Due to a busy schedule and some negligence on my own part, I didn’t have time to post up a blog about yesterday’s wushu class. So I’m going to cover two days with this one blog.
Monday (1/25)
But first I should mention that Friday Ruhi was feeling under the weather so I stayed home from Wushu to take care of her (Soup Making Skills courtesy of Shahaub’s Father). So when Monday came around I hadn’t actually trained since the previous Wednesday. Again, taking that much time off means two things: First, my body will have recovered a bit and I will feel stronger. Second, the day after I will be sore as heck.
But due to some drama in the Taiji group at the beginning of class I ended up getting a bit of a light workout. In fact, for a few minutes after my group had done some of their basics, they were all told to go back to their rooms so I joined in with the kids from northern Shaanxi for a few lines of basics. But then my group came back so I joined back in with them.
We mainly did some combination training and I kept working out the kinks in my 3rd section. But since the coach had to take off and there wasn’t really anyone there to oversee things, it eventually turned in to a wushu hangout session. Zhang Yang and Xiao Yu were doing some stuff with a spear while Yuan Ming practiced Qin Na techniques on all of the other boys. (How to get out of a full nelson, etc.)
The other thing that was interesting was that there was a new guy with the Taiji group. A taller, somewhat overweight young man who I found out was a son of a teacher and was learning some Taiji. “Now you aren’t the biggest one in the room” one of my training partners told me.
There goes my special-ness. 
Tuesday (1/26)
This week I’m trying to increase the number of workouts so I will be training 4 mornings (Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri) with the team. So the next day, sore body and all, I headed out to the wushu guan for some more torture.
I have never actually been there on a Tuesday or Thursday morning before so I was curious if it was any different than the other days.
Not so much.
One thing is that today was a weapon’s practice day for most of my group. With the exception of Xiao Yu and the young NQ guy, the rest of us did weapons.
After basics I spent my time working on nangun and getting down my new choreography. I would practice for a while off to the side until I felt like I had it down, and then I would join in on the sections. They did 6 or 8 single sections and then a half set at the end. I practiced my first section, with emphasis on the opening, and then fine tuned my second section.
One of the things I had to do today was ask Zhang Laoshi about having some friends come to visit to watch a practice. Charisse and James were interested in checking out the “professional” athletes, so I asked him at the end of class. He said he would tell me later on. Then I saw him walk over to Han Laoshi (Taolu Head Coach) and ask him. He came up a little later and said it would be okay.
So, that also means I will probably be able to get a little bit of video on Thursday. I’ve been focusing more on my own practice these days so I haven’t been taking much footage of the classes. Not really since January 1, actually. But if all goes well (and my wife doesn’t mind) I should have some more footage on Thursday or Friday. Cross your fingers.
The other thing I did today was talk to Han Laoshi about the cost for people to train here. I’ve had a couple requests from folks to know what was involved in training with the Shaanxi Wushu Team, so I have been putting out some feelers. But it has been a little slow-going so I had to go straight to the big dog today. He asked me to write some stuff up for him and then he will let me know, but according to Xiao Yu, he is slow as molasses and it takes him a while to respond to requests for information. Hope it is before I leave for Hong Kong on the 7th!
And, just because I have zero wushu-related media on the blog today, I’ll leave you with this random photo from my past:
L-R: Sun Jian Ming, Wu Bin, Jet Li, Liu Xiao Lei, Cui Ya Hui, Qiu Hui Fang (January 20, 2006, Beijing, Huo Yuan Jia (aka “Fearless”) Chinese Premiere)
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Hey Mark,
Off-topic, but do you have any information on training with the Guangdong, Guangxi or Tianjin teams?
Thanks,
Ronald
I don’t have any first-hand information on those teams, although I know people who have either trained with them or are on the teams. But I don’t really know much about the specific situations for each.
Sorry!
- Mark
A Jet Li Retrospective would be awesome!
Yeah, I was on Jetli.com like every day back in 2001/2002. I remember the updates on Kiss of the Dragon and all the photos, haha, reading all those old essays you translated and posted.
What was your user name on jetli.com?
Oh man, Jet is the reason I started wushu. I had ONE chance to meet him when he was at San Francisco’s Metreon signing copies of his videogame, “Rise to Honor”, but I found out about the signing the day after because I lacked internet to check Jet’s website (your website, haha) the previous day. So sad. My epic fail moment.
I know what you mean. Jet was the reason I started wushu too. In fact, I remember back around 2002 or so we posted a question on the jetli.com forums asking how many people had been influenced to take martial arts as a result of watching Jet Li and 90% of the people who were studying martial arts said yes. (Of course, it was jetli.com so the percentage is bound to be pretty high.)
I remember the Rise to Honor event. I was there snapping pictures and following him around for the website. Hmm .. I might even have a photo or two from that event lying around. I’ll have to put up a “Jet Li Retrospective” blog one of these days with a few of the interesting stories about my time working for him…
Once I finish up my Wushu Retrospective of course …