Wen Hsiu Quan

Hello, everyone. :) Recently I have begun teaching someone. As is often the case- this student did not approach me to learn a martial art, but needs to learn to defend himself. Well... self defense is only about a third of what Wenhsiuquan is all about, but I am always happy to share what I know in order to get the word out there. A question that came up in our conversations during lessons was what to do when somebody grabs your leg. It is not the first time I had to answer this question and I think we have the Gracies to thank for that. You see- long before they cake and ruined it for everyone schoolyard fights and barroom brawls had pushing, punching and maybe the odd bit of wrestling. Nowadays, however, a lot of kids watch MMA takedowns and now choke holds and leg takedowns get seen a lot... So... where a lot of us used to learn and rehearse responses to punches, kicks, front grabs and wrist grabs- we now have to know defense against leg takedowns as well. Before I get ...

I'll be frank- I suck at wrestling. When I have learnt Judo I have formed the opinion that throws and take-downs are meant for defense and not for attack at all. That was until I have learnt throws like the one in last week's post and the one in today's post. While I like to catch an opponent's arm and pull him into a hip or shoulder throw the majority of partners with whom I have sparred in a free sparring situation simply does not commit their forward momentum so much into an attack to make the pulling throws like the hip throw or shoulder throw work as well as they do in demonstrations. This take-down, however, works better the more your opponent tries to stand still or retreat. In the form the movement starts in a cat stance with the lead hand going up while the rear hand is chambered like when one is preparing to punch. Then the lead hand swoops down and the rear hand pushes forward as the body shifts forward into a bow/ forward stance. The upper body...