Wen Hsiu Quan

Hello, everyone! Today's post is the last part of my breakdown of Wenhsiuquan's First Grappling Form. In the form the movement is done once to the right, then to the left. The photos below is what you got in the book. At first glance the photos seem to either show a double block/ stopping fist, but if you have read the text you would have found that it actually shows grabbing hold of an opponent;s arm and twisting it. What I had in mind at the time looks something like this... Yes. I know just grabbing an opponent's arm and twisting him around does not do much, but it can turn the tide of a fight.  In a sport like boxing, grabbing an opponent's arm is not allowed at all. Sure! You are allowed to block, but both sides are allowed to keep their hands free so that both sides have a sporting chance of landing blows on one another. That is all good for sport. If you actually have to defend yourself against society's less u...

Hello again, everyone and welcome back to my breakdown of this form. Today's movement from this form I got from Taijiquan, which, by the way, has really awesome grappling moves. In the book the movement is shown like this: In Taijiquan this move is known as "Snake Creeps Down. I found a demonstration of the movement on Youtube to show you how it looks in most Taijiquan forms. The application of this movement is really awesome and very simple to pull off once you have figured out the mechanics thereof. For me- just knowing the taught application of a movement is not enough. I have to know how I would use it in a fight as it is a given that you have to make any technique you learn your own in order for it to work under pressure. The simplest application I got was against a straight reverse punch.  With this response I do not start by moving into the opponent, but rather turn my body as I guide the punching hand past me and firm...

Hello, everyone! I apologise for this post being late. Being able to blog like this means I often have nice quiet weekends, but every now and then I get reminded of what life would be like if I had people to spoend time with. Still, better late than never, I say. When I had the photos of this form taken for the book this was the view you would get of this movement from the book.  I realise that this probably does not tell you much and we know how hard it is for some of us to form a mental picture from written words, so- I have made this short video clip specially for you if you are among those who need it. This movement is all too familiar to Taijiquan students and I dare say that every known style of Taijiquan features it somewhere in their forms. As the above video shows, you breathe in as you prepare to sweep outwards with your lead hand, then, moving weight forward, you breathe out and sweep outward in a wide arc. Then, breathing in a...

I remember surfing Youtube for Karate videos one day some years ago. That was when I found this video: The application of the knife hand block in this rendition of Shotokan's Heian Nidan as a leg throw has changed my life. In my form the movement starts with Taijiquan's Lute Playing Posture being used as a ready posture or as Karate people would call it- a kamae.  When I made the demo gif I decided to use a more natural feeling back stance kamae. The kamae in the form was inspired by the character Wang Jinrei of the Tekken games. Whether you use the back stance or lute playing stance does not matter. The movement starts by redirecting the opponent's punch inward. Then you place your lead leg against the outside of the opponent's lead leg and sweep outward with the blocking arm. The main reason for this move working in this scenario is that your leg is against the outside of your opponent's leg. Regardless of what hand your opponent actually punch...

I'll be frank- I suck at wrestling. When I have learnt Judo I have formed the opinion that throws and take-downs are meant for defense and not for attack at all. That was until I have learnt throws like the one in last week's post and the one in today's post. While I like to catch an opponent's arm and pull him into a hip or shoulder throw the majority of partners with whom I have sparred in a free sparring situation simply does not commit their forward momentum so much into an attack to make the pulling throws like the hip throw or shoulder throw work as well as they do in demonstrations. This take-down, however, works better the more your opponent tries to stand still or retreat. In the form the movement starts in a cat stance with the lead hand going up while the rear hand is chambered like when one is preparing to punch. Then the lead hand swoops down and the rear hand pushes forward as the body shifts forward into a bow/ forward stance. The upper body...