Posts Tagged ‘wushu west’

Before getting back in to the experience of learning wushu itself, I thought I would take some time to talk about something that had a huge impact on my experience with wushu over the years. In fact, besides my coach, I would say that this is one of the two factors that contributed the most to my development with wushu:

People.

More specifically, I’m talking about the people I have met through wushu over the years, and who have had a big influence on my views on both wushu and the world.

For the sake of this blog entry, I will limit this to just the people I met while training in the Bay Area before moving to Los Angeles in 2001. (I will tackle the rest of you people later.

Kaz and Tabala

The first two people I became close to through wushu were Kaz and Tabala. I mentioned them before, but I’ll explain a bit more about them here.

Kaz was half-Japanese like me. A friend of Green Day’s turned kung-fu enthusiast, he came to join Wushu West through an interest in Hong Kong movies. He eventually decided that he wanted a more traditional application-oriented path and went to the city to train at a different school, but even while doing that he kept in contact with Patti and I. We were roommate for a year or two as well, before I ended up getting an apartment with Brandon.  Has has since gotten married, had a kid, fell in love with soccer and moved to Malaysia.

Tabala was an african american man with tight, short dreads. He had grown up with Bruce Lee as his primary father figure and, truth be told, he didn’t talk much about himself. He had been training in some form of Chinese martial arts for most of his life and was very dedicated to his martial arts education. He was really friendly, but at the same time, somewhat mysterious. After a few years he moved to L.A. to get some work and pretty much dropped off the radar. Finally, after years and years he resurfaced on Facebook.  Its nice to be back in contact with him.

From Kaz and Tabala I learned that even if you stop training with your teacher, it doesn’t mean you stop giving them your respect.

Gio and Rich

We called them the Nan Quan Brothers. Two big Philippino guys from San Leandro who started at wushu west about a year after me. I would hang out with them fairly often and we would commute back and forth to class pretty regularly.

I remember one time a bunch of us met at a park in Alameda to train at a park (just for fun, believe it or not) and we were talking about the mechanics of the twist. Of course, none of us could do it and most of us were afraid to try, but Gio decided to go for it. Right there on the grass he went for it. And he almost landed it! He kept trying, each time crashing to the ground, but getting closer. After a little while he stopped, but he had made good progress.

To be honest, I was a bit ashamed of myself, because I didn’t have the courage to try it out. Looking back, I think I could have done it, but I was just too afraid. Now-a-days, if I was in the same physical condition that I was back then, I’d try it in a heartbeat. But again .. hindsight is 20/20.

They eventually left Wushu West around 1999. I think Rich studied with Tony Chen for a while (it was cheaper) but last I heard neither of them train anymore. They’re on my facebook friends list though (isn’t everyone?) and I was able to see Gio during my last trip back home.

From Gio and Rich I learned that fear should never be a reason not to try something — it’s a signal that you’re in the midst of a great opportunity for self-development.

David Chang

I mentioned David before too. He was the one that helped bridge the abyss between Wushu West and Cal Wushu.

Back when he first started he took his training very seriously. He had started only 5 months before me but his hard work and dedication made him improve very quickly.

Truth be told, he had a few quirks of the body and some might have said that his physique wasn’t well-suited for wushu.  But admirably,  he never let that stop him.

He went to China in 1997. Then again in 1999 with me and some other friends. And then again in 2000 .. and 2001. He would train at multiple-schools — Cal Wushu, then Wushu West, then Omei Wushu and then with Liu Bo and others.

He never did it in a way that upset any of his instructors though, because they could see that he was working hard to develop his abilities and you can’t really fault someone for seeking out as much knowledge and understanding as they can.

He would see something he wanted and then pursue it with a single-minded determination until he had achieved it. That’s how he got his awesome drop stance. He saw Amy Chow’s drop stance in 1996 and told himself he wanted one like that. And he got it too.

Eventually he went on to start his own school, Wushu Central, after which I didn’t have too much contact with him.  As I understand it, there was a bit of drama here and there, but the David I knew best was the one before all of that happened. The one that was enthusiastic about and dedicated to wushu training. The one that pushed other people to work harder and pushed himself just as hard.  That is the David I remember most.  I’m pretty sure he’s still there anyway…

From David I learned the importance of training hard and embracing all of one’s wushu opportunities.

