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So, if you couldn’t guess from my Twitter Feed or Facebook or wherever else I have an online presence, I was not able to make it to Hangzhou for the wushu competition. A little bummed about that, but not much that can be done about it.  Instead I’m heading back to Hong Kong for a business trip.  In fact, I am at the Xi’an train station as I write this.

I picked up a 3G USB Wireless Modem at the DianZiGuangChang in Xi’an and signed up for a trial package to see how it works.  The 3G stick includes a slot for my 8GB MicroSD card too, so it acts both as a modem and a memory stick (8GB MicroSD was 115 RMB or around $20 USD).  The USB modem was 320 RMB and I signed up for 3 months of the lowest nation-wide access rate plan, which includes 60 hours of online 3G access each month up to downloads to 15GB.  If this proves to be helpful there are plans that allow for unlimited use.  I think the best deal was unlimited nation-wide use for 2800 RMB / year.  That comes down to around 200-something RMB / month, which is only around 100 RMB more than I’m paying for this plan.

Anyway, the plan is 100 RMB / month but you have to get a 3 month block.  So I paid 300 RMB for that.  Around 735 RMB all together.  Not too bad.  I have 3 months of 3G wireless access for a little more than $100 USD.

The other reason I got this was because next month (assuming this works well) I’m planning on attending the Duilian competition being held in Tianjin.  Yeah, it isn’t your normal wushu competition, but I feel bad about not attending this one so at least I can provide some interesting duilian footage from Tianjin.  I hope to Tweet from the competition too and if that works well, then you can be sure that, come Nationals in the fall, I will be there with my laptop giving you the up-to-the-minute play-by-play.  Will even try to post some pictures from the event too, if possible.  And even video, you ask?  Well, who knows?  That is entirely possible.

I’ll keep this short.  I have more stuff to blog that I’m a little behind on, but I’ll save that for when I am able to plug in my computer.

BTW, I’m putting together an FAQ here on wushuzilla so that all of the (constantly repeating) questions I get will be searchable through the website.  You can ask a question here if you want it included:

Wyyc asked an interesting question on wushuzilla.com that got me thinking.  Here it is:

Anyway, I met a former [professional wushu athelte] recently who coached me on Nanquan. He was talking about the years he spent training and how he began to hate Wushu by his 16th year in it. He said training was extremely bitter and at the time they could train up to 4 times a day, which I think isn’t the case now from your posts about the Shanxi team’s schedule. What I wanna know is, are most of the Shanxi team members like that? Having done Wushu for so long and under such conditions, have they grown to hate it?

Jet’s Generation

The issue of Chinese athletes “hating” wushu is something that I’ve come across quite a bit in the past.  Especially when I was working for Jet.  I don’t think it is any huge mystery that Jet doesn’t actually care that much for wushu; he’s stated it publicly in the past so I’m not dropping any bombs. (That isn’t to say he doesn’t appreciate it and all it has provided for him in his life, or that he thinks it is “bad” in and of itself.  Just that he isn’t that fond of it anymore.)  And I think that, with athletes of his generation, this is a fairly common sentiment.

Put yourself in their shoes.  You are going along you way at the age of 8 and suddenly someone tells you that you are going to spend all your spare time (and some of your school time) going to a hall with carpets and being forced to endure hard physical exercise for extended periods of time with no rest.  You weren’t asked.  You were ordered.

Maybe at first it is interesting, but that wears off pretty quickly once you realize that there is no end in sight.  Hard, hard manual labor and you start to develop a resentment towards it.  Even later on in life when you start to receive accolades or do well in competition, you don’t really enjoy it because you realize that doing well in wushu is only the natural result of having worked so incredibly hard for so long.  If anyone was forced to do what you had been forced to do, they would also be just as good.

After 15 years of hard, daily, excruciating work, you come out the other side never wanting to do or see wushu again.  The only problem is that now you are stuck since it is the only skill set you have developed over your entire life and it is what you are best at.  In fact, you are one of the best at it in the world.  So you get a job coaching or doing films and continue to have a dual resentment/reliance relationship with wushu.

But this is really just a generalization.  This experience isn’t true for all athletes.  In fact, for just as many athletes you have in China, you are going to have just as many perspectives on wushu.  No one’s feelings for wushu are exactly like anyone else’s.

Difference in Generations

But as a generalization, I think it is interesting that the athletes of the earlier generations compared with the athletes of the current generations have a somewhat different perspective on wushu.

Back when Jet was a kid, he wasn’t inspired to study wushu by watching “Shaolin Temple”.  There was no “World Wushu Competition” he could aspire towards.  No videos of great competitors to get inspired by.  Heck, back when he first started training there wasn’t even a Chinese Nationals Yet.

By comparison, when you ask a lot of the athletes from the 90′s or the 21st century what their motivation for wanting to do wushu is, they will tell you “Jet Li” or “Shaolin Temple”.  I remember Li Jing told me that she wanted to study wushu after watching “Shaolin Temple” and Wu Di told me that his motivation for learning wushu came from wanting to fly like the people in the movies.

