Wen Hsiu Quan

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...

My first exposure to Qi-Gong came from an article in the Taekwondo Times in 1994. In the article a teacher by the name of James Lacey gave readers some standing meditation postures. As with all martial arts practices the thing was not about the postures or the photos- it lay in the breathing. I started practicing while being 16 at the time. I had hopes of being able to shoot a fireball from my palms like the Hadouken or Kamehameha one day... That never happened of course. It took me many years to understand the place of Qi in the martial arts of today. In this post I will share some of my experiences and then give some guidelines of how qi manifests itself so that you can tell when someone in a video is bluffing or not. The first thing I experienced was a tingly, needles and pins sensation in my hands. The literature said that I would feel warmth, but that was not the first thing I felt. In fact- I only feel a very mild warmth when my hands are close to each othe...

In his book Spirit of the Empty Hand Stan Schmidt mentioned a lesson during which his Sensei asked what his hand would be if it stayed a fist all the time. I am certain that philosophers and martial artists alike will find a message in that. As a person practicing a martial art that employs strikes and that uses sparring as a training method- I have a very tangible example of what this metaphor can tell us. Practitioners of WSKF, Goju Ryu and Jeet Kune Do might know what I am talking about here. Most schools of Taijiquan and JKA Shotokan might not get it, though. Wenhsiuquan recognises the importance of relaxing muscles in order to gather energy for a strike, but a fair amount of tension is necessary in areas like the legs and abomen to protect the internal organs and to speed up movement. When facing a sparring partner head-on, a moderate amount of tension in the pectoral muscles protect the ribs as well. This tension cannot be excessive lest it slows down your movement...

I regard Qigong as a really important part of any kind of martial arts training. I know it is not done in all classes. Some MMA gyms have started doing Yoga, which I can understand. Now that we can observe different styles we have the chance to pick from the best of what we see. The exercises in this post do not take up a lot of time, but are worth starting and ending each training session with. I have decided long ago not to be a Nei Kung specialist. The main reason for that is that the amount of time and training required for that leaves very little for the external training that I like more. These exercises are therefore the most Qigong I do and just about the most time I spend on cultivating Qi. Let's have a look at them: 1. Raising the Sky: I know two versions of this exercise, but the easiest one starts in a relaxed upright stance. Breathing in the palms turn upward as they get raised up to chest level. Still breathing in the palms push...

I really pity those of you who train with an instructor who does not teach anything about Qi! The one big difference between Wenhsiuquan and Jeet Kune Do is that Qigong is expressly part of Wenhsiuquan's training regimen.  Last week I have learnt a really cool training method from Wu Style Taijiquan. I must admit that the writer of the book actually gave a lot of complex information that I have still not digested, but one really cool technique did find its way from the pages into my morning work-out's warm-up. It goes like this: Standing in an upright posture ( yoi for the karate people), feet flat on the ground, shoulders relaxed, and so forth (Taijiquan people know the drill...) you begin to stretch your neck upwards so that all the vertebrae have a space between one another. This is not done by straining, but rather in a relaxed posture and while breathing slowly.  Just by doing that I have already felt a surge of Qi course through my veins. Not qu...

Where other people would read about a thing such as "mind over matter" and continue doubting whether they could ever attain something like that we as martial artists are in a position to practice and train with it and experience it first hand. We already know the value of conditioning. Some of us will know about skills such as Shaolin's "Iron Shirt" and "Golden Bell Cover" and may still not know how to develop the ability. Well- I reserve that kind of knowledge for my students. Something I will leave for my fellow martial artists to contemplate however is this: When is a body part a target and when is it a weapon? Short answer- It depends on how qi is focussed. A more understandable explanation would be more like this: If you accidentally bump your hand against a table while rushing off somewhere in a hurry- it hurts. When, however, that hand is used to break a board or a tile- it does not hurt (or at least not that much...) What was differ...