Cal Wushu

There have been a lot of friends I’ve met at Cal Wushu over the years. More than I could really list out in any adequate fashion. Some of them have been positive experiences, and some of them have been negative, but all in all my time hanging out and training with Cal Wushu has been one of enjoyable growth.

I’ve been at Cal Wushu as a student; training hard and gasping for air and water after a hard session of training. You develop close bonds with people when you’re in that sort of mutually-exhausting environment. After classes we would all go over to Durant Square, a food court just off campus, and bond together over some Korean BBQ or cheap Chinese take-out. Sifu Bryant Fong or Li Jing were coaching back then and it was great to get to know them better too.

I’ve also been at Cal Wushu as an instructor. Teaching beginners or the advanced class and putting them through their paces. You learn a lot about yourself when put in that sort of position — your strengths and weaknesses come to the forefront of your attention when you teach others. But, as they say, the best way to learn something is to teach it, and I learned a lot about wushu by helping others understand its fundamentals.

There have been generation after generation of students at Cal Wushu — too many to count over the years — but one thing remained the same. It is a great place to meet people who are as geeked out about wushu as you are.

For some strange reason .. all of the students stay the same age, but I keep getting older and older. I used to be just a few years older than the students. Now .. they’re all half my age. How depressing is that?

From Cal Wushu I learned the value of wushu fellowship, and the important responsibility you take on when you start to teach wushu.

Patrick Lee

I would be remiss here if I didn’t mention Pat. Out of all the people I’ve met in wushu, he’s probably had the singularly highest impact on my life. I first met Pat through wushu when he was at Cal, and eventually I went to work for him at Design Reactor. It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 12 years since I first began working with him at our little web design firm. We’ve been co-workers, business partners, classmates, roommates and friends and I owe him a lot for some of the things he’s done for me over the years.

But, this isn’t about all of that. This is about wushu. And Pat’s wushu, believe it or not, was one of the best that had ever come around.  He originally trained with Zhang Gui Fung in Maryland before coming to Berkeley to go to school, and that early training paid off.

In 1994 he went to China with Daniel Wu to train with the Beijing Wushu Team. When he came back he was a wushu machine. His front stretch kicks were the things of legend and his front jumping slap kick would freeze the room as they watched his technique. Technique that was, at that time, almost God-like compared to the rest of us.

He became disinterested in wushu though.  Work, life and other things took priority.  I also remember him once telling me that, after his experiences training in China he realized that there was no way he would ever get to the level of a Chinese athlete. And, as he put it at the time,  if he couldn’t become the best at something, then why spend so much time doing it?  That isn’t to say he doesn’t appreciate or enjoy wushu.  I think it is more about how the level of committment that wushu requires for you to improve past a certain point makes it prohibitive for some people.

He would return to it from time to time, but none of them were quite as grand as his initial wushu fervor back in the early 90’s, fueled by Cal Wushu friends and a healthy dose of Jet Li’s Wong Fei Hung.

Pat taught me that having natural ability isn’t worth anything if you don’t commit to what you are doing, and that often times hard work can make up the difference for those who might not have been born with the right genetic make-up; either in Wushu, Business or Life.

Wushu West

And, of course, besides the people I listed above, there have been countless students coming in and out of Wushu West over the years. Here are some of the highlights.  It might be a little cryptic to you, but these are my lessons, not yours, so they really only need to make sense to me.

Lindsay: Taught me that just because someone is ignorant, doesn’t mean they are stupid.

Mai: Taught me to never let someone else’s critism let me to doubt my own abilities.

Laura: Taught me that you can never judge a book by its cover.

Anthony: Taught me that you’re never too old to feel young.

Roger: Taught me that having responsibilities for others doesn’t mean you are no longer responsible for yourself.

Mike: Taught me that the only value fear has is when you use it to excuse yourself from living life.

Jennifer & Cheri: Taught me the value of specilizing in a specific area.

Inyork & Hansie: Taught me that the cooler a person thinks they are, the less cool they become. And vice versa.

Bryan and Yolanda: Taught me that life is nothing if you don’t have passion for what you love to do.

Karen: Taught me that putting your heart out on your sleeve doesn’t guarantee that it will be acknowledged.