When those athletes started training, there was already a system of regional, youth, national, provincial and international competitions in place that they could aspire towards.  There was a history of established wushu athletes that they could look at for inspiration and motivation.

One of the things that can inspire and motivate someone to endure hard circumstances is their personal “light at the end of the tunnel”.  If you are a kid and you see no “out” from your situation — no light, so to speak — then how much would you learn to dislike what you are doing?

There is a saying that too much of a good thing is not good for you.  Certainly too much training in wushu can wear a person down if they don’t have any other underlying motivation for being there other than “because I have no options” or “because I have to”.

Today’s Athletes

The current generation has a little more choice in the matter about their training.  There are some other options available if they chose them, but many who train feel that wushu is the best opportunity for them, so they stay with it.  They aren’t “forced” to train like previous generations, but there is still a very strong pressure for them to continue with what they are doing.  But at least, to some degree, they have a choice.

I’m not saying that the training isn’t hard or that they don’t have bouts of “this sucks” with their situation.  But at the end of the day they don’t feel as much of a  lack of freedom that previous generations felt, and that does a lot for lightening one’s mood with relationship to “hating” wushu.

But like I said — everyone is different.  No two people are going to deal with a situation the same way, and even thought I’m generalizing things about the state of Chinese athletes, I feel it is important to keep in mind that not all athletes fall in to a specific category of attitudes.

Asking Athletes in Shaanxi

During today’s class with the Shaanxi Wushu Team I thought I would make some inquiries and ask the athletes a few questions about why they started training and what they felt about wushu.  Here is what I learned:

Yue Xiao Yu said that she started doing wushu because her mother liked wushu and wanted her to do it.  It wasn’t something she was interested and during that first class she literally kicked and screamed not to be there.

When I asked her if she liked wushu today she said “no, I don’t like it” (which I thought was interesting since, as you will recall from our bike buying trip, she stated that she did like it).  She said that if she had a choice she would not train in wushu.  And when I asked her why she continues training if she doesn’t want to be there she answered “because my mother wants me to do wushu”.

I asked her if this was a common sentiment of the people in our group and she said that out of 10 athletes, probably 7 of them don’t like training.  So I asked her who the ones in our group that liked wushu were and she said Yuan Min and pointed to another kid who trained with us (you can see him in this video at 0:40).

I thought it might be good to ask someone even younger, since they might not have the same perspective, so I went to go talk to Xin Rui, the little nanquan kid, and the young chang quan girl that trains with us (you can see her at 0:56 in the middle row in this video).  Xin Rui started training from his own interest.  He was a huge fan of Bruce Lee and wanted to learn real “gong fu”.  The girl said that her father was a wushu teacher and so she had to go in to the “family business”, so to speak.  Both of them said that they found training in wushu very tiring, but that for the most part they were okay with the experience.

I asked them that, if they really didn’t want to be there would they be able to leave, but I think they might have misunderstood me.  They said that, if they didn’t do well they would be told to go home.  That makes me think that, perhaps they don’t even consider quitting their training as an option.  Certainly, they must receive a lot of pressure from both their coaches, teachers and the other athletes to persevere.

Next I wandered over to Yuan Min.  Since Xiao Yu mentioned him as one of the athletes that like wushu I thought he might have a different perspective.

“Do you like training in wushu?” I asked.

“No” he answered.

“Really?  But Xiao Yu said you like wushu.” I asked.

“I like wushu.  But I don’t like training.  It is too tiring.” he replied.

Ah.  That is an interesting distinction that I hadn’t thought about.  Back in the U.S., if someone likes wushu, that probably means they like training in wushu.  But in China those two aspects of your relationship with wushu can be different.

I asked him why he started training in wushu and he said that it was because he wasn’t any good in school.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes, but after training for one year I was at the top of my class in school (3rd grade).” he clarified.  ”From training in wushu I learned what it meant to eat bitter (persevere through difficulties) and I was able to focus in school.”

Well, there is an argument for putting your kids in wushu if I ever heard one.  (Or any sports for that matter.)

He went on to explain that the reason he keeps training is because it is his job.  He needs to make a living and this is what he does.  But, he explained, if he could have a job where he got paid to just watch wushu, that would be ideal.  Because it isn’t that he doesn’t like wushu.  It is just that he doesn’t like the difficult training.

Some pretty interesting information.  A little bit later as I was sitting and stretching next to a few other young male athletes I asked a 14 year old (the one sitting next to us in this video at :05) the same questions.  He also stated a general dislike of wushu training, but that he doesn’t mind wushu itself. (Of course, he had just gotten back from a 55 minute run, so that might have been part of it.)  He had been training for 3 years and was also from Dong Ming, Shandong.  (Apparently 5 or 6 atheltes who were training at the facility are from Dong Ming.)

So, it wasn’t exactly formal research, but it was interesting to hear their personal thoughts on wushu.

