bigger kids. As for the 5 year old boy we started with basic stances and blocks. A fun thing to do with kungfu is to teach them the different animals found in the movements. I prefer not to teach fighting to kids at such a young age, but the basic movements do wonders for their development. You all know Mahiro, right? I wonder what she and those other kids get taught...     ...

As you know by now I train at our Shotokan dojo. That is on Mondays and Wednesdays. I have kickboxing on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This has led to Saturdays being put aside to do the type of training I like and enjoy. Saturdays are Wenhsiuquan days. I have come to accept that you have no control over what martial arts schools you will find in your area. For a lot this is not a problem, because they have no idea what variations of martial arts training exist in the world when they sign up, but with me it has become an issue when I realised that things like spinning kicks and meditation were things that I had to learn by myself, because my school did not offer that. Now- when I joined my new Shotokan dojo I knew for certain that they would be able to help me get back my poise and polish my technique. The way I was going started to worry me and in time, because overemphasis on power had led to a lot of my techniques being telegraphed. Still, though- I do not feel comfortab...

Just so that we have a point of reference with regard to what I am going to talk about I want us all to understand how I perceive qi energy in martial arts training. A person with a healthy qi flow is that person whose body seems unaffected by your blows. It could also be that person whose wrists feel like "iron bars wrapped in paper" when you grab them. Unwavering focus and even an infectious joi de vivre   are singns of an abundance of qi. For those of us who have developed a sensitivity for these things the amazing aspect of some people's qi flow is that with some you can feel the tingling sensation of their energy from about 2 metres away. With some you need to be closer. In two cases I have felt a warm pleasant sensation emanating from the persons in question. In other cases a paralyzing sense of being drained of energy. Now comes the ironic part- Only one of the people I have met was a martial artist. And he was also the only person conscio...

The principles referred to in the piece of Taoist scripture below have wide application. I have seen it used in Karate, Taijiquan (perhaps the foremost Taoist art in existence) and even in the tactical aspects of Shaolin Kungfu. It is a universal law that can be tested and relied on. Martial arts are usually not based on only one or two of these rules, but the rules themselves are interconnected. When I was working on developing Zanshindo (what later on became Wenhsiuquan) the main underlying principal was awareness. Sensory acuity coupled with prompt, effective response. I have found that Zanshindo has turned out to be mainly a defensive style and must admit that I have neglected attacking back then. When I became able to strike a balance between being able to defend effectively while also being able to launch quick, decisive attacks I have decided to use those techniques that best suit this purpose. In my way of teaching I tend to point out more than ofte...