Wen Hsiu Quan

Very soon my number 1 Japanese friend and Senpai Miki Yamaguchi is going to grade for her Nidan, or Second Degree Black Belt for those of you who do not do Karate. We have spoken a lot about her training and what is required of her in the upcoming grading for the last two months now. One thing that comes up with every conversation is how much work her Senseis (yes- she trains with at least 3 every week!) say there needs to be done on her kihon or basics. Now- Karate and Kung Fu people can relax- I am not talking to you now. We know very well why this is important. To those, however, that are quick to say that it is useless to spend time on these "fixed forms" and "rigid techniques" and probably also that they won't work in the cage or- yeah, you know it, on the street- I think there is something you should know about original Asian martial arts. You see- the number 1 thing that I got reminded of quite recently is that the bodies a...

Anyone who goes out to give any kind of demonstration of any aspect of a martial art is liable to run into this- The What If Game! In itself it is not such a bad thing- as this video shows, by playing the What If Game you at least get the chance to train yourself to block knife attacks in a manner that does not result in you getting your wrists slit... What I hate, however, is that person who refuses to come up with any solution, but who is very quick at finding reasons to fail.  Well- experience in martial arts in many cases include experience with these people. As a student- you can simply refrain from demonstrating anything outside the dojo. Instructors and assistant instructors, however, HAVE to stick their necks out and expose themselves to the risk of getting a question or comment from someone skilled in the What If Game.  So: I have decided to share with you some responses that have served me well thus far: 1. "Becoming the Enemy"  ...

This post ties in with the one from last week in which I have discussed how the Law of Attraction, as taught by Rhonda Byrne in her well-known book, The Secret, works in martial arts. From what I have experienced in Nei Kung and Ninjutsu this is not a strange concept to the martial arts. I would be the first to advise against misplaced confidence and foolish optimism. If you think that this is what I am teaching you are misunderstanding the entire purpose of these two posts. Your current reality remains something with which you have to deal as long as it exists. The mindset with which you handle it, though, plays a huge part in what happens next. Rhonda Byrne explained how the Law of Attraction works in terms of emotional as well as material things that enter into our lives. After experimenting a bit I have found the following: Just as a victory instills a feeling of confidence and comfort in fighting, so a feeling of confidence and calmness before a fight can l...

Hi everyone, I don't know how many of you practice internal arts, so I don't know if anyone can relate when I say that I have been experiencing a real good internal balance lately with qi flowing strong and freely. I have found that my iron shirt skill is actually coming on nicely now and that I move a lot easier and faster nowadays. All in all- I am in a good mood. I realise with today's post that this blog is actually approaching the end of its lifespan. The topic on which I am writing actually belongs to a class of things that I reserve for advanced students, but I still think it is good to write this post as it is both true and useful. If you have seen the movie Kung Fu Dunk (starring Jay Chou who was also Kato in the most recent Green Hornet movie) you will remember that Shi Jie's first master tried to perform an esoteric type of Kung Fu called "Altering the Universe". In Ninjutsu the kuji-kiri hand form Zai is also said to mean "contro...

So- I follow this Wing Chun group on Facebook and every now and then I get some really weird posts from them. By now I am used to the MMA type videos where people have added long range kicks and grappling to make Wing Chun more suitable for tournament fighting- or for fighting martial artists from other styles... This particular video you see above was particularly weird, though. This is not even Wing Chun. The person who posted the video says that this particular technique comes from a Chinese martial art called Wu Shan. Apparently, this strange footwork technique is called "Riding the Dragon" and it seems to have been meant to take you to your opponent over a space of 21 feet or 6.4 metres in our measuring standard. First thing that came to my mind when I saw the video was the stepping punch (oi zuki) of Japanese Karate's Tatsuya Naka. Not only was this punch used in demonstrations, but also been in 2 movies. Youtube has these two clips of him that I was able ...

Hi! You know by now that Wenhsiuquan is Kungfu that has a lot of Karate in it, right? Well- technically... Names are just names, but it helps to know that much of Wenhisuquan's technique comes from Karate while about equally as much comes from Kungfu. That is not where it stops, though. Wenhsiuquan is not made up of fighting techniques. Just like Kungfu- it has its own specialised training exercises too. I have found that no matter what style you like to study- you could do well to take Shaolin's exercises with you and try them out. The one exercise that I have found useful for not only making my legs more flexible, but also to give my kicks that extra snap is an exercise called "Lohan Kicks Oranges". Yes- it is weird that the name of a Kung Fu technique always has to be a sentence... The exercise works like this: Standing upright with your feet shoulder width apart with your arms spread out, palms down... you kick the left palm with the right foo...

Hi, everyone! This week's blog post is really late, isn't it?  The reason for that is quite good. For once I have spent a Saturday away from my computer with my best friend and the nicest kids I know. That was a Saturday well-spent.  Today's post might not make sense to a lot of modern day martial artists or martial arts fans as I see that training these days is all about plyomentrics, explosive power training, sparring and so forth. Well- I guess it gets the job done if the job is being a good athlete. To me, however, martial arts are about the improvement of the human condition. The fighting techniques we learn are not the only useful part there is to a martial art.  Shaolin Kungfu we know started at almost the same time as Zen Buddhism in China. Buddhist monks are known for staying away from violence. The monks of our favourite temple in the Songshan mountains in Northern China are no different. For them- the fighting and martial training that...