There are others too, but I think that is probably enough for now. Not that many ofthese people read this blog anyway. And I will be addressing more people when I talk about my return to Wushu West in 2004.

But I’m getting ahead of myself …

Final Thoughts

Sometimes I wonder what my experiences with wushu would have been like had some people not been a part of it. I’m sure they would have been good too, but each person you meet and each interaction you have, colors your life in very specific ways.

And when you put them all together you end up with a very special tapestry for your life. Each thread weaving around in seemingly haphazzard fashion, but when viewed with perspective, its clear that each is as important to the whole as any other.

My wushu friends have been, as I said, one of the two biggest factors that influenced my experience with wushu during this period of my life.

What is the other? Well, that will be the subject of my next blog. It’s a little something we in the wushu community refer to as “sifu video”.

Continued Next Week …

I picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hello. Is Mark there? I’m returning his call.” a woman’s Chinese-accented voice said on the other end.

I figured it was someone from the school’s office or maybe a parent that helps with registration.

“Yes, I’m interested in taking Wushu classes?” I said.

“Have you taken any martial arts before?” she asked.

“No”, I admitted. I hadn’t, really and certainly didn’t count the 2 months of Jungae Moosul when I was 19 and half year of Karate when I was 15.

“You can come to watch a class.” she offered and explained how to get to the school on the following Sunday.

I had a million questions (mostly geeky ones) running through my mind but all I could get out was “Are you the instructor?”.

“Yes, I am” she replied.

GULP.

“Oh .. okay! I will see you on Sunday then!” We said goodbye and I hung up the phone.

I was pretty anxious for the next few days. I think I showed up a little early on Sunday to the small studio. I didn’t actually know where San Pablo Avenue was since I hadn’t hung out in Berkeley outside of the area near the University.

It was a small space, but I didn’t care. I was anxious to see what this wushu stuff was all about. After so many years I would finally see it in person!

I met the teacher, Hao Zhi Hua, who also called herself Patti Li, and I watched the class. I don’t think I even needed to stay through the whole class. I could have just watched them do the opening salute and I would have been sold. Not knowing anything about wushu, they all looked amazing. I couldn’t wait to get started.

I wanted to start as soon as possible, but I wouldn’t get paid until that Friday and I hadn’t enough money to pay the tuition, so it would have to wait a week until the following Sunday. Unfortunately she was going to be out of town to judge at the U.S. Team Trials in Texas.

She offered to postpone it for a another week until she returned but I was too anxious.

Sunday, March 12, 1995 at 9:30 a.m., I showed up to the studio ready and raring to go. A guy named Tony was going to teach that day. A former student of hers that I never saw again. The class was a bit of a blur, but I recall being taught the first half of a beginning form by one of the students named Yolanda.

By the next day I was sore beyond belief.

Around the same time I noticed a poster at the sandwich shop I usually ate lunch at advertising a performance by the Beijing Wushu Team at the Palace of Fine Arts on Saturday, March 17. I didn’t want to miss out so I went to the ticket office and picked up a seat. It turned out I was in the farthest seat from the stage possible, my back literally against the wall, but it was better than nothing!

Since I had signed up for class twice a week I came back to the studio on Thursday, where all the students were a-buzz about the upcoming performances by the Beijing Wushu Team. It got me even more excited. In class I learned the second half of the beginning form. Some people were looking at me funny, but I wouldn’t find out why until later.

Sure enough, come Saturday, I walked down to the performance hall from my apartment and was blown away. Not just blown away, but my brain was literally turned to liquid goo in my skull and I was all a-quiver.

These pictures and many more from the performance can be found on Raffi’s website, beijingwushuteam.com

These pictures and many more from the performance can be found on Raffi’s website, beijingwushuteam.com

After the performance I took my program and got it signed by the members of the team. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure who was who as I had only been doing wushu for 2 classes.

I saw a girl who looked like she was part of the group standing there and handed her the program and a pen.

“You want me to sign it?” she asked.

Okay … she spoke perfect English. Obviously not a Beijing Wushu Team member.

“Sure” I answered, shrugging with a smile. So she signed it and to this day I have no idea who she was.

(Oh, and Russell Wong was there too, so I got an autographed picture of him with his shirt off doing a high kick. My female roommate, Seema, was quite jealous.)

