Wen Hsiu Quan

Hi, everyone. This week I have turned 40. This means that it would now be 25 years that I have been training, meditating and learning while I have been working, meeting people, saying goodbye to people, getting sick, getting well again, making money, losing money and living life in all other respects that may come to mind.   I have, of course, also been writing this blog.... I have taken a quick pause from typing this post to check my archive. The first post in this blog came out on 21 April 2011. Since then a lot has changed. I realise by now that there are a lot of people my age who say that they USED to study some martial art or the other when they were kids or perhaps when they were just "younger". There were enough times when I seriously thought about taking that very route. Still- I haven't... That in itself ought to tell you that I am not like any other person of my age, my race, my gender or whatever gr...

I loved learning Kung Fu. Having learnt Karate and Japanese martial arts before I got into Kung Fu I was very interested in seeing what made Kung Fu different from them. My chance came in 2002. While some may feel that it takes long enough to learn one style well enough to be able to fight with it  I was interested in knowing what approach the Chinese had to fighting and training. Well- apart from the Qigong and Force Training exercises I found these two training tools to be a very good way to see what basics Shaolin Kung Fu had. In Wong Kiew Kit's book on Shaolin Kung Fu you get introduced to some basic Shaolin techniques and given the tools with which to develop them for efficient use in combat. The first training tool is very familiar to a lot of us. A set, known in Chinese as taolu  is quite familiar with students of Karate and Taekwondo as well. In Karate these sets are called kata. In Taekwondo it is known as poomse.  The techniques in this basic form do not l...

For someone like me who loved reading up on martial arts in any good books that I can find I feel really spoiled to have the internet at my disposal. Where I used to have to buy a book and sometimes try to figure out what picture the typed words in it is painting I now have tons of Youtube videos to go through. Sure- we have to be careful with the information we find on the internet. That is certain... Then we also have to bear in mind that you can learn only so much from a video, but that a lot of videos, but not all, are actually intended to get you interested in the martial art the maker of the video is teaching and you get only shown enough to get you curious. Over the years, however, I have found some very generous Youtubers who share huge amounts of information. All of these people do an excellent job in promoting their art. Just to let you know who I am talking about- here are my favourite Martial Arts Youtubers up to before now: Jesse Enkamp- Karate Iain...

I don't know many others who like old, badly dubbed martial arts movies as much as I do. Watch enough of them and you sooner or later end up seeing the Snake Style or maybe just the Snake Fist featuring in one of the movies you are watching for the evening... The Snake Fist, and its companion move- "Snake Raises its Head" are quite real, though. WAIT! WAIT! I can't write a post about the Snake Fist without sharing this video! https://youtu.be/3eg3Z1Zyfk4 How beautiful is that?! Well- back to this post now... The Snake Fist in Shaolin Kung Fu strikes with the fingertips. While the eyes are probably the most likely target for most of us using this technique the fingers can be toughened to go for targets like the larynx and pressure points on the body. Personally, if my hand is facing palm down like this, I am going for the eye or the bottom of the larynx. In the case of going for the bottom of the larynx I would no...

Back in the days before the Internet printed media was the easiest source of information on martial arts. Having bought books and magazines on martial arts back in those days I have found that although you had to search a bit- you were able to get hold of some really interesting information. My Qigong training for instance had undergone very little adjustment when I have met an actual teacher. A lot can also be said about Bruce Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Even though it got published way back in 1975 I have not found a more comprehensive book on martial arts seen from a fighting perspective.  If you did belong to a dojo back in the 90's I can imagine how you may not have felt like reading up on martial arts at all. Many consider belonging to a dojo as enough and that taking in any information from outside is actually a bad idea. Still- if you WANTED to find more information- it was out there. Then the Internet came about... I have joined martial arts groups on soci...