Wen Hsiu Quan

  Modern martial arts are to a large extent what had happened when classical martial arts met Western Boxing. The foremost reason modern fighters will give you for using a short fighting stance when sparring or fighting is that a short stance is more mobile. Is a shorter stance more effective, though? Well...  Let's have a look at that... Can you attack more easily from a short stance? Can you defend more easily from a long stance? Do this simple test and tell me what you find... With punching one can indeed spring into the attack and cross a long distance to land a punch on a target. The feet and body are both out of reach in the beginning, but that changes as soon as you shoot that hip forward... This is of course effective in competitions where fighters start off away from each other. This enables you to go in, score your point, and get out of reach again In the case of a long stance we see that the body may be out of reach, but the lead foot has already arrived on the scen...

A joyful and prosperous new year to all my followers! I have noticed for some time that I have been preferring certain angles of attack during my training. This is a natural consequence of staying mindful of the opponent's centre line and the limbs that you have to get past when attacking. For a long time, especially in one's early years of Karate, we get used to square off with our sparring partners. Free sparring at this stage is then usually a manner of moving back and forth with the most dominating fighter driving his opponent back most of the time. Sooner or later we realise, however, that while increasing the distance between ourselves and our opponent's may keep us safe for a while that safety does not last and- we find it impossible to counterattack from so far away. One of the reasons why I choose a slightly long stance is that the space between my feet give me enough room to make the space that I need to move back just far enough to counter with a kick. That dista...

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!  

This year started with me in a new situation.  No longer working for just myself and with less free time than before I have been spending less time on the book and this blog now sees me for the first time as well. Early morning workouts have become shorter and more hurried. I am however still taking whatever time I can to learn new things.  I enjoy Yoga as much as Qigong these days and have made it part of my workouts. https://web.facebook.com/marthinus.boshoff.3/videos/3258081497594422 I am glad to say that I am now more than halfway done with the book. I have also received an offer from a friend to help with Youtube videos. Let's see how this year goes...   

Now... with a lockdown having started in the third month of this year, carefully adapting to each new stage of our protracted state of emergency and having to get used to a new job that just about takes up all of my time these days- we woke up one morning and found that this entire year had passed. So- what have you done during all this time? Have you put off all commitments and plans for when things start looking better? If you have I would not judge you or blame you. Hell- I remember seeing on Facebook how quiet the "Law of Attraction" group had become when the shit had really hit the fan. Faith seemed to have been in short supply. The people that had really kept me going were those who had suddenly begun doing what I had been doing for the last 30-odd years- exercising in their own yards... Martial arts may contain mostly techniques for fighting opponents in the physical realm, but my biggest hope for any martial arts student is that he or she cultivates an indomitable war...

Hello, everyone!  I know it has been a long time since I have written anything. I have started at a new job that has me a lot busier than I have expected myself to be and I had to work on a couple of Saturdays. Saturdays are of course the days on which I attend to my blogs. It felt good to have today free to attend to my book as well. It is still a work in progress and I will let you know on Facebook, Twitter and Patreon when it is out. All in all- I still train. Even though I now have to wake up earlier in the mornings to train I still take the time to train. That will never stop for as long as my body remains able to move. The chapter at which I am now is an analysis of the Five Animal Combined Set of Shaolin Kung Fu. This set is somewhat different from the taolu that we see in Wushu competitions nowadays. I feel it is a good idea to look at the forms that were designed for training rather than performance purposes. Many of you already know that I regularly practice my Karate kat...

I admit that Ninjutsu fascinates the hell out of me. Thanks to Stephen Hayes and Ashida Kim I have been able to learn sword techniques, shuriken throwing and of course- some interesting unarmed fighting techniques.  The Mi Lu Kata- or Lost Track teaches techniques that rely on misdirection to get past an opponent's defense in a fight. I am not certain whether this kata has any ties with the Mizongyi (Lost Track) Boxing that is attributed to the legendary Huo Yunjia. I am not even certain whether this kata exists outside of Kim's school on Ninjutsu. I have however, had a lot of fun learning it and have started practicing it again. With the details about Ninjutsu having become even more uncertain in this day and age than how they were 40 years ago I doubt that anyone is able to say for certain exactly how Ninjas used to fight in the 17th Century. What I am certain of, however, is that these techniques do not seem like fighting techniques used by Japanese warriors at the time. I c...

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 ...

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.....

Hello, everyone. How are things in your country? Is your dojo open? Are you training at home? If you are a student living in a country under lockdown like ours, I am sure you have a lot that you can do. The number of things that you can practice at home is virtually unlimited with online classes and instructional videos abounding. I am also sure that if you are studying an art like Karate you have enough forms to practice anyway. Plus- many of those exercises that you normally have to do in the dojo can be done at home. If you are a teacher, however, you may feel derailed now. You had this or that competition lined up for the next month, maybe a grading around the corner... Now those plans have been derailed, right? So- what is left to do? Well... How about teaching martial arts? :) But- you may ask in disbelief- what have we been doing all this time? Sure- you have been teaching martial arts. Most likely it was the syl...

Hello, everyone! I hope you have also had a good morning's workout and that you are having an awesome weekend. Today I am at the last post in a series of posts that got written for my friend Nicolas in the U.S.. Nicolas loves sword-fighting and is into HEMA and Lightsabre League battles. Even though weapons training is not a big thing with me I do practice with weapons on Saturday mornings. To me, however, it is more of a physical workout than training for an actual fight using the weapon. That does not mean that I do not practice fighting techniques at all. So- how does one get a physical workout while practicing fighting techniques? Well... One way is with forms! In the previous posts we have looked at some exercises that are also basic attack and defense moves. We can string all these together in a single pattern that can get practiced regularly. This way our bodies get used to doing all the movements that we need it to do when we use the sword. Here is our form f...