Final Thoughts

I’ve met other athletes that hate wushu.  And I’ve met current athletes that love wushu.  And I’ve met a ton of athletes that fall somewhere in between.  How a person deals with their situation is up to them, and whether or not you love to train, or hate to train, or whether you love wushu or late wushu, has more to do with who you are as an individual than it does about the state of wushu or the state of training in wushu.

Thanks for the question and I hope this was helpful!

On a training note, it was only an hour of self-training today so most of the athletes just sort of did their own thing (I did 80 mabu/gong bus, a bunch of pushups and walked through my nanquan and nangun forms to reinforce choreography).  The reason for the light practice  is that they have a big test tomorrow.  In the morning and in the afternoon they will have a wushu testing session and they need to be ready for that.

What does a wushu testing session entail?  I have no idea.  Unfortunately I will not be there so I can’t tell you what happens. But hopefully the next time one comes around I will be on hand to give you a report.

Next class: Monday morning

I have set up a wushuzilla.com hotline number, just for members.  You can get the number in the members section if you would like to call me up.

I actually have a purpose for getting the number, but until that purpose is actualized you can just call and enjoy the fact that you have a way to contact someone in China (not that you didn’t already, but isn’t a phone way cooler than “e-mail”?).

Go ahead!  Give me a call!

Once again it is time for another installment of “Ask the ‘Zilla”. I got quite a few questions in the past week so here are my attempts to answer them. Please note that I am not an expert in anything and that my opinions are only that — opinions. I reserve the right to be complete wrong.

First a few quick questions before we get to the meaty ones…

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What part does videographing these practice sessions [have] in their training?  I would think that seeing one`s performance would be a wonderful training tool.  Are you the only one doing it at this point?

Actually, they aren’t recording themselves much at all. Not all athletes do that and to be honest, the class structure isn’t really set up for that sort of thing. You are usually running around and doing stuff so much that there isn’t time to set up a camera and/or have someone specifically in charge of filming.  Plus, they practice soooo much, and are making distinctions in their wushu on such a regular basis, that doing a daily or weekly recording isn’t necessarily representative over the long run.

I have noticed that some teams do record themselves though — or even some specific athletes. I know that Wu Di would record himself quite a bit to review his form (and occasionally post them online) and I suppose it really depends on the athlete.

When I was in Shandong I recorded some of the athletes during a nandu testing session and gave a copy of the VCD to the coaches. They seemed appreciative, but since they didn’t film it themselves they probably didn’t feel it was a necessary thing to have.  Otherwise — they would have done it, right?

And I’ve seen teams record themselves before a tournament while they do a mock run-through of their forms.  I would wager that most coaches probably reserve that sort of thing for a time closer to competition.

So, long answer short: I don’t really know. hahahaha.

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I like the music used.  Is there a Chinese genre for Taiji music?  CDs etc?

I believe they use music that is already available. There isn’t really a “genre” per se, but they do tend to use music with a traditional Chinese feel to it. I believe the only rule is that the music you use when doing your forms (and for changquan too) can’t have any vocals — it has to be instrumental. Other than that, I think they usually just end up buying a lot of Chinese movie soundtrack music.

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A good friend of mine … is likely to spend 6 or more months in Shanghai, I was just wondering if you can give me a brief list of schools you know there, prices, and maybe just a sentence or two as a review?

Well, keep in mind that I haven’t trained in Shanghai for a couple years. But when I was there there were three main places you could train with professional athletes, and a few that you could train with kids.

I also can’t really give much information on prices since a lot of that depends on so many variables it is problematic at best. Generally the longer term the better.

I have also set up a Google Map with the relative locations of each school so that you can get their aproximate distance from the center of Shanghai.

View Wushu Schools in Shanghai in a larger map

Shanghai University of Sports (Dark Blue in the Upper Right)

I’ve visited a few times and know a few athletes and foreigners who have trained there.  Everything I heard is that the training is good, even though you are stuck way out in the boonies (but not as far out as Ruida).  Some good athletes (wei jian) have come from there so it can’t be all bad.

Pros: Good training facilities, easier to apply and get in to (foreigner friendly-ish), good level of athletes (i.e. Wei Jian)
Cons: Far from Shanghai Proper, a lot of foreigners there sometimes

Shanghai Sports Vocational College (Red towards the bottom middle)
(Formerly the Shanghai School of Sports and Exercise Science)

This is where I trained for a year and a half, so it has a soft spot in my heart.  I used to live a few blocks from the school so I became very familiar with the neighborhood.  I was very happy with my experience there and enjoyed it immensely.

Pros: Good training facilities, great coaches and athletes (i.e. Yang Yu Hong), closer to the city
Cons: Harder to get in to train sometimes

Shanghai Ruida School (Green Dot on the far left)
(Formerly Qing Pu)

I haven’t been here, but I’ve heard a lot about it and know a few athletes and foreigners who have gone there.  It kinda fell out a few years back but I think the name changed helped because it seems to be doing much better these days. (based on completely circumstantial evidence, mind you.)

