I’ve been so busy with work and life that I have not had a chance to blog too much recently. This might continue to be the case until the end of February when I return from Hong Kong and start school.
Anyway, my most recent training session with the Shaanxi Wushu Team was pretty good. When I got there I noticed a whole new crop of young athletes walking in to the wushu guan. I later found out that they were all from the northern part of Shaanxi Province – a smaller town called Yan’an (延安). You can see it on the map here:
View Yan’an in a larger map
They were combined with some of our younger athletes and put on the SW carpet with Coach Zhang’s assistant who ran them through a whole lot of basics. Pretty much most of their class was basics, with just a bit at the end working on sections. Based on their wushu I would say they are a bit rough around the edges but have some potential. Its all in the details, after all.
I was told they will be in Xi’an training with us for a month. There are about 12 or 15 of them, ranging from the low to high teens. About 70% boys. Should be fun to see them progress over time.
For my own class there were 8 of us in Coach Zhang’s group. I was in a line with 3 other nanquan folks and surprisingly I made it through basics without too many problems. I’m chocking it up to a good workout game of keep-away that worked up a nice sweat.
After nandu we did combinations – about 16 lines of them – and then switched to sections. I focused primarily on my 3rd section, as that is the one I’ve been reworking. I’m happy to say that I just about have it figured out. Well … almost. We’ll see how long this lasts. I never seem satisfied with my choreography – mainly because I’m never satisfied that what I have choreographed is the best possible combination for my particular style of wushu. The coach seemed to like this new version so we’ll see if it sticks.
Sections went on for quite a while. I probably did about 8 – 10 sections before I had to stop. But the other folks just kept on going. Very 努力. I went over to visit with Xiao Yu who was working (i.e. chatting with someone) on the side. She said she will go to the hospital in the afternoon to get an x-ray on her leg, along with one of the Taiji athletes.
She also said she is still waiting to hear from the coaches about the cost of training, so still waiting on that information as well … But one neat thing that happened is that I had asked her what the possibility of having some of my friends come to watch the Team train and she said I could bring them any time. Pretty neat. So I’m going to try and arrange an outing for some of my friends in Xi’an who have never seen wushu to check out what it is all about. I’m sure it will blow their socks off. Perhaps next Wednesday would be a good day, since I’m not training then.
After class I headed out and took the bus home. Ruhi is sick at home right now so I made some soup and worked a bunch from home.
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