Pardon me. I can’t help myself.

A really nice sunset over the sports center.

So, today was day 3 of the week for wushu.  My scooter is still out of commission (will get it fixed this weekend) so I cabbed it up to the wushu guan, arriving as they were finishing up their jog around the carpet and preparing for a game of wushu tag.

While they did that I did my own warm up with the jump rope.  A thicker rope this time, which turned out to be quite the challenge and really good for the forearms.  I’ll have to do that one again.  Just 50 x 5 sets of those since my arms started to burn a bit.

Then it was stretching and on to basics.  We did 6 lines of loose kicks, and then 3 sets of the quick kick relay races I mentioned a while back.

10 continuous front slap > run down the carpet > 10 continuous inside kicks > run back > 10 continuous outside kicks > run again.

I was pretty winded and my stamina isn’t quite enough for the last set of kicks so I did 8, 8 and 5, which means I barely kept up with the little girl who was my partner for this exercise.

After that they moved on to jumps so I did my horse stance training on the side.  For sure my legs are getting stronger because these are getting easier.  I was able to do 8 sets of 10, or 80 mabu and then followed that with bow stance holding, about 30 seconds x 6 or so.

I know what you’re thinking.  “Bow stance holding?  huh?”  But actually holding a good and proper bow stance for a while isn’t all that easy.  Holding a crappy bow stance is pretty easy, but a full extended and deep one?  Not so much.  But it helped open up and stretch out my legs.

Then I followed all that with some wall sits, horse stance position. Maybe 3 sets of 45 seconds on those.  Not too bad, but my legs were getting worked by then.

Another, only slightly different photo of the sunset. Yup. No wushu-related photos today.

Around this time the kids finished jumping around the carpet and moved on to combinations from their form.  I would say we did about 15 lines of combos before my time was up.  Or around 50 minutes total.  That is a whole lot of nanquan.  They were still going when I left around 5PM to go back to work, and I managed to snap some video footage as I did some cool down stretches.

One thing I wish I could have take video of was the A team’s demo practice.  They were preparing for a demo, and their full performance was around 20 minutes long.  It included lots of traditional styles (the usual suspects), taiji jian (now home of the world champion Taiji Jian athlete!) and was great to watch.

But while they were doing their demo I was doing my endless lines of nanquan combos so I couldn’t take any footage.  Plus they are on the far side of the room so it doesn’t make sense to run and get my iPhone and then run over and take video of them.

So, that happened, but you will just have to take my word that it was fun to watch.

After class I headed back to the office to finish up some work.  My body is pretty sore, but after 3 classes this week that is to be expected.  I think a massage is in order and probably some serious sleeping in as well.

Next week I am going to focus on a few things, but I will leave that information for the Weekly Wu, which I shall write up over the weekend.  Keep your eyes peeled for that while I get this video uploaded.  Oh, look!  Here it is …   Enjoy.

Related posts:

1. WTV #4 – Yuan Min and I
2. WTV #8: Nanquan Basics
3. WTV #6: 3pm Nanquan

Wushu, it turned out. Plenty of wushu.

When I got there the youth class was finishing up. His group had just finished training and were hanging out. Lots of friendly faces and “hello!” greetings to me which was nice. Another youth coach (the one who looks like Jay Chou) was putting his kids through conditioning drills.

Yuan Min told me to warm up on my own, with the standard run around the room 5 times, jump rope (5 x 100 reps) and then stretch on my own. In between my sets I was able to snap a little video with my crappy camera phone. Unfortunately I didn’t bring the iPod Touch my co-worker had just loaned me or you would be seeing some very nice HD video. instead you are getting the phone camera from 1982, but thats okay. Not much wushu captured today.

After stretching out he had me run through basics. Kicks, mostly. Stationary ones, not moving across the carpet. So … like … harder than usual. Here was the line-up:

• Warm up kicks = 2 lines
• Zheng Ti Tui (Front stretch) = 10 x 3 sets
• Side stretch kick = 10 x 3 sets
• Li He Tui (Inside kick) = 10 x 2 sets
• Wai Bai Tui (outside kick) = 10 x 2 sets

A young wushu athlete with a very soft voice

Due to my lack of in-shape-ness, that almost did me in.