Pros: Training Facilities, professional athletes
Cons: Sooooo far from Shanghai but with Line 9 of the subway you can at least get most of the way there now.

Fudan University (Dark Purple Upper Right)

I only mention this school because Wei Jian is teaching there and Xu Ming Hu told me he would be there as well.  That leads me to believe that they have a wushu training facility on campus although I know nothing about it.  Might be worth checking out though, especially if you are a straightsword or spear person.

Pros: Wei Jian, One of the top universities in China (if you care)
Cons: Beats me.  I’ve never trained there.

Now we are getting in to the realm of Children’s wushu schools …

Shanghai Wushu Yuan (Turquoise in the middle)

Smack dab in the middle of Shanghai (literally) I trained here with the former Nanquan King of Shanghai, Cao Wei Ming.  He was a really amazing coach, formerly for the Malaysian Team for a few years.  When I was there he was coaching kids.  This is also the location of the Shanghai Wushu Center, one of the administrative centers for wushu in Shanghai.  The classes are Monday to Friday in the afternoons — around 4 to 6, give or take.  The facilities are rather delapidated and they rent it out for ballroom dancing (which apparently includes a cigarette smoking marathon) some days so you end up with a lot of smoke and dust.  Old, green carpets too.

Pros: Awesome coach, convenient location, lots of basics
Cons: Bad facilities, no professionals

Minhang Wushu Guan (Yellow)

I don’t even know if this is still here or not, but there was an after-school wushu school in this area that my friend was teaching at from time to time.  I had some friends that would go there to train too and they seemed to think it wasn’t too bad.  But, the focus is on the kids, of course, so there is much more basics and fundamentals training.  Also, it is kinda far from the city.

Pros: Good carpet, albeit only one
Cons:  Far from Shanghai, no professionals

Zhang Yi (Lavender)

Zhang Yi is a former wushu athlete who opened his own school.  It caters primarily to foreigners and is a little on the small side.  It reminds me a lot of wushu schools in the U.S., actually.  More for the after-work ex-pad crowd, although sometimes he brings Yang Yu Hong over to help teach if he is out of town.  This is also the only place where the coach speaks English.  They only train a few times a week too.

Pros: English speaking coach, Occasional visits from YYH
Cons: Small, hard to find, not daily training, lower level of wushu students

There is also another school in the middle of the city off of Yan An Zhong Lu, but I have only seen it and the friend I had who went there wasn’t all that impreassed with it.  Plus they use the word “kung fu” instead of wushu and seems to cater mostly to the expat crowd.

If your friend is going longer term then I would probably recommend the Sports University, only because I know that they are an easier place to get in to train and are better set up for foreigners.  If only it wasn’t so far from the City ….

I hope this helps.

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1) How can I make a career out of wushu, 2) what kind of degrees can i get if i studied wushu and chinese in china and how long will it take to get that degree, and 3) what are the best universities…cheaper would be nice

Well, quite a few questions there.  Let’s see here …

First I would have to ask you what you mean by “career”, because there is a big difference between having a career like Jet Li and having a career like Joe the Wushu Coach.

To be honest, there are basically three routes a generic high-level wushu athlete can take

1) Become a coach

2) Become a stuntman/actor

3) Start a wushu-related business

Becoming a coach is probably the easiest of the three, especially in Western countries.  Now, I’m not saying that it is a piece of cake.  Just that it is EASIER than the other two.  But you have to really love coaching and teaching and be invested in the progress of your students.  It can’t be about making a quick buck.  Some athletes start schools to make money and ultimately they never work out if that is your only motivation.

Opening a school means you need to know a bit about how to run a business and especially about marketing.  A lot of coaches/athletes don’t know much of either, to be honest, and this is a lot of the reason their schools don’t make it.  The best thing about starting a school is that you can do it wherever you want to put down some roots and you can start small and work your way up.  Tony Chen started by practicing by himself in a park in San Francisco 13 years ago.  Now he has some of the biggest schools in California.

The other thing I would say is that you should always focus on the quality of your instruction and the education your students receive.  Not quantity.  The better the instruction, the more students you will get.  But having a lot of students doesn’t mean you will have good instruction, if you know what I mean.

To become a stuntman or actor is a lot of work, but it can be a lot of fun too.  I have a few friends who have gone this route.  You have to be persistent, not mind constructive critisism, and be patient.  You also need to have a positive outlook and be willing to learn.

Actually wushu alone is not enough to become a stuntman or actor.  You need to learn about other styles of martial arts, stunt work, wire work and it doesn’t hurt to take acting classes and get some experience with camera angles and various aspects of film-making.

When I was working for Jet a lot of people would audition for roles by just doing a wushu form and they almost never got chosen.  The ones that got chosen for stunt/action work were those that demonstrated an ability to do reactions (getting hit, falling down, etc), learn choreography and have a high degree of athleticism across various types of movements.

