Wen Hsiu Quan

Hi, everyone! I hope you have all been enjoying a peaceful and restful Easter Weekend. I have trained to the point of utter exhaustion today before I sat down at my desk to balance my books for this month- end and get some stuff ready for an annual audit us attorneys have to go through over here.   The training was a pleasure- even when I had to absolutely drag my arse through the last kata, but the month- end accounting took some will-power. Still- it could have been worse. You see- I have this habit of writing up fees into my bookkeeping system as I work. Middle of every month invoices go out. End of each month I balance books. Because I do not skip any of these steps I have been able to save a lot on accountant fees simply because I leave the accountants less work to do this way. Believe me- I don't always feel like doing this, but- I also know- and fear- what chaos will ensue if I let one of these tasks slip for even one month... One of the first things y...

When I had decided that I wanted to learn martial arts I was not content with just going to a dojo to train. As my belt rank went up higher and as I interacted with black belt students I have realised that the only learning you are truly guaranteed to get from your dojo is learning by experience. In Karate a lot of teachers have become teachers by attaining the required belt rank (In South Africa that is 2nd Dan and up...) and then choosing to teach. Knowledge of martial arts philosophy and history is not a requirement for any of these belt ranks.  I on the other hand wanted a full martial arts education. Part of my reason for this was that I love books and I love knowledge. I must say, however, that part of the puzzle in learning martial arts is gaining experience in fighting or at least sparring to truly understand what it is that you have to learn. So- I was only able to understand the styles that I have learnt after having experienced the cont...

Hi, everyone. Study any Asian martial art for long enough and you may find... ...that you still can't do any of the cool techniques that you may have seen in movies or online videos!  We know it is true. Many black belt students also know this to be true. There are a lot of martial arts clubs/ schools that do not even bother teaching these really spectacular and advanced techniques. You know the techniques I am talking about, right? Those crab scissor throws, back spinning sweeps and let's not forget- aerial techniques! The reasons teachers give for not teaching such techniques are usually one or more of the following: 1. They don't work on the street or they are useless. 2. They are not in the syllabus; 3. The instructor does not know them. About reasons no. 2 and 3 I am not going to write a lot. I am sure that by now we know that a lot of martial arts we see being taught today are watered down for a number of reasons. Yo...

Hi, guys- and girls! It is ironic that I have planned to publish some spoilers about the journey ahead for most karateka while some wise-ass thought it a good idea to publish spoilers about how Dragonball Super was going to end. Well- a post about THAT will follow after I have watched the controversial episode... Now, however, I want to get really open and frank about what really goes on in Karate what you are to expect if you have just walked into a dojo for the first time. Now WHY would I bother to write this? Well... because in spite of information being freely available all over the internet nowadays there are a lot of misconceptions about Karate in general. These misconceptions keep some people from starting and with some who have started it causes disappointment. Now- I must say beforehand that I am aware that this is a very generalised post. Things may be done differently in your country, or at your dojo, but the expectations that I outline here are about as u...

Hi, guys!  :D I am super excited about today's post because of an awesome app I have found in the Google Playstore during this week. I was going to write a post titled "Karate Spoilers" today, but it seems like a higher power intervened this week and gave me something much cooler to write about. Before I tell you more about it and SHOW you what I found it does- let's first look at this scene... https://youtu.be/QsDDXSmGJZA Those of us who know the Dragonball franchise very well know that these scouters first made their appearance in Dragonball Z with the arrival of the malevolent Saiyans. This scene where an amazed Vegeta reads Goku's new power level after his return from Kaio Sama is definitely one of the most memorable scenes. The scouter was alien technology that measured a living being's Ki. We have seen a similar device being used in the Street Fighter II animated movie. https://youtu.be/Fk0OxjpkE0k?t=130 Now the app that I have found i...