After that he had me go through the form that I learned last week. He broke it in to two sections (so, about a half section each) and I was told to go through them up and down the carpet about 10 times each as he would watch and give me corrections. My butt-muscle pull from Monday flared up a little bit, but I powered through and dealt with it.

Around this time his girlfriend showed up too. She’s a nice person and they seem like a good match for each other. They both have a sassy personality so it is fun to watch them hang out and talk to each other. She was an athlete too (high diving) so she is curious about wushu training and asks him questions about stuff he is teaching me. That’s good because I would hate to have her get bored while I’m plodding around on the carpet.

After some nanquan he told me to grab my nan gun (southern staff). Fortunately my nangun and nandao have been sitting in the athlete’s supply room since a year ago when I was last using them so I was able to pull them out of my weapon’s bag and put them to good use.

He bought me several combinations from his nangun form and then told me to think about them and practice them on my own. So I did that. I went through the combinations a bunch of times but I’m pretty sure I’ll have to keep practicing them in my head over the weekend so that I don’t forget them. None of the moves were ones I wasn’t familiar with, but the order was different so it takes a while to get that memorized.

Afterwards he told me to relax. Almost an hour and a half had passed. I went to the side and did my strength training routine (abs, pushups, mabu … rinse and repeat 4 times). My pushups are getting easier, so that is good. I am starting to see some improvements. My mabu is actually getting worse, but I think that is because I had just finished a class and my legs were somewhat spent.

As I mentioned, I was able to capture some video with my (crappy) camera phone, so here you go. Enjoy!

I should also mention that I’ve been in contact with Yuan Min about my situation.  I’m going to keep doing the twice per week schedule (Monday, Friday) until the end of September.  At that time I’m going to ask my boss/supervisor about taking a break in the afternoon to do wushu and then coming back to work late afterwards.  The culture at this company supports that sort of thing, so I’m hoping it will be okay.  Actually, I’ll end up working more hours that way, even though I’ll have a 3 hour break in the afternoon.

But that isn’t for another couple weeks.  In the meantime Yuan Min said that 5PM is fine for him on Monday and Friday.  So, plan on keeping up with me twice a week any my Wushu Training Blogs/Vlogs.  And even better, once I am able to train in the afternoons I will have some footage of the kids training too.

OH!  I almost forgot.  Nationals is in Guangzhou this week.  That is why I haven’t seen any of the athletes around.  I saw Jiang Yang on Monday, but I guess that was just before they all left to compete.  Wu Ya Nan, et all, are down there representin’ the NorthWest of China (well, the Central North West … ) so good luck to them.  I noticed that the Sanda folks are all back because I saw them watching videos in the sanda guan when I arrived — probably reviewing the fights from their nationals in Yunnan last week.

Next year I’ll see if I can’t get on the road and snap some footage of competitions.  Of course, that is a lot of work … and I still have footage from previous competitions I’ve never posted.

Ah well .. one thing at a time.  Let’s get in shape first, shall we?

Related posts:

1. WTV #1
2. WTV #2
3. WTV #6: 3pm Nanquan

I arrived early, partly because I was biking and had made sure to give myself plenty of time before-hand until I knew how long it took to get there from my office, and also because it was raining and I figured that would slow me down too.

Getting there a bit early. Just outside the sanda guan

It turned out that I had erred a bit on the extreme side and I showed up around 5:05 PM for a 6:00 PM training.  I hung out downstairs near the entrance and dried off a bit.  I saw some kids leave the wushu guan and a few of them I recognized (and they recognized me too).  It turned out that Yuan Min was actually in the wushu guan playing soccer with some of the other athletes.  In fact, I could have just gone straight up there since there weren’t any coaches in the room.

The first thing I noticed is that they had done a little bit of renovation in the room, but it looked like it was more a response to some possible water damage.  (Its been raining pretty bad this past month.)  I noticed that some of the kids hanging out were in “wind down” mode after their practice.  The usual culprits were playing soccer.  Qi Peng Hui was there and has gotten a bit bigger (i.e. most muscles) as had Yuan Min (i.e. more love-handles).  It seems he is enjoying his retirement from competition.

After a bit he told me to warm up, so I did the standard joint warm ups and stretching, then I ran around the carpet until I broke a sweat (which, embarrassingly enough, was only 10 times) and then did some stretching on the bar and wall.  After about 20 – 25 minutes of that they were still playing soccer and the room was slowly being filled with small children with an overabundance of energy.

