Wen Hsiu Quan

Hello again, everyone and welcome back to my breakdown of this form. Today's movement from this form I got from Taijiquan, which, by the way, has really awesome grappling moves. In the book the movement is shown like this: In Taijiquan this move is known as "Snake Creeps Down. I found a demonstration of the movement on Youtube to show you how it looks in most Taijiquan forms. The application of this movement is really awesome and very simple to pull off once you have figured out the mechanics thereof. For me- just knowing the taught application of a movement is not enough. I have to know how I would use it in a fight as it is a given that you have to make any technique you learn your own in order for it to work under pressure. The simplest application I got was against a straight reverse punch.  With this response I do not start by moving into the opponent, but rather turn my body as I guide the punching hand past me and firm...

I remember surfing Youtube for Karate videos one day some years ago. That was when I found this video: The application of the knife hand block in this rendition of Shotokan's Heian Nidan as a leg throw has changed my life. In my form the movement starts with Taijiquan's Lute Playing Posture being used as a ready posture or as Karate people would call it- a kamae.  When I made the demo gif I decided to use a more natural feeling back stance kamae. The kamae in the form was inspired by the character Wang Jinrei of the Tekken games. Whether you use the back stance or lute playing stance does not matter. The movement starts by redirecting the opponent's punch inward. Then you place your lead leg against the outside of the opponent's lead leg and sweep outward with the blocking arm. The main reason for this move working in this scenario is that your leg is against the outside of your opponent's leg. Regardless of what hand your opponent actually punch...

Although I started my martial arts journey with Judo as a kid I have only begun learning to do proper throws after I have taken up Karate. As soon as I have learnt about what cool things you can do once you got yourself firmly rooted into the ground I felt like the secret to limitless hidden strength got opened up to me. So- I am not very fond of jumping, standing on the balls of my feet or even bouncing. The first aerial throw I have seen in my life was when I started playing Mortal Kombat II. One of the characters in the game, Kung Lao- had this insane throw that involved him grabbing hold of his opponent as he somersaults over him and then throwing him across the screen as he lands. Cool move as it was- I thought it was completely made up and that it had no basis in actual martial arts. Well- then, many years later, I have found this video on Youtube- The kata in which this move is found is well known to Shotokan students. The most recognisable feature of the kata, ...

I really loved Judo when I was younger. Reason for this was mainly because it was not karate. Back in the 80's and the early 90's everyone knew what karate was. It was so bad that even kungfu got called karate and I think basically every town in the country had a karate club. Judo, however, was not that well known. We did not have a Judo club, but we had a library. That is where my study of Judo started. Learning the throws was fun and seeing how a relatively small person like me could topple larger opponents was even more fun. Still- what I did not know at the time- Judo was not meant to be a complete fighting method. Well- it could be, but the Judo we get taught is mainly meant for a sports setting where your opponent does not come at you with a kick or a weapon and Judoka seem oblivious of things such as combination punches and the like. When I started learning karate I actually learnt a very important lesson in throwing- the importance of stance. In karate we ...