So You Want to Train in Hong Kong?
While I”m editing and posting wushu videos of the Shaanxi Wushu Team, I thought I would take this opportunity to answer this (increasingly) common question. Well, to be honest, training in Hong Kong is a tricky proposition at best. Why? Well, part of it has to do with the culture and attitudes towards wushu in [...]
Zhao Chang Jun Wushu School Testing
An online friend of mine is currently training at Zhao Chang Jun’s schools here in Xi’an. I’ve been wanting to check this school out (or even find out where it is) for a while now and so when he invited me to check out a forms test (i.e. “mock-ompetition”) they were having I was eager [...]
Competition Expectations
This is from an e-mail I wrote to a friend related to their recent experiences with a wushu competition. Just thought it might be an interesting read for some of you … … Competitions are an interesting thing. They reveal a lot about who we are as people — and often times our reactions to competing [...]
Do Chinese Athletes Hate Wushu?
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 [...]
The Reason Chinese Wushu Athletes Are So Good – Part 3
So, we are almost there. But in my book there is one more ingredient that separates many great athletes from the rest of us common folk. Continued from Part 2 Raising the Bar And what is that final ingredient? Well, it has to do with one’s standards of excellence. The athletes in China don’t really [...]
The Reason Chinese Wushu Athletes Are So Good – Part 2
But it isn’t just that coaches in China tend to have those resources, but it is also the resources available to the athlete. No, not the latest Nike Shaolinquan shoes, or the coolest looking silks, but I’m speaking more about resources through which they can develop an understanding of high level skill. Continued from Part [...]
The Reason Chinese Wushu Athletes Are So Good
I used to hear (both from others and inside my own head) the question a lot: “Why are Chinese wushu athletes so freaking good??” The quick answer? In a cryptic nutshell: ((Ai/T) +((C*R)+M))(U+S) But let me start at the beginning … The Quest For Understanding When you first start wushu you are in a bit [...]
How to Maintain Your Motivation for Training
The other day I received an e-mail from a friend back in the U.S. They were discussing their increasing lack of motivation to train in wushu. Some of it was related to feeling they had started too late, or a lack of involvement in the school by other students or some other things. I wrote [...]
Job Perks
Sometimes this job has all sorts of perks. Sometimes they are few and far between, but when they happen it makes the less pleasant parts of the job worth it. Case in point, every once in a while I’ll have a really cool conversation with my boss. It’s interesting because he and I actually have [...]