I walked through my sets a bit — the compulsory nanquan and my individual nanquan — mainly just to see if I could remember them (it seems they are still in my head) and then waited a bit for Yuan Min to finish playing soccer.  I did a few kicks on the side too, but my legs were clearly not flexible enough to manage those with much success.

Well, at least one of us was getting a good workout.

Athletes playing a bit of soccer

When they finished he called me over and we talked about what I wanted to do.  I told him that I wanted to work on developing my phyiscal condition (stretching, strength, basics) so that, in 2 or 3 month’s time, I could train with the team again.  I also reiterated the fact that I wanted to pay him for his services.

“No, we’re friends” he said.

“We’re friends outside”, I replied “but inside here you’re my coach.”

I was trying to emphasize the fact that I wanted him to take my training seriously and not as a casual “hang out” sort of thing.  I think I got the idea across but I might have to reinforce it again next time we meet.

His girlfriend was also there, whom I had never met before, and two younger athletes were hanging out as well.  So the five of us sat there for a moment and then he had me work on some strength conditioning, specifically pushups and ma bu.

For pushups he had me do 5 sets of 15 each.  I haven’t done a pushup in a while so the first 15 almost did me in. I had to superset a few of them with knee-push ups since I couldn’t manage the whole 5 sets.

After that he had the young kid to count to 60 while I did ma bu.  Again, I haven’t done that in a long time, and with the recent increase in biking, my legs were shaking uncontrollably by the end of the minute.  He had me do two of those and then told me to stretch.

Kids practicing basics

To be honest, that was enough.  Muscle failure usually means super soreness the next day or two.

Wednesday night I’m teaching a class in Gao Xin so we arranged to meet again on Friday.  As I mentioned before Friday is my wedding anniversary, but Ruhi actually told me that she wanted me to go do wushu training.  All part of her secret plan to have me unable to walk by the time I’m 50.

I also asked him to give me some homework so he told me to do 4 sets of 10 pushups and 4 sets of 1 minute mabu.  That should help me develop my strength prior to Friday’s workout where I’m sure he’ll put me through some more exciting conditioning work.

But it’s good, and it feels good to be sore and tired in my muscles again.  The 40 minute bike ride home in the pouring rain was also quite eye-opening and by the time I got home, had a hot shower and got to bed, I was pretty pooped.

Here is a video I took in between some pushups sets.

Related posts:

1. WTV #4 – Yuan Min and I
2. WTV #11: Third time’s a (c)harm
3. WTV #8: Nanquan Basics

“I’m in Xi’an, Mah Kuh!” she said her her high-pitched giggly voice, a sound completely foreign from her nan quan banshee fashang scream. She was in town! I would get to meet my old training partner from a year or so ago. But unfortunately she is only here until Wednesday.

Hard to believe Xiao Meng can beat you to a pulp

Ruhi spoke with her for a bit and it was decided that I would go to the sports training center where the Shaanxi Wushu Team trains during my lunch break on Monday to meet up with her. Apparently she had some food-stuffs from Dong Ming to give us as a gift.

Of course, I also had some questions for her. She had mentioned helping me figure out a coaching situation, and as I wrote previously, Wu Ya Nan had also mentioned some options. It turned out (after looking more carefully at the QQ profile for the coach) that I had met him before. His name is Ning Biao, and he was one of the Taiji guys on the Shaanxi Team. One of the pretty good ones too.

I recall having said that I was possibly interested in learning Taiji before. I think this was back when I was considering hanging up the nanquan hat in favor of some more gently-on-the-body style of wushu. I had since (ala “The Weekly Wu”) decided to try my luck with nanquan one more time.

A look at the entrance to Xiao Meng's dorm

In any case, I would be able to discuss things with Xiao Yu and come up with some options.

I scooted over to the athlete dorms and after a bit of confusion met up with Xiao Meng, whom I hadn’t seen since the year before when her and Xiao Yu came to our house for dinner.  If you recall, Xiao Meng is a Sanda athlete, also from Dong Ming, who was ranked top 5 (or was it 7?) in her division in China. It was good to see her again, and her friendly smile totally distracts you from the fact that her shoulders next to mine make me look like a 10 year old girl. She had definitely been working out because she looked about as strong as I had ever seen her.