If wushu is one dimensional, then being a stuntman/action actor is the third dimension.  You really have to expand your abilities.  And that takes commitment and dedication.

And finally you could start a wushu-related business.  In this regard your primary emphasis is not wushu, but you would utilize your wushu experience to develop products or services that are of value to those people who train in wushu.

Whether you develop products (clothes, shoes, DVDs, etc.) for consumption by wushu athletes, or you develop a service (seminars, china tours, online resources, etc.) that they can use, it will take a lot of experience and understanding in not just wushu, but in business administration, managing employees, marketing and branding, and a whole slew of other things.

One of the best examples of this sort of career is Li Ning.  He turned a gold medal in gymnastics in to a multi-million dollar athletics apparel business and brand.  But of course, that sort of success is very difficult to achieve.  Not impossible — but difficult.

If you want to go this route I recommend doing a lot of studying of how businesses are run, getting some good, practical experience in that field.

The truth it, doing wushu just for the sake of doing wushu is not really a money making opportunity.  No one really pays the average person (outside of China) to do wushu.  So if you want to make a career out of wushu you will have to develop a skill set or business that is related to it, but not actually doing it.

Of course, if you figure out a way to make money doing wushu, I’ll be the first to know, right?

The second question is easier to answer.  In China, assuming your Chinese is good enough, you can get a degree in just about anything you want to study.  If you go to a sports university/college you can get a degree in a wushu-related field.  This could be anything from wushu theory, coaching, sports science or several other options.  It depends partially on the school you attend and what programs they offer.

A friend of mine did the following: Right after high school (he’s from Scotland) he came to China and took a year of Chinese at a local university.  He basically picked it based on economics realizing that being in China and studying full time would allow his Chinese to develop at a good rate regardless of the “quality” of the university.

After a year he applied for a degree program at another university in Chinese Literature and 4 years later he graduated.  He said that the first year was difficult, but by the second year he was getting along okay.  Now, of course, he’s totally fluent and most Chinese who talk to him on the phone can’t tell he’s a foreigner.

These days there are also a lot of scholarships that the Chinese government offers to foreigners who want to study in degree programs in China.  That might be an options as well.

As far as how long it would take … 4 years is pretty normal, just like in the U.S.  You just have to add on the extra year or so for developing your Chinese language skill.

And the “best” universities is sort of a subjective question to some degree.  It really depends on what you want to study.  Assuming you mean wushu, then the universities that are considered by “most people” to be the best are probably Beijing Sports University (北京体育大学) Shanghai University of Sports (上海体育学院) and maybe Wuhan Sports University.  There are a few others too, such as Xi’an University of Sports or Shanghai RuiDa Xue Xiao or even Jimei Daxue in Xiamen, Fujian.

And again, for many of them you can get scholarships to attend them.  If you apply for the scholarships you can specify your top choices for schools to attend. At least that is the case with this particular one: http://en.csc.edu.cn

Anyway, you get the idea.  If you want it bad enough, you can make it happen. Just keep an open mind.

I hope this helps!

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Do you have any tips for choreography? I’m just a little stuck. I don’t really like modifying the compulsory, and I’ve watched thousands of videos, but I can’t seem to come up with stuff that feels right or flows.

And I was wondering how the pros do it. Does their coach choreograph for them? Do they just spend hours playing around on the floor? Granted, being in a high concentration of Wushu gods probably stimulates the brain juices a little more, but they must run into problems if they have to run sections and they only have one. (My current situation) I’ve been running the same spear section for about two months.

My main tip regarding choreography is that it should come from within.  Your form should be a reflection of who you are as an artist and athlete.  It has to not only showcase your strengths and hide your weaknesses, but it must be a presentation of your own personal “story” with wushu.  When people watch you do your form they should feel like they are learning who you are as a person.

Traditionally, of course, a form was choreographed to include all of the applications within a particular style of martial arts.  You learned the form so that you could memorize the techniques.  But now, with sport martial arts and forms competition, the choreography of a form has morphed in to a representation of a style, not an actual presentation of application technique.

But of course this doesn’t mean you should take out the fundamentals of wushu from your form.  It is important to maintain the “martial” part of your “art” and be aware of the technique that is behind your movement.  Otherwise you are just dancing on a carpet.

But assuming you are able to do that, then I think that developing choreography is really something of a personal journey.  Or at least it has been for me.

When I was younger I would look at forms and try to take the coolest movements to include in my form.  But then I just ended up creating some sort of Frankenstein taolu that had nothing to do with me at all.  I remember seeing a lot of athletes in the U.S. create forms based on those they saw from athletes in China — sometimes even just doing the whole form verbatim.  And it always ended up looking like a pale imitation of the original, made even worse because everyone already knew that form since they had probably seen it themselves.  If you are going to do a Liu Qing Hua form, then you had better be prepared to be compared to Liu Qing Hua’s technique and skill level, y’know?

