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