As she brought me up to her dorm room to wait for Xiao Yu to get back from lunch she told me that she was leaving in 3 days for a Sanda competition in Yunnan Province. No wonder she looked so yoked. She was at the peak of her physical condition.

We chatted for a few minutes until Jiang Yang (whom I had previously called Zhang Yang) came by with another wushu girl and said hello. Her hair was back in a pony tail (it had been cut short the year before) and she could speak some English! She had met a girl from the U.S. earlier in the year and decided she wanted to go to the U.S. to visit, so she had started studying English. Compared to the zero English she spoke last year, I was pretty impressed.

Xiao Yu and a very relaxed Sanda athlete in the background

She gave me some current news on the training situation with the team. Zhang Laoshi (the taolu coach) had gone to the adjoining wushu school next to the track to teach kids. Chu Ling Feng, the former Fanzi Quan champion of the 80′s, was now the main taolu coach. Well … there went my guanxi with the team! LOL! It was a good thing I wasn’t in a rush to start working out with them.

Jiang Yang’s English name is now Hilda and we exchanged QQ numbers. I told her I would help her with her English if we ever train together again in the future. Maybe I can re-think my 2006 idea of starting up a curriculum of English training for wushu athletes in China. There’s some money in that idea somewhere …. maybe.

After a few more minutes Xiao Meng’s roommates came back, both Sanda athletes, one of which I had met before at the 4 Dream movie night event a loooooong time ago (Spring 2010!). They had brought back a bunch of food and force-fed me some Cai Jia Mo (Veggies in Bread) which was both spicy and delicious.

Eventually Xiao Yu showed up a bubbly as ever. We spent some time catching up where she told me more about her work as a coach (not much to talk about) and we discussed my training options. After a good amount of discussion she suggested that I have Yuan Min be my coach as he had also retired and was coaching kids at the Sports Center, he was a nanquan specialist, and we already knew each other so he was familiar with my strengths and weaknesses. In fact, he had taught me a few sections of his nangun at one point.

She said that Ning Biao would be good if I was going to study Taiji, but that for my purposes Yuan Min is probably a better option. It was hard to argue with that logic. (I was thinking to myself that it might be possible to bring Ning Biao to Active as a once-a-week Taiji coach, since a few of the employees there have asked about learning Taiji Quan. Something to look in to…)

She would talk to Yuan Min and see what his situation is and if he was interested. I wasn’t sure how much to pay for something like that, but I’m sure something can be figured out. I don’t mind paying a reasonable rate for good instruction. And it is just for the next 2 months until I’m up to speed to train with the team again.

Xiao Meng and Xiao Yu

The other suggestion was that I train with him 3 times a week in the evenings, instead of my previous idea of training with him twice a week in the evenings and then with the team on Saturday morning. That made sense since I had made that plan thinking Zhang Laoshi would be coaching me. Since it is Chu Laoshi, I don’t really know if that would be kosher or not. In any case, having just one coach is probaby better for consistency. Monday, Wednesday, Friday evenings would probalby work best so that is what I will propose and see what he says.

Xiao Yu was also nice enough to load me up with a big bag of food-stuffs from Dong Ming. Seeds, some packaged meats and other randomness that I will be able to enjoy at home.

“I didn’t know what you and Ruhi would like, so I got a little of everything.” she explained.

I probalby won’t see her again before she heads back to Shandong, but it was good to make contact with her, even if was for a brief moment. Hopefully one of these days I will be able to get back to Dong Ming and visit her (not to mention Wang Wei’s family!).

No related posts.

December 18, 2010

I realize it seems like I have been off the grid, but actually I’ve been working on my program.  I just haven’t had any time to blog due to responsibilities at work.  More on that later, but first I wanted to give a quick update on my progress and also talk about the first class back with the Shaanxi Wushu Team last Saturday.

After the last 40YO update I came down with 2 bad sicknesses in a row.  The first was a stomach flu and the second was a cold.  Thankfully they didn’t hit at the same time, but sequential illness is still annoying.

