Wen Hsiu Quan

Although I started my martial arts journey with Judo as a kid I have only begun learning to do proper throws after I have taken up Karate. As soon as I have learnt about what cool things you can do once you got yourself firmly rooted into the ground I felt like the secret to limitless hidden strength got opened up to me. So- I am not very fond of jumping, standing on the balls of my feet or even bouncing. The first aerial throw I have seen in my life was when I started playing Mortal Kombat II. One of the characters in the game, Kung Lao- had this insane throw that involved him grabbing hold of his opponent as he somersaults over him and then throwing him across the screen as he lands. Cool move as it was- I thought it was completely made up and that it had no basis in actual martial arts. Well- then, many years later, I have found this video on Youtube- The kata in which this move is found is well known to Shotokan students. The most recognisable feature of the kata, ...

Hi! I was planning on writing a post on aerial throws when something caught my attention during the week. By now I think we all know Jesse Enkamp, right? He is an active Karate competitor, teacher and also an online celebrity who has made a lot of information on Karate available in videos as well as articles that he publishes online. The video below actually, and ironically, came to my attention only today when I was searching for material for my post. It is important to note that it got published on the 18th of March 2018. What got my attention during the week was this... Frankly- I know we should have expected it. The martial arts world is known to have its fair amount of trash talking and self-promotion and this has been so long before the internet came about. In the town where I have learnt Shukokai there was a Sankukai dojo as well. It did not take me very long after joining the Shukokai dojo to learn at school (high school) that the students of these two scho...

If you have been doing Karate or Kickboxing all your life and someone tells you he's doing Taijiquan (or "Tai Chi" as I often hear it being called- a misnomer that does more damage to one's perception of the martial art it is supposed to refer to than "Kerawdee" does to Karate.), you don't immediately think of a fighter, do you? For the purpose of this blog post I will leave the entire incident surrounding the viral Taijiquan vs MMA video out of this discussion. I simply have moe than enough to write about without it. I think that the teachings from internal martial art systems are really underrated these days and that they have a place in all martial arts. I foresee, however, that I would have a tough time selling this idea to the local Karate dojo or MMA gym.  It is easy to think why- - Internal arts like Taijiquan and Qigong (which in my view should be practiced together)  at first glance do not seem to have any relevance to fighting ...

You know who this lady is, right? To me she is the author of the greatest book of the 21st century. Earlier centuries may have had the various sutras, the Tao Te Ching and so forth. Our century has The Secret.   What I have learnt from it has changed my life in many ways and I can write lots of blog posts of each and every change brought about in my life by the teachings in this book. Two nights ago I have picked up my copy of The Secret and looked where it would fall open. The passage that I have read that night reminded me of one flaw we as humans are most likely to have- the tendency to worry. The Secret teaches us to focus on attaining a goal by focusing on the feeling of already having attained it. Now- before that night, for quite some time, I had this habit of going over some kicks that I were not feeling comfortable with. I would do this until I felt at least a bit better about the kick in question. The feeling of being satisfied with the kick would l...

Hi, everyone! My standard approach in considering taolu or forms from various martial arts is seeing how many possible ways exist in which one could apply the techniques performed in these forms. Forms usually seem to be designed mainly for visual appeal than for actual fighting practice and when one does use one of the movements from a kata or taolu in a fight it is not uncommon to see the move looking different from how it does in the form. The styles of both Shaolin and Wudang each have a Drunken Style. Where exactly these styles came from is uncertain, but that they are rather well known and practiced is certain. I have found a couple of videos on Youtube- some choreographed, others not- in which drunken boxing features. https://youtu.be/m8XC4sCNr0A https://youtu.be/PykL2ttj22w https://youtu.be/zT4nB3NJrUs https://youtu.be/p5loQCc8ALA https://youtu.be/W8jOGceedfw https://youtu.be/NuV3cJCXTeM https://youtu.be/xkqcikEqkrU Apart from the mixed success (which is a t...