So, over time I stopped looking for “cool” moves and started looking for moves and techniques that spoke to me on a deeper level.  A combination that seemed to resonate within my heart rather than just look really neat.  And eventually I started to get closer to having a form that was a better representation of who I am.

To be honest, I still feel like my own form is only about 35% complete.  The other 65% of the form is just there as a placeholder while I slowly figure out and swap out techniques that would work better.  It isn’t because I think the movements aren’t good, but I feel like they aren’t really “me”, and finding the “me” movements just takes time to do.  It is a constant process of observation, testing, evaluation and development that might take me years to figure out.

But fortunately that is one of the aspects of wushu that I really enjoy.

To answer the second part of your question, Most of the young athletes learn a form from someone, either the compulsory or another athlete’s individual.   Xin Rui, for example, a 12 year old boy whom I train with, is learning the compulsory nanquan routine.  Not necessarily because it is well suited for him, but mainly because he just needs to learn a form to practice.  He’s still at a beginner level for the team.

Another boy, about 15 or 16, has learned an earlier version of Yuan Ming’s form which he practices.  Again, this is for two reasons: first, Yuan Ming’s form has nandu in it and it allows him to practice a form with higher level difficulty movements.  And second, since it is Yuan Ming’s form, both he and his coach are familiar with it and can really give him good critiques on technique and execution.

But a third athlete there has his own nanquan form. He’s probably in his late teens or early 20′s.  His form is definitely all his own and it is clear he spent some time developing it.  Some athletes use the forms they learn as a generic template, but I think a lot of them are eventually told to create their own form and then they bring it to the coach for evaluation and feedback.  Then, together, they figure out the best combinations to keep and which ones should be swapped out.  It is a collaborative process, most of the time, at least until the athlete is advanced enough to be able to express their wushu artistry on their own.

The thing about professional athletes is that they spend a LOT of time and energy on figuring out their choreography.  They are always adjusting and modifying things around.  They work hard to make it an expression of their own style of wushu.   Most of the off-season (and some of the on-season) is spent working out those details.  If you remember, I have a video of Yue Xiao Yu working out some choreography.  She was just standing there in front of a mirror for almost 2 hours working out choreography for her form.  And I”m pretty sure she did that quite a bit over the course of the past few months after the All China Games.

The thing is — choreography is a process, not a destination.  You are always re-evaluating what you have developed and figuring things out.  There is never a time when you say “phew, I’m glad I’m done choreographing THAT form” because there is always more refinements and details you could work on.   Kind of like with wushu itself.  You can always get better than you are, and I think that is reflected in the process of developing choreography too.

Just keep at it and work on uncovering the truth of your own wushu.  I think that is the best advice I could give anyone — including myself.

Good luck!

* * * * * * * * *

And that is it for this installment.  A whole lot of text going on there, huh?

If you would like to leave a question for the ‘Zilla, you can leave a comment to this blog entry or check out my contact form on wushuzilla.com.

Thanks!

This is the first in a series of blog entries answering questions that I receive on wushuzilla.com, as well as other website sources.  If you would like to submit a question, please visit my contact form here.

“… may I request your help in creating a training plan? I would like to know more about the PT that the Chinese professional teams do, and if possible, the schedules of the different teams you have trained with so far. Right now, I train 6 times a week, with 3 times spent in the gym and the other 3 in Wushu. During Wushu I do Jibengong for all sessions, spend one session refining my taolu, one session working on Nanquan/Nandao/Nangun basics, and one session on stances. I’d like to know your opinion of my current training plan and how I can change it. …”

Well, i’m a little hesitant to recommend a specific course of training without knowing more about your situation or being your coach. I always recommend that people work with their coach to develop a plan of action, since they are the ones that are most familiar with your specific needs/limitations/advantages/skills. Otherwise I might recommend something for you that is inappropriate.

Regarding Power Training (力练), there are also a LOT of variation on what coaches do.  But there are some similarities too.  The most important thing is that you are supervised by someone who knows what exercises to do for wushu athletes.  Building strength in the typical western gym environment way is not going to help your wushu.  The wushu athletes’ exercises are very, very specific to the sport they are training in.  I’ve posted some videos of their exercises here, but again, you should have someone who knows what they are doing walk you through the steps.  (Unfortunately a lot of the people who know what they are doing are here in China, not at your local 24 Hour Fitness.)

For the schedules of the various teams I’ve trained with, I have to say that it really varies depending on the time of year and their competition schedule. Also on which athletes are on the roster and which aren’t.  Plus, each team and coach has a different approach to training so that adds to the variety as well.  For the most part a very generic training plan for a professional team is something like this:

• Training on Monday to Saturday. Sunday off.
• Morning training is taolu-focused.  (typically 9 – 11 am)
  • More than 2 months before competition = more nandu and small combinations
  • Less than 2 months before competition = more taolu and sections (分段)
• Afternoon training (typically 3- 5 pm)
  • 2 Times a week is power training / conditioning focused
  • 2 Times a week is running, one is wind sprints and one is long distance

Occasionally coaches will also have them do some early morning training for an hour (6 – 7 am) before breakfast — usually conditioning or basics — and/or evening training from 7 – 9 pm.  That is not as common though.