After I recovered I recommitted myself to getting back in shape for wushu.  Ruhi and I joined a gym near our home and 3 times a week we go there for strength training, alternating between upper and lower body each time.  Its been a month and we’re both feeling much stronger.  I’m especially proud of how Ruhi’s doing since lifting weights is a new experience for her.

xiao yu playing ping pong in the sanda guan

This past Saturday I returned to wushu training with the Shaanxi Wushu Team.  Thanks to the strength training my muscles were better equipped to handle the workout, but that isn’t to say it was a piece of cake.   After warmups we didn’t actually do basics, although I did a few on my own just to make sure I could.  Instead we worked on combos, back and forth across the carpet about 12 times.  I chose to work on nangun basics, since I knew that my upper body strength needed development if I was going to make improvement on my overall wushu technique.

After combos we switched to sections and I switched to nanquan.  I don’t really have a nangun form in my pocket (especially not after 9 months without wushu training) so I worked on the first and fourth sections of nanquan.  I went through sections about 5 times before I felt a twinge of pain in my left knee and excused myself from the rest of the practice.  Instead I went to the side to practice some taiji basics and work on stretching.

A few things to note during training:

Wu Ya Nan was there and we chatted for a bit.  He said he has just gotten back from Guangzhou and participating in the Asian Games.  I asked him how he did and he answered “first place”, but with a semi-embarrassed look and sheepish grin.   Well, he went from being Chinese Taiji Champion to Asian Games Taiji Champion.  Not too bad.

Athletes huddling

The two new faces from last time were there too — a young girl from Henan province named Fan Xiang Fei and the older girl from Shanghai Sports University.  I haven’t learned her name yet, but both of them are learning nanquan!  So, that is pretty neat.

Zhang Yang has switched from Qiang  / Jian  to Gun / Dao.  Naturally the transition was a relatively easy one and she’s kicking butt with those weapons as well.

Yuan Min is not around.  I guess he’s not training anymore — or at least for the time being.  Which is too bad.  But it looks like the Shanghai girl learned his form so at least I get to see his choreography during class, even if he isn’t around.

Coach Zhang in the Sanda Guan

After class I went down to the Sanda room and played some ping pong with Yue Xiao Yu and Coach Zhang.  But after 15 – 20 minutes of hanging out with them it was time to go.  However, since it was my first time in the Sanda training hall (lots of half-naked guys resting after their workout) I took some pictures so you could see what it looks like.

December 25, 2010

On Christmas day I went back to training.  It was a week, but that was because I tweaked my leg and it took a weak for it to recover.  Xiao Yu was surprised to see me training on X-mas day, but I explained to her that I actually don’t celebrate Christmas, which she thought was interesting.

The smell as good as they look

We did some warm ups and basics and then I went on the back carpet to work on my nanquan, but my leg started to act up again.  I was able to do a few sections, but then I had to go on the side and nurse my tui.

I realized after a while (I’m writing this update quite a few months after the fact) that the problem isn’t whether or not I’m strong enough, but that I’m putting too much stress on my body with my weight.  Before really being able to get back in to training I need to drop some pounds.  Otherwise it will just be an invitation to injury, which I certainly don’t want.

I told Xiao Yu that I was going to take a break while I try to get my weight down and she understood.  Of course, that would be the last time I would see her in a while since she ended up retiring and going back to her hometown in Shandong Province to teach wushu.  (If you want to go train with her, let me know.)

I was able to drop some weight though, and by the time I tried training again in the late spring during my trip back to the U.S., I noticed a difference.  Dropping 20 pounds really helps.

Anyway, the class itself was nothing to write about, except that it was quite cold (as you can see from the snow on the ground).  I really hope I can go back and train again soon …

Snow on the ground

Related posts:

1. Returning to Wushu: The 40 Year Old Version – Week 1
2. Returning to Wushu: The 40 Year Old Version – Week 2
3. Wushu Training Vlog

The weather this week also played a part in making outdoor training a little difficult.  As we prepare for what is being called “The coldest winter in a thousand years” (Really?  How can they even verify this?) the elements are bound to cause some difficulties for people, including those of us who go outside to get our jog on.

As you can see from the below results, I only got out on the track twice during the week.  But it wasn’t for naught since I managed to at least do some good work while I was there.