On Sunday I went back to class. This time my friend David Nixon from Seattle was visiting me so he tagged along to check it out. I figured since I had learned the beginning set in the first two classes that I would probably have to practice them for a while to get them down before learning something else.

Apparently I was wrong.

In the middle of class Patti pulled me and two other students aside and told us that we were going to learn the 1970’s Compulsory Long Fist Form. She showed us a little of the beginning and it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. She proceeded to teach us the first several movements and we practiced them for the rest of the class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pH5QFOfNYQ

Zhao Chang Jun performing the 1970’s Youth Compulsory Long Fist Form for men.

I was getting strange looks from people in the class again, but since I had a friend there watching and I didn’t know anyone I didn’t pay much attention to it. After class we went home and as we were walking along David echoed a sentiment that has since been said dozens of times by dozens of different people I’ve met both in and out of wushu:

“Its interesting, because that one girl who was doing her form — she wasn’t particularly beautiful or anything. She wasn’t ugly, but just sort of average looking. But when she did her wushu, she suddenly became much more attractive.”

Amen, brother. And from what women have told me, it goes both ways. Men with good wushu are apparently hotter too. I suppose it’s true of any really intricate physical art. Proficiency and aesthetic excellence breeds attraction.

So, I continued going to class, and I continued learning my form. I met several of the other people in my school too. Kaz, a fellow half-Japanese guy, 6 months at the school, and originally from northern California and a good friend of Green Day (used to bum around Europe with them back before they were famous) and Tabala, an african american man who was one of the more advanced people in the class and credits his upbringing not to his father, but to watching Bruce Lee movies (which he could recite from memory, beginning to end).

There were a few others too, but those were the two I connected with the best and hung out with the most. In fact, both of them would eventually be roommates of mine.

Oh, and for those of you who know him, this is what Cary looked like when I first met him (at the tender young age of 4).

I later found out why people gave me strange looks in the beginning. In fact, I found out why one student, who worked with Kaz and started when he did, quit taking wushu right after I started (or at least it was a factor, so I was told).

Before I had arrived there, Kaz and the other students had all spent a minimum of 6 months to a year learning the beginning long fist form. Patti would drill them on the same (to be honest) simple/boring form for over half a year. They didn’t want to ask her to teach them anything new for fear she would think they were being impatient, but at the same time they were getting a little frustrated.

Enter this random guy who joins class, learns the form in 2 days and is then learning an intermediate form with them. It had taken them 6 months to get her to teach them something new, and it took me only 2 classes. Understandably they were a little upset about that, but it made me realize something about myself that I hadn’t really realized up until then.

I tend to pick things up quickly.

Even these days, I can look at a form and figure out most of the details on my own. Being physically capable to do the moves is one thing, as I’m limited by my body’s condition. But mentally, I learn forms quickly.

I’m not saying this to brag or sound special. It is just something I’ve learned about myself.

Granted, an ability to learn quickly and $2.00 still just gets you a cup of coffee at Starbucks, so it’s no big whoop unless you apply it to something.

Over the following weeks, during the Beijing Wushu Team’s stay in the U.S. I would get to see them on one more occasion. This time in April at San Jose State University. I had been training for a month and so I was able to carpool with Patti, her husband and a few other students. The show was equally amazing. But this time I was right up front in the first row having a major wushu conniption.

If you look carefully, I’m in a red shirt below the word “STATE” on the right side.

These pictures and many more from the performance can be found on Raffi’s website, beijingwushuteam.com

These pictures and many more from the performance can be found on Raffi’s website, beijingwushuteam.com

After the performance we even got to go to a dinner with the Team. And we took pictures with a bunch of them too. I must have used up 3 disposable cameras in the span of an hour. Unfortunately I don’t have many of them scanned in except for these two:

L to R: Tabala, Kaz, Ka Li (Beijing Wushu Team member), Lee (Taiji student) and a much younger me.

Patti and Wu Bin (her coach) at dinner

My first picture with my coach! Taken in Berkeley, California on University Ave.

The next several months were a wonderful, happy blur. I was learning cool moves, I was hanging out with people who were as geeked out about wushu as I was, and I was beginning to feel like I had joined a new family of like-minded souls who all enjoyed what I enjoyed.

