Wen Hsiu Quan

I am back from my gasshuku in the lovely forest area of Graskop and really happy to sit and type yet another blog post. Before I can move on to today's topic I want to mention that those of us who have attended the gasshuku have learnt arm locks, a simple takedown and pressure points. Now- I am no stranger to throws and arm locks, but pressure points were something I have never taken the time to study in depth. What I have learnt on the subject that day shall stay with me forever. Now I want to get to today's topic. The classes at the gasshuku were presented by Sensei John Barnett. Outside the dojo he is a very friendly and cheerful person. His wonderful sense of humour made the lessons a easy to remember. Now- I must mention that Sensei John is a 7th dan member of our shihankai and already past 80. One of the events at the gasshuku- probably the main event- was the obstacle course. Us seniors also had a go at it and Sensei John was right there with us, not ...

You heard me. I am not going to be around to write a post this next weekend. Why, you ask? It is because I am attending a 3 day Gasshuku with classmates and instructors from our local WSKF dojos and some people from dojos in Gauteng Province. I have been practicing alone for years now and truth be told- I have always liked being alone. Still- after a while I realised that spending time with people who are equally interested in any martial art as I am would do me wonders. My time at WSKF has so far been challenging as well as fun. With the championships and gradings behind us for now we can now just get together and have fun. That is exactly what we are going to do next weekend. I wish everyone else a great week ahead. To the people in Martial Arts Forums on G+: Keep those posts coming!

I regard Qigong as a really important part of any kind of martial arts training. I know it is not done in all classes. Some MMA gyms have started doing Yoga, which I can understand. Now that we can observe different styles we have the chance to pick from the best of what we see. The exercises in this post do not take up a lot of time, but are worth starting and ending each training session with. I have decided long ago not to be a Nei Kung specialist. The main reason for that is that the amount of time and training required for that leaves very little for the external training that I like more. These exercises are therefore the most Qigong I do and just about the most time I spend on cultivating Qi. Let's have a look at them: 1. Raising the Sky: I know two versions of this exercise, but the easiest one starts in a relaxed upright stance. Breathing in the palms turn upward as they get raised up to chest level. Still breathing in the palms push...

A lot of good things have happened since I joined our local Shotokan club. For one- I got faster. I also got fitter. I am still working on getting that perfect technique, though. The kihon combinations you see in this video is part of my belt's syllabus. While I can sort of undertand a spinning knife hand block-front kick-spear hand combination that forward inward block-elbow strike to the side-spinning back fist to the front- stepping punch combination still floors me. Maybe it will get better when I relax a bit more. With today's Saturday workout I tested these combinations on the sai and tonfa. The nice thing about training at home is that you can do the stuff you really like and put your own spin on things. Most of the kihon and kata you learn at the dojo is homework, after all. No one said that this homework had to be boring, though.    Train well and have a great week.

Today's footwork technique is found in Karate and Kungfu. I have originally found it in Taijiquan in a sequence of steps called "Push Four Corners". Long before that, however, I have found it in some of Karate's katas. The function of this step is to throw your weight into the punch you deliver. It throws body weight as far forward as possible with as much momentum as possible. The difficult part of this movement is that you end up having only one foot to stop this forward charge from going too far. Judoka can easily exploit the situation of having your weight on your lead foot, so you will most likely find that teachers of Japanese Karate will discourage you from using this step in a fight. Nonetheless- it is a better way to close the gap between your opponent and you than bending your body to reach over to him (or her- I swear I mean either gender whenever I say "him"!)    In my Taijiquan forms I start off with this back-legged stance...

Today's footwork technique ought to look familiar to karate people. The best video I could find about it is Sifu Tony Puyot's video on his Mantis Boxers Youtube channel, though. Ironically, where our Shotokan sensei wants to discourage us from starting to move with the rear foot first, because it is too obvious Sifu Puyot says that it is better to do so , BECAUSE, moving with the front foot first is too obvious. Regardless of what your opinion on this type of step may be, it can't be disputed that it improves your reach with a metre or so. This helps to launch penetrating attacks against an opponent who prefers to retreat out of reach when you attack. Here is the video if you prefer that to text: https://youtu.be/cntomHWi5b4 Let's look at what makes this step effective: 1. You start off at what may feel like a "safe" distance. Opponent may retreat every time he thinks you are advancing... 2. Although not obvious here, the upper bod...

Hello, everyone. I hope you are all well. My Saturday has started off pretty well with what WAS in this bowl! Yep. Life is just wonderful if there is a lovely Chinese woman in your life who makes dumplings for you... :D Besides making dumplings disappear I want to talk to you about one of the techniques the Ninjas use to make them disappear: The Vanishing Step! I play a lot of video games- and this move actually featured in games like Tekken (used by Kunimitsu), Soul Blade (Taki) and Street Fighter EX2 (Doctrine Dark). I actually wanted a sample of Taki or Kunimistu, but ended up finding this Street Fighter sample. https://youtu.be/HSg_p5us7-4 That looks a lot more realistic than what we have seen Goku do in fights like this: https://youtu.be/0w-kOKioMhE Well- the first time I have learnt about this move was from a very short kata called the "Mi Lu" (Lost Track) kata. I am not even 100% sure whether its origins are Chinese or Japanese (because I have nev...