Monday

On Sunday night I was working until around midnight or 1AM on a project so I wasn’t able to wake up early enough on Monday morning to go to the track.  And this also turned out to be the first day it snowed in Xi’an, but it was only just barely cold enough so it came down as this slushy, cold, wet stuff that wasn’t very pleasant.  In any case, I decided against going out on this day, even though I had originally planned to reschedule for the evening.

Tuesday

On this day I got out to the track, but it was still raining quite a bit so the ground was too slippery to do frog leaps.  I substituted them with Wall Sits (WS) instead, 3 sets of 1 minute.  Also too wet for pushups.  But I’m glad I got out there and ran in the rain.  I felt much better afterwards.

Thursday -> Friday

My teaching schedule got moved around a bit so I had a class in the morning to prepare for.  The afternoon and evening were already booked so I moved my Thursday workout to Friday instead.

As you can see, I managed to do all the things on my list, except that I didn’t get through the last set of situps.  My abs are still adjusting and they tend to cramp up rather easily.  2 sets of 25 instead of 3, but that is okay with me.  The weather was much better on this day and there was even a bit of sun out.

Saturday

And finally on Saturday I didn’t get out at all.  I was meeting people from 8:00 to noon.  Then I had a class to teach from 2:00 – 4:00.  By the time that was finished I just wanted to focus on getting some work done.  I had thought I could move my run to Sunday, but i was in meetings from 8:00 AM until 6:00 PM so that didn’t pan out.

Overview

So, I managed to get around 4.0 km of running in, increasing my ratio of running to walking from 3:1 to 2:1 and then 1:1.  I did a good amount of Taiji basics and managed to throw in some legs and abs as well.

One thing about my original schedule that is going to change are the days I exercise.  My teaching schedule has changed so that my Thursdays have become very full (4 classes) and my Fridays have moved around a bit to be heavy in the mornings.  As a result I have to change my eventual plan for which days I will train in wushu, which means I need to change the days I am pre-training for wushu.

This coming week my plan is to train on Monday (AM), Wednesday (PM), Friday (PM) and Saturday (AM).  That will also reflect my wushu training schedule once I go back to the wushu guan in 2 weeks.  Two of my classes are actually only going to be around for 4 weeks, so after that my schedule might change around again.  But I’ll try to remain flexible and work around those limitations.

Related posts:

1. Returning to Wushu: The 40 Year Old Version – Week 1
2. Returning to Wushu: The 40 Year Old Version
3. Returning to Wushu: The 40YO Version – Update and First Classes

I was early arriving to the wushu guan.  I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to ride there on my scooter (25 minutes, it turns out) so I made sure I had plenty of time going there.  While I was there I snapped a picture of their training schedule.  It looks like they are up to the same sort of things as last year around this time.  You can see a larger version here:

Wushu Training Schedule

After the athletes arrived and I said a few 好久不见’s to everyone they all met with the Team Manager to discuss their upcoming demo later in the day.  It turned out that one of the top government guys (like #3 in the country) is originally from a nearby town.  And that his mother is having an 80th birthday party.  Naturally they bring in professional athletes to perform.

The demo has 3 parts (that I know of).  First the external guys go out and do a demo, then the taiji guys do a demo, and then the external guys do another demo.  I managed to get footage of them going through the demo (maybe 70% speed and power), but I got a few other things as well …

Kids Learning the Old Compulsory

Off on the far carpet were a couple of kids learning the old Yuan Wen Qing compulsory.  I thought the way they were learning the sequence of moves was rather interesting so I took some footage.  I also thought it was interesting that they learned the whole first section in one class and they are only 7 or 8 years old.  (Why can’t kids in the U.S. learn that quickly?)

Kids Doing Basics

Xin Rui and company were back in fine form doing basics on the far side of the wushu guan.  That kid has grown up!  The last time I was there he was shorter than the other girl.  Now he’s a few inches taller.  The girl in pink is a new addition to the group from the Shaolin Temple area.  There were 2 new recruits that I could see since the last time I was there.  Its nice to see new blood.

Going Through the Demo Form

Back to the demo, Coach Zhang was working with the athletes to figure out their choreography and the group sequences for their first demo form.  He was more involved in this process than he usually is so I thought that was rather interesting.  He was trying to get everything to work in time with the music he had selected so there were some logistics brewing in his brain that needed attending to.

