Wen Hsiu Quan

I have not been writing anything for this blog for a while now... However- I have managed to put some time into this book and- eventually- managed to finish it! You can find it here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/59796457 My latest book Those of you who have been following my blog know that I mainly train alone. Form practice is a large part of this training. This book focuses on Kung Fu forms and shows techniques from Shaolin and Wudang, the two main sources of Kung Fu, in order for you to put together your own set or taolu (which is Chinese for kata ). I have also taken a well-known set from Shaolin Kung Fu and give you an analysis of the set in order to help you better understand how these sets are put together and how each of the parts thereof work. The book is available to all Patreons who have joined my Patreon site. I will make more material available soon!  

Learning this form was not much fun as the first video that I have watched on this featured a woman doing the form at top speed. I have already accepted that the way your form looks depends partly on who you learn it from. Not much further away on the internet, I have found this variation: Nonetheless- I enjoy having this form in my program. I have always wanted a kata that features a hurricane kick. :) The number of katas I know now stands at 27. I have also created 8 forms of which I plan to keep 4. 3 of them got discussed in earlier blog posts. Even though I have gone and learnt this many katas I think that regularly practicing the katas that you know is more important than learning new ones. Sure- every once in a while you would pick up a new technique from a kata that you have not yet practiced. Still- it will only become of any use if you have practiced it enough. Well... there is only one more form that I would like to show you, but that will have to wait for next week. Now I ha...

My introduction to Kung Fu was the 48 Form Set of Taijiquan that was created in the 1950's. I have only gotten the feel of actually channeling qi into martial arts movements, though, when I learned Shaolin Kung Fu. That had led among other things to me creating a custom made Taijiquan form (The words "form" and "set" are sure to confuse a lot of people who do not study Kung Fu. Since Karate people call katas "forms", however, I also call Kung F sets "forms"). I was satisfied to have my Taijiquan form for practice of a Wudang based martial art and the 5 Ainimal Set as a faorm for practicing an art from Shaolin. Then- as you know- I have started writing my book on Kung Fu forms. So- I have looked through my collection of martial arts material and found this video from a while back.   Now... for a long time I was happy to practice my 20 katas from Karate, rotating them in groups of 2 to be practiced two days every week, but then I have decided t...

  Can you learn a form from a book? Well- I have tried. With interesting results.  The video below shows Sifu Wong Kiew Kit. He is doing a form that I have learnt from his book on Shaolin Kungfu. Below is a link to a video of me doing the same form.   The differences tell us that there has been a miscommunication about some parts of this form, don't they? Nonetheless- I am happy with the version that I am doing. After all- I have been practicing it for a long while now before I saw this video. No lightning came from the sky to punish those who have adapted traditional forms for the sport of Wushu during the 1960's. Nobody gets punished even for making up their own forms so- just relax...  Had I belonged to a Kungfu club or school, however, I would have taken care to do the form as it is taught by that school.  Changes in forms are actually a common occurrence in Asian martial arts and I have learnt at least two versions of a number of forms in one style of ...

Hello, everyone.  You see this list below? This is what I use to make sure that I practice all the katas that I have learnt. Saturdays are easy. On Saturdays I practice all 5 Heian katas and all 3 Tekki (Naihanchi) katas from Karate. On Sundays I practice Taijiquan and my kata and fighting practice is on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. It used to be two katas per morning just before I finish my workout, but- as you can see- the katas have now been put together in groups of 3.  3 of these katas are brand new to me and there are also some old katas of mine that I have decided to brush off and add to my list for regular practice. One kata that I have really enjoyed learning is Gekisai Ichi from Goju Ryu. I just list it as "Gekisai" in my Kata Rotator because it is the only Gekisai that I will be practicing- well... for now... The kata first came to my attention when Jesse taught it to another martial arts Youtuber in one of his videos. Then- when one of my martial artist friends ...

It has been a while since I have sat down to write any book. You may have noticed that I even neglect my blogging nowadays...  I have, however, had enough time to think about what to write about next. I have chosen to write about form practice in Kungfu. In our general language we use the term "forms" to refer to those sequences of movements that are performed without an opponent. Kungfu people, however, call these sequences "sets". The word "forms" are usually used by Karate people when they refer to kata. In Karate the Japanese term kata is used while the Chinese term taolu is used by Kungfu practitioners. Kungfu forms are generally longer than Karate forms, though. In Karate we find that the traditional styles follow a very conservative approach to teaching and practicing forms.    During the 80's some more progressive styles of Karate have appeared with acrobatic forms- performed to music, no less.....

Hi, everyone Recently I have made the fat gathering around my waist my enemy and have kicked my training into high gear to burn as much of it as possible. That is one of the things for which a style with punches and kicks is good for. Personal trainers tell us that to burn fat we have to use as many muscles as we can and focus on large muscles rather than just the limbs. Well- those high kicks don't just come from the legs... In fact- even a simple punch involves the use of other muscles than those of the arm. It was in this heightened enthusiasm that I have decided to shift my focus away from things like turning my leg so that my roundhouse kick hits with the flat part of my instep rather than the edge of the foot on the big toe's side and move it towards hitting and kicking hard and on time. Well- one of the main effects of doing that is that you get faster and strike harder, but the other is that one's technique just does not look as beautiful. This seems ...