Like I said, that is a VERY generic plan that most professional teams follow.  There are ALWAYS variations and differences in the approach so it not meant to provide any sort of training guideline for you or anyone else out there.  Again, talk with your coach about the best training plan for you.

Regarding your current training regimen, I have to say that it really depends on what you are training for, what your goals in wushu are, and where you are on your competition schedule (even assuming you want to compete).

One thing I can suggest (keeping in mind the caveat that I am NOT  your coach and have no jurisdiction over your training, nor should you pay attention to a word I say) is that you incorporate more southern basics in to your daily jibengong (基本功) training.  I’ve found this beneficial for my own training, and I notice that most southern style athletes in China do southern basics during every training session, usually substituting a northern combination that they do not do in their forms for a southern one that is more applicable to their style.

For example, for my own training, I will usually replace the following northern combinations/basics that I don’t use for a southern counterpart (please note that I am not sure of my Chinese terminology with southern basics as of yet, so some of the pinyin might be off):

• Back Sweep = Gua Gai (over-strike with fist)
• Front Sweep = Qi Ling Bu (3-step stances with palm combination)
• Double Body Turn = swinging fist thingee (ala end of 2nd section in compulsory nanquan)
• Heel Kick Push Palm = Double outer swinging arm block with heel kick

etc. etc. .. You get the idea. It is very important that you let your coach know what you plan to do. Don’t just start sticking nanquan basics in there, and when they ask you what you’re doing say “Mark from Wushuzilla.com told me to!” because then they won’t be the only ones smacking you up-side your head.

But aside from that small suggestion of incorporating more southern basics in to your regular training routine, I really think your coach is the best person to provide you with guidance.  They know you better than I do (and possibly even better than you do) so always defer to their wisdom and experience (which they hopefully have in abundance).

And I will repeat that the way you train depends mostly on your goals with wushu.  If you are training for exercise and fun then you would do a different type of training than if you were training for a competition, or if you were training to get on the U.S. team, or if you were training for the 4th World Traditional Games next year.  Each has a different set of training guidelines that would go with them.

As an example, my type of training right now is suited for someone who might compete 5 or 10 months down the line in a non-nandu division southern event.  If I was going to try out for the U.S. Team, then my particular training would not be appropriate.

Thanks for the question!

“… However I’ve been facing a persistent issue with self-taught Southern style. My coach [has] infused some of her Northern Wushu characteristics into her Southern stuff; on certain occasions she handles the Nandao like a broadsword.

I’ve been watching countless videos and picking the best ones to learn from, and [my coaches] have an issue with my “independence”. I know it’s a matter of respect to follow your coach, but I feel that something is up when [everyone else] is doing something else at Nationals and yet my coach and his coach want me to do her style of Nanquan, which has vast differences from the Guangdong style [which I take as] the originating style and hence the final word on everything Southern.

Right now, I’ve decided to follow my instincts and continue learning from He Qiang’s videos, but I can’t help but feel a bit guilty at my defiance. Am I being too independent and confident in my decision to follow videos? I’m really interested in what you think about this… ” (edited from the original)

This is something I can relate to, as I had to deal with this for many years too.

In fact, my own original coach is not a southern specialist either.  Granted Hao Zhi Hua is arguably the top female wushu competitor of her generation and has a skill and ability that I would probably never achieve in two lifetimes, but even the most accomplished professional athlete has their strengths and weaknesses.  For myself, it is difficult to talk about my coach in negative terms when I actually have a huge amount of respect for who she is, what she has done and what she knows.

However, this doesn’t mean we should all turn a blind eye to these issues when they exist.  There are ways to overcome and work around them, but part of it depends on your specific situation.

This is actually a pretty common problem among southern stylists.  You and I aren’t the first people to deal with a northern-style coach teaching improper southern technique.  (Again, I want to take nothing away from what they ARE amazing at, because most coaches are deserving of a lot of respect.)  In fact, at almost every school I’ve been to there have been issues with this, because for the most part the majority of coaches are northern stylists.  Especially in the U.S. there just aren’t a ton of good wushu coaches who are experienced with competing and training in nanquan — I can probably count them with the fingers from one hand (and if you have one, count your blessings!).

So, how to deal with this issue?  Well, first I’ll tell you how I handled it, and then I will make some suggestions on ways that you might approach the situation (again, not really knowing too many specifics about who you are or your environment).

When I first started learning southern I actually discovered rather quickly that some of the technique I was being taught was actually not southern at all.  Again, I had the benefit of being able to watch a video or two of good southern people from China and I realized there was a discrepancy between what I was doing and what they were doing, and not just related to skill level.

Early on in my wushu life I got some advice from David Chang, who had been training at multiple schools for a while.  He also said that, even with northern styles, sometimes one coach wants you to do it a certain way, and another coach wants you to do it a different way.  When I asked him what he did he said that he did it the way that was appropriate for the coach he was training with.

