Wen Hsiu Quan

I am back from my gasshuku in the lovely forest area of Graskop and really happy to sit and type yet another blog post. Before I can move on to today's topic I want to mention that those of us who have attended the gasshuku have learnt arm locks, a simple takedown and pressure points. Now- I am no stranger to throws and arm locks, but pressure points were something I have never taken the time to study in depth. What I have learnt on the subject that day shall stay with me forever. Now I want to get to today's topic. The classes at the gasshuku were presented by Sensei John Barnett. Outside the dojo he is a very friendly and cheerful person. His wonderful sense of humour made the lessons a easy to remember. Now- I must mention that Sensei John is a 7th dan member of our shihankai and already past 80. One of the events at the gasshuku- probably the main event- was the obstacle course. Us seniors also had a go at it and Sensei John was right there with us, not

You heard me. I am not going to be around to write a post this next weekend. Why, you ask? It is because I am attending a 3 day Gasshuku with classmates and instructors from our local WSKF dojos and some people from dojos in Gauteng Province. I have been practicing alone for years now and truth be told- I have always liked being alone. Still- after a while I realised that spending time with people who are equally interested in any martial art as I am would do me wonders. My time at WSKF has so far been challenging as well as fun. With the championships and gradings behind us for now we can now just get together and have fun. That is exactly what we are going to do next weekend. I wish everyone else a great week ahead. To the people in Martial Arts Forums on G+: Keep those posts coming!

I regard Qigong as a really important part of any kind of martial arts training. I know it is not done in all classes. Some MMA gyms have started doing Yoga, which I can understand. Now that we can observe different styles we have the chance to pick from the best of what we see. The exercises in this post do not take up a lot of time, but are worth starting and ending each training session with. I have decided long ago not to be a Nei Kung specialist. The main reason for that is that the amount of time and training required for that leaves very little for the external training that I like more. These exercises are therefore the most Qigong I do and just about the most time I spend on cultivating Qi. Let's have a look at them: 1. Raising the Sky: I know two versions of this exercise, but the easiest one starts in a relaxed upright stance. Breathing in the palms turn upward as they get raised up to chest level. Still breathing in the palms push

A lot of good things have happened since I joined our local Shotokan club. For one- I got faster. I also got fitter. I am still working on getting that perfect technique, though. The kihon combinations you see in this video is part of my belt's syllabus. While I can sort of undertand a spinning knife hand block-front kick-spear hand combination that forward inward block-elbow strike to the side-spinning back fist to the front- stepping punch combination still floors me. Maybe it will get better when I relax a bit more. With today's Saturday workout I tested these combinations on the sai and tonfa. The nice thing about training at home is that you can do the stuff you really like and put your own spin on things. Most of the kihon and kata you learn at the dojo is homework, after all. No one said that this homework had to be boring, though.    Train well and have a great week.