Wen Hsiu Quan

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.

Hi, Everyone Last night I got a group of four kids to teach for the very first time. Ages were 13, 11, 10 and 5. Because it was a self defense class I did not intend to give too much attention to strict karate basics. As the students struggled to make their techniques work, however, we realised that a good grasp of the basics is necessary- especially with regard to stances. What never gets old with teaching kids throws is when they start with "But he's too big!" and later on end up with that excited look when they realise they have just done that throw. Those are the bigger kids. As for the 5 year old boy we started with basic stances and blocks. A fun thing to do with kungfu is to teach them the different animals found in the movements. I prefer not to teach fighting to kids at such a young age, but the basic movements do wonders for their development. You all know Mahiro, right? I wonder what she and those other kids get taught...     ...