The self-defence applications derived from those postures became known throughout China and Asia as Shaolin boxing. Over the centuries, Shaolin boxing split into hundreds of different boxing styles and influenced the development of every major fighting style in Asia. Over the years, through mishap or natural selection, many of these smaller styles were lost. Swanda is one such small, family style which restricted its students and, as a result, was brought very nearly to extinction around the turn of the century. Fortunately, circumstances delivered the Swanda System from Chinese hands into Japanese hands and, finally, into American hands, but throughout its travels, the System has been carefully cherished and personally protected by its students and guardians. Swanda Karate One was officially brought into being in the UK in 1979, with schools in USA and Great Britain.
Swanda is an eclectic karate system which traces its roots back to China in 225 A.D. There, a Chinese physician named Hua T'o created a series of exercises based on animal movements. The warrior monks of the Shaolin Temple practiced the refined these movements of animals and elements, and called them the Eighteen Lo-Han Postures.
Swanda is an eclectic karate system which traces its roots back to China in 225 A.D. There, a Chinese physician named Hua T'o created a series of exercises based on animal movements. The warrior monks of the Shaolin Temple practiced the refined these movements of animals and elements, and called them the Eighteen Lo-Han Postures.