Demo Form – Part 1

And here is a walk-through of the first part of the demo.  They ended up switching out Xiao Yu from Nan Dao to Nanquan after doing this, so in the final version she did nanquan in this part and does nan dao in the last part.

You can also see the new recruit from the Shanghai Sports University during the group number at the end.  She is originally from Anhui but has been training in Shanghai for the last few years and just came over to join the Shaanxi Team within the last few months.  I wonder if she knows Xie Zhen Hao ….

Oh, and they actually practiced this form twice, so here is another one, just for your extra enjoyment.

Duilian Practice

The three guys at the end of the demo form who were doing the duilian set just came up with that during the beginning of class.  Not too bad.  It might have been something they had in their back pocket and just dusted off for this event, but it seemed like they were still figuring things out during the class.

Demo Form – Part 2

And finally here is the last part of their demo form.  A few different styles in here including some PuDao.  You can also see Zhang Yang sporting a new haircut, which makes her look even younger and more elf-like.  I like her straightsword in this part of the demo.

Close-up on Athletes

Finally I wanted to give the athletes a bit of a close-up so you can see them a bit better.  Just thought it might be nice to put some faces with the namesless.

It took a while to upload these videos, no thanks to the slower bandwidth in China.  But they finally have arrived.

Just 2 more weeks until I’m back and training with them again.  Which means there should be more footage on the horizon soon!

Related posts:

1. Foreigners Visit the Shaanxi Wushu Team

To view the original blog entry for my Return to Wushu, please click here.

* * *

As my first week of my preparatory training comes to an end, I can’t help but try and compare how I feel today compared with a week ago.

The truth is, I do feel better – a little lighter, and little stronger, and a bit more fit.  Granted Ruhi and I didn’t do a lot of crazy workouts, but even increasing your activity level a little bit can have some beneficial results.

Speaking of results, here is the breakdown of my first week:

The red text means that I didn’t finish the activity, and the green text means that what I did was altered from the original plan.

One alteration that I didn’t put here is that I also trained on Sunday the 17th.  I wanted to try out my workout to see if the timing was okay and make sure my reps and sets were planned accordingly.  So, I actually did a lot of Monday’s workout on Sunday as well, adding another 1.6 km and some more taiji basics to the total.

This week my knee was feeling a little off on Tuesday so I opted out of the Frog Leaps.  And on Saturday I had miscounted my laps and we did the rotation 8 times instead of the 10 I had originally planned.

We usually head over to the track at the Shaanxi Normal University (师大 or “Shi Da” for short) early in the morning around 6 AM.

My first observation on Sunday morning is that there are some pretty good Taiji and wushu folks training there in the mornings.  One woman in particular has some very good skill – almost certainly a former professional athlete.  She mostly teaches taiji but I’ve seen her bust out the straightsword on occasion.  Here is a photo of some Taiji folks practicing at the track.

Then on Monday we discovered that the Freshman students at Shi Da (or many of them, at least) are required to report for early-morning running at the track every day before classes.  As a result you get a strange vision of a few hundred 18 year olds running around the track in small clumps of 20 or 30 students.

I managed to snag a video of the stampede, although it was towards the end of their time so a lot of them were leaving the track.  You can still get an idea of the situation though.

And that brings us to the end of my first week of pre-wushu training.  I still have some great wushu vids to put up this week so don’t forget about that.  And I also have a video of some of my students to put up so that you can see some of the people I have the pleasure of helping out with their Oral English.

Until next time …

Related posts:

1. Returning to Wushu: The 40 Year Old Version – Week 2
2. Returning to Wushu: The 40 Year Old Version
3. Returning to Wushu: The 40YO Version – Update and First Classes

But now that my future plans are “official” I can talk a little bit more about what is going on in my future over the next year.

You see, part of the problem with my current situation is that my work load and current obligations don’t really allow for a consistent amount of training.  Often I will have to drop my training for a period of time while I travel to meet a client in Hong Kong or spend a few all-nighters finishing up a project.  This doesn’t really bode well with me as I am the type of person that, if I am going to do something, then I really want to focus some energy and attention on it and not spread my attention across too many things.

In other words, I’m not all that in to multi-tasking.  I prefer to focus on 2 or 3 main priorities in my life than spread myself too thin with 10 different projects.

