Wen Hsiu Quan

"So there are five ways of knowing who will win. Those who know when to fight and when not to fight are victorious. Those who discern when to use many or few troops are victorious. Those whose upper and lower ranks have the same desire are victorious. Those who face the unprepared with preparation are victorious. Those whose generals are able and not constrained by their governments are victorious. These are the five ways to know who will win." - Sun Tzu- Art of War Who is up for some ancient Chinese wisdom? I think this generation of martial artists desperately need some just to ensure that the martial arts of today are not all about tournaments, planking, plyometrics, sports science, nutrition, cage fighting and hardcore entrance music. Did I leave anything out? Well- I guess you know what I am talking about. I can remember when I read a remark by one of China's famous martial arts teachers in the 1970's in which he said that students have come to call ...

Hi, everyone. This week I have gotten started on a new book that I could have read much earlier, but now finally got down to reading. That book, my friends, is the famed Bhagavad Gita. Sun Tzu's Art of War and Lao Tze's Taode Qing are actually very thin and make for relative easy reading. If you manage to get your hands on Musashi's Book of Five Rings you can find yourself finishing it within a month. The Baghavad Gita, on the other hand, is a montsrous volume of approximately 500 pages. The copy I have contains commentaries and translations that raise this number to over a 1 000 pages. Yes- It is a lot to read. One of the main protagonists in this book's story is a man called Arjuna. Now- if you are like me who does not know anything about Hinduism whatsoever you might never have heard of him, but since he is a close friend of Lord Krishna I am certain that the followers of the Hindu faith know very well who he is. Here is a bit of what I have ...

 I have started my Saturday morning training sessions with a bit of shuriken throwing, just because it is fun. I have found that it is also a nice warm-up for the mind to get energy focused before one goes on to the punching and kicking of the day. As these photos show, the grouping that I got with the shaken (not shaken, but shah-ken, don't make me want to make you shine... :D) looks really cool. These hits got made with the same motions of the hand and wrist. Theory would have it that if I stand in exactly the same posture and flick my hand and wrist exactly the same way with each throw the projectile would hit exactly the same spot, right? Well... that is not how things normally work out, isn't it? Does anyone remember Ian Malcolm in the first Jurassic Park movie? He had the perfect explanation for this phenomenon. I am no mathematician, but we can accept the gist of the explanation that the posture and movements we use are not the only factors ...

Sun Tzu wrote in the Art of War wrote "If you know yourself you have one third's chance at victory. If you know yourself and your enemy you have two thirds' chance at victory. If you know yourself, the enemy and the battlefield victory is certain." All good and simple until you realise that the time at which you will know all 3 of the above shall very rarely occur. What it tells us about tournaments- where we can leave the battlefield out of the equation since we can safely assume that both fighters would know it ( fighting area, rules etc.) it means that your chances in a tournament should be 50/50 right? Well... if only the outcome of fights or sparring matches hinged on knowledge alone... The fact remains, where fighting is concerned, victory is seldom if ever guaranteed...  This is not only true for fighting, but for many areas in life. Growth, be it in financial investments, business or our personal lives, require the taki...

I don't know about you, but I like stability. I like a set routine and I like having friends stay with me for as long as they can. We have possessions to which we hold on and relatives that we cherish. Still- we live in a changing world. When the changes in this world involve friends moving away, relatives dying or treasured possessions being lost we feel unhappy. Our natural mindset is to resist this kind of adverse change and we find that the longer it takes us to accept it the longer it takes for us to move on.   Kata, Taolu, Randori  or any form of set practice in martial arts feels comfortable when it has become familiar to you. We know, however, that a good kata performer is not necessarily a good fighter. The reason for this, of course, is because fights are dynamic. Your opponent's timing is not always in sync with yours (although Aikidoka strive to have you synchronise your timing with that of your opponent) and positions, attacks and de...

When I am not practicing martial arts- I am at work. I find my occupation as a litigation attorney quite suitable to my personality as a martial artist and have applied the principles that I have learnt through not only training, but also education in martial philosophy, with great success. Most recently I have met a fellow litigant in Court who got sent to court with a file on which he has no knowledge of his clients' instructions, but only had his employer's instructions to proceed with the motion. It has also happened before where my employer instructed me to fight and I ended up wanting to settle. Because of the above I have a strong dislike in lawyers who consult with their clients only to hand the work over to candidates or support staff. That is not necessarily where the fault lies, though. If we look at what Master Sun is saying the problem is ignorance, not handing over of work or giving of instructions. In a one-on-one fight knowing what yo...

First- before I start- Watch this video: https://web.facebook.com/chesterlawrence.delfino/videos/851975431603756/ This video has nothing to do with today's post. It has to do with a lot of us, me included, being martial artists, but not being in control of the world. Why I am talking about this is that a lot of "life coaches", charlatans and bottom feeding opportunists have identified this desire in all of us to be our own bosses, to become a director at the company where your managers barely seem to notice you or to just wear the pants in your own house. These people go out and feed us all this feel good crap like- "be confident!", "be the alpha male", don't take no for an answer" and crap like that. Then- after the seminar these kids go out into the real world and get their asses kicked. I, myself, have for instance developed an effective countermove for people who don't take "no" for an answer. It is called "fuck...

The principles referred to in the piece of Taoist scripture below have wide application. I have seen it used in Karate, Taijiquan (perhaps the foremost Taoist art in existence) and even in the tactical aspects of Shaolin Kungfu. It is a universal law that can be tested and relied on. Martial arts are usually not based on only one or two of these rules, but the rules themselves are interconnected. When I was working on developing Zanshindo (what later on became Wenhsiuquan) the main underlying principal was awareness. Sensory acuity coupled with prompt, effective response. I have found that Zanshindo has turned out to be mainly a defensive style and must admit that I have neglected attacking back then. When I became able to strike a balance between being able to defend effectively while also being able to launch quick, decisive attacks I have decided to use those techniques that best suit this purpose. In my way of teaching I tend to point out more than ofte...

I have been enjoying Dragonball Super for quite a while now. One character who is experiencing tremendous changes for the better at the moment is Vegeta. This proud Saiyan Prince has been plagued by being surpassed by Goku for years now. Now- we see a new Vegeta that is not only stronger than Goku (for the time being-lol), but who has changed a lot with the help of their new teacher Whis. The first huge change is that Vegeta got humble. This humility started with him begging Whis to take him as a student. Whis takes the whole humility thing even further by having him do household chores.  This may seem weird and comical, but pride is actually a huge obstacle in one's progress in the martial arts. One of the martial art's master's greatest assets is the ability to do what is needed without hesitation. This requires firstly that one can clearly perceive what needs to be done and then the ability to act on that knowledge. What gets in the way ...

Some of you may have heard this story before: An elephant walked into a village. It attracted a lot of attention from the villagers who all stopped what they were doing to go and look at this unusual animal. Five of the town's blind were taken to the elephant so that they could touch it and get an idea of what such an animal is.  The one who had a feel of a tusk got the idea that the elephant was a spear. The one who got to feel its leg thought that an elephant is a tree and so forth... Now- any one of these blind persons could start at any part of the elephant and get a different first impression, but after working his/her way through all the other parts they could get an idea of what the whole elephant is like. In martial arts- combat is the elephant. Each system that has been developed to date is the result of a certain perspective on fighting or even a result of the study of a certain aspect or aspects thereof.   If you have recently taken up...