He admitted that it was more difficult that way, but he also said that at least it gave him options that having just one coach might not, and that, in the end,  when he competed he did so in the way that he felt worked best for his particular style.   On his own he would train for himself, but when in class he would train for his coach, even thought the two might conflict.

It might seem a little duplicitous to put on a “front” for your coach, while at the same time you are actually working on a different way of doing it for yourself.  And it might seem like a lot of extra work to keep that up.  But since we are dealing with coaches, egos, face and guanxi, you have to keep in mind that sometimes the best way is not necessarily the best way for YOU.

For myself, a few years (4 years, 2 months, 12 days, to be precise) after I started wushu, I was able to travel to Beijing and learned some nanquan from Jian Zeng Jiao (who was at that time a southern specialist) and He Jing De.  When I returned to Wushu West it allowed me to gain some southern independence because now I was training with a form that was taught by a southern specialist and it was also a form and some techniques which my coach was not familiar with.

Two years later I moved to L.A. and that actually proved advantageous because I was an “outsider” at the schools I came to.  Meaning, the coaches there didn’t have any “ownership” of my development and allowed me to work on that which I needed to work on.  At the same time, since most of the coaches weren’t as familiar with nanquan, they allowed me a bit of elbow room with regards to technique and training.

Then, a year after I moved to L.A. I started training with He Jing De and then it was all gravy.  Obviously he knows nanquan pretty well and training with him really helped my understanding and development of nanquan to a different level.  To this day when someone asks me who my coach is, I first tell them that I am a student of Hao Zhi Hua, but that I learned nanquan from He Jing De (and Xie Fu Yan, but that comes later).

So, for me, the way I was able to work around my situation was in finding other sources of nanquan education to help my development.  I was also lucky because I had a coach that was able to recognize that there were some things she might not know as well as others and she wasn’t so pride-filled as to not allow me to develop skills with other coaches.  In fact, in certain situations she encouraged it.  For example, whenever the Beijing Wushu Team would visit and have a seminar, she would make sure that me and the other nanquan athletes at Wushu West would be paired up with a good nanquan athlete to help us with our technique.

If you are lucky, you have a coach that can acknowledge their deficiencies and allow you to explore your own artistry and technique, or provide you with opportunities to learn what they might not be able to teach.  But often that isn’t the case.  Chinese culture has a lot of absolutely wonderful aspects to it, but one of the tricky things for people to deal with is the issue of pride and face.  If your coach is dealing with these issues, then it is important that you provide them an opportunity to feel acknowledged in what they contribute to your training, but at the same time you also keep in mind that your training is not just for them — it is primarily for you and your development as an athlete.

This isn’t carte blanc to be selfish with your training, but it is a good distinction to make so that you aren’t sacrificing your own development for the sake of someone else’s pride or ego.

So, what are the solutions for your particular situation?

Well, first, I think that communication is often the best solution to a problem.  Talk with your coach and see if they are able to recognize your situation.  If you approach them with some humility, respect and a strong desire to seek out their advice, then they might be able to put aside their attachments or pride and help you identify solutions to what is going on.  I know that a lot of people are scared to approach or talk with their coaches about the issues they have with training, but you might be surprised at how understanding they can be.  After all, they were all athletes once themselves.

Second, you can do as David did, and train for yourself on your own and train for your coach in class.  This is really only a resort if you don’t want to make waves and/or you don’t think your coach can’t handle it if you approach them about your situation.  Whereas David’s situation had him swapping technique between different coaches/schools, you can consider yourself swapping between your own coach and “Sifu Video”, if you will.  We all should be training, at least mentally, on our own, and during that time you can focus on the technique that you want to develop for yourself and your competitions.

Third, as I mentioned with my own experience, one thing you can do is travel or train with other coaches in an environment that is supported by your own coach.  For example, if you can, travel to Shanxi where your coach is from, and while there get paired up with a southern specialist and learn the heck out of them.  Then, when you come back, there will be that distinction that you have “specialized” and “studied abroad” in your style and that will bring with it the impression that your skill set is distinct and different than someone who only trained at your school.  It is sort of a psychological “ploy”, if you will, but it does work.

And finally, (and this is something I would recommend as a last resort), if you really feel that your coach and you are at an impasse, then it might be time to explore other options.  However, having said this I don’t really recommend it.  It is never a good idea to burn bridges with your coach because it can come back to haunt you in the future.  If you DO end up going to another school because of relocation or you move aborad, etc., then be sure to keep a good relationship with your coach and keep in touch with them.  Often times the occasional phone call from a former student really makes a coach’s day.  (That reminds me that I need to call my coach and say hello …)

I”m sure there are a lot of other options available to you, but without knowing you and your situation it is hard to make more specific suggestions.  Again, I always advise that it is best to communicate openly and honestly with your coach and talk it through with them.  The other “options” are there only for perspective.  They might not apply to you.

Thanks for your question!