So, in looking at the various alternatives that I had available to me I realized that there was one opportunity which I’ve been around for the past 5 years which I’ve never really explored.

Teaching English.

Now, to be honest I’ve had my reservations about doing something like this.  It took me a long time to get comfortable coaching wushu, and I had zero experience teaching English aside from a few conversation partners and some English practice sessions with Jet and his English teacher back in L.A.  I figured the best thing to do would be to try it out in a controlled environment to see how I felt about it.

So I scouted around for some light teaching opportunities.  I put up notices that I was available for English conversation practice at some of the coffee shops near universities and even replied to some requests for part-time teachers.  One request was for someone to teach twice a week at a primary school in Gao Xin.  Well, I thought I could at least check it out and see what it was like by watching someone teach.

But when I got to the school I was told that I would be teaching that day!  There I was in front of 50 3rd grade students with zero classroom teaching experience and no lesson plan.  Thank goodness that Ruhi was able to quickly give me some suggestions on the phone before I stepped in to the room.  But it was certainly a stressful 2 classes.

Coincidentally, on that day I also made contact with a private school in Xi’an that was opening up and they provided me some neat opportunities to learn a bit more about teaching as well.

And finally I was able to help out with a class at a local university teaching Oral English once a week.

Those combined experience made me realize that this was something that I not only was interested in doing, but that it was something I actually was enjoying as well.

So I applied for a teaching position at Xi’an International Studies University (XISU), one of the top Foreign Language studies universities in China.  Actually it has a very good reputation and probably the only other language school that would be better on my resume would be Bei Wai in Beijing.

But that aside, it is also a good situation because we get on-campus housing, which allows us to both save some money and takes a couple hours off of Ruhi’s commute, since this is also the school where she is getting her Master’s degree in Chinese studies at the moment.  Plus, to be honest, I sort of like that side of town better.

So, what does this have to do with wushu training?  Thats an excellent question.

I knew that, if I was able to get this teaching position, that it would actually free me up so that I would not have to take on so many projects at once.  And, as I mentioned, taking on so many projects has been hampering my ability to get any exercise and training in to my daily routine.

Come the fall I would be able to teach in the mornings and spend my afternoons training.  I could keep two of my maintenance clients and focus on providing them with good service and my life would suddenly become free to study Chinese, spend time making some Friends, hanging out with my wife a bit more, less traveling to Hong Kong every month, and other important things like that.

But in order to get from where I am now (inundated with projects) to where I want to be (see the previous paragraph) I would need to get ALL my non-essential projects finished up and out the door as quickly as possible.

In fact, I’m planning a trip with Ruhi back to the U.S. in August for 6 weeks.  And during that time I am really hoping to be able to enjoy myself and not be constantly stressed out about work.

So, my current focus is on getting everything done.  All my projects (except for those 2 clients).  And to do it all by the end of July.  For the sake of my future ability to train in wushu, I will sacrifice the following 3 – 4 months without any training so that I can clear out these obligations.

And this is why I haven’t been training very much lately.  I have been trying to focus on getting these things out of the way — on getting all of these projects finished and completed.  And to be honest I still have a long way to go.  I still have a lot of things on my plate that need clearing off.  So, for the time-being at least, you are still going to have a bit of silence with regards to my training in wushu.

I will still try to blog whenever possible, but for the next 2 months you will have to be patient with me while I work on taking care of a few loose ends so that, come the late summer months and in to the fall, you will be able to enjoy some high quality blogging and a lot more wushu videos and information for the coming year.

I was waiting until now to write about all of this because, right now I’m in Hong Kong and I just received my work visa for my new job teaching English at XISU.  Now that I am officially on my way towards the coming year’s plan to get my priorities re-aligned, I felt it was okay to share all of this with you guys out there in the blog-o-sphere.

So, there you have it.  To celebrate this, I finally posted up some of the videos I took at my last training with the Shaanxi Wushu Team back on May 15.  They were preparing for an upcoming Compulsory forms tournament and you can check out their forms here:

And finally, here is a wushu training vlog that I made when Qi Peng Hui invited me to eat at their cafeteria.  It was my first time there so I thought I would put it on video.  Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Returning to Wushu: The 40 Year Old Version – Week 1
2. Returning to Wushu: The 40 Year Old Version – Week 2