Wushu had me wrapped around it’s finger and I was planning our future together with reckless abandon. For a whole year I could have told you exactly how many hours and days of wushu I had taken classes. I had planned out which forms I would learn over the following 10 years of my life. I was even taking some mandarin lessons with Patti’s aunt (to not much success).

But I knew that eventually the honeymoon with wushu would come to an end. The newness would wear off, or the first plateau of non-progress would hit. I knew it would come eventually, but I still enjoyed what I was doing. And I planned to keep enjoying it for as long as I could.

That was, until I came to class one day and was told that I would be competing at a tournament in August. Just 5 months after I had started wushu!

To Be Continued next week …

Back in 2008 I started to write this Wushu Retrospective, an accounting of my personal history with wushu.  Now that I have a smidge more time I am going to re-post the original entries (previously only posted for a select group of people) and continue writing them to completion.  I will post a new segment each Sunday.

It’s been an up and down sort of relationship  with wushu over the years and while I’ve always been fairly dedicated to wushu as a sport, my training will sometimes run cold before I get motivated and turn back on the heat.  I thought I would look back at some of the highs and lows of my training.

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I had first seen wushu a few years before I knew what to call it.

One summer during high school when I was working in Tokyo, my host family’s son, realizing that I liked kung fu flicks, showed me some Jackie Chan films.  (“Fearless Hyena”, “Wheels on Meals” and “Project A”, I later learned) as well as a Jet Li film (“Shaolin Temple 3″).  I didn’t know who Jet Li or Jackie Chan was, and the Japanese names of the films were different than the Chinese or English, but those films were brewing in the back of my head for the next several years, fueling my interest in martial arts.

Here’s a slip from Shaolin Temple 3:

http://www.youtube.com/v/tPv4XTYs2U0

A few years later I happened upon a video tape in a rental shop called “Iron and Silk”.  Most wushu folks know of this film, but if you don’t it is based on Mark Saltzman’s trip to Hangzhou, China in the mid-80’s to teach English.  While there he trained with Pan Qing Fu, a well-known wushu coach.  That was the first time I heard the word “wushu”.  In the film he also mentions the film “Shaolin Temple”.

Shortly after that, during one of my short stints trying to pick up martial arts (in this case a Korean system called Jungae Moosul), I had asked the instructor about wushu and he mentioned the film “Shaolin Temple”.  Remembering it from “Iron and Silk” I expressed interest in watching it and he let me sit in the studio and put it on the small TV they had sitting in the corner.

No English subtitles or dubs.  Just Cantonese with Korean subtitles, but I watched it and was mezmerized.  It reminded me of how I felt watching those movies back in Japan.  I was hooked on martial arts films.

Over the next couple years I became engrossed with Jackie Chan films.  I still didn’t know who Jet Li was but I knew that Jackie Chan was making the kinds of films I wanted to watch.  I would go to the independent theater on the Ave next to the University of Washington in Seattle and start checking out their Jackie Chan film nights.  After a while I expanded my choices to any Hong Kong movie that came.

And there, on one of their schedules, I saw the name Jet Li.  I didn’t realize that it was the same person I had seen in the Shaolin Temple movies but the film and his name sounded interesting so I went to check it out.  It was “Once Upon a Time in China 3″.  I left that theater on a high.  The production values, the wushu moves — I couldn’t stop talking about it to my friends.

http://www.youtube.com/v/2Fjx9DyxzuI

They didn’t get it of course.  They liked Jackie Chan, but it’s hard to explain the appeal of a Wong Fei Hung / Jet Li film to someone who had never seen one.  I even dragged my sister to a showing of Fong Sai Yuk a couple months later, but she spent a fair bit of the film laughing out loud at the wire-work wall-running and silly plot.

I wasn’t detered though.  I searched around Seattle for a wushu school.  Kung Fu, sure.  Tai Chi, yeah.  Aikido, you bet.  But wushu?  I couldn’t find it anywhere.

At around the same time I realized that Seattle wasn’t really the place for me anymore.  I decided to move to San Francisco.  I didn’t really tell anyone that one of my motivations for moving there was to see if I could find a wushu school.  I don’t even know if I admited it to myself.  That was the fall of 1994.

I kept trying to look.  I went to Tat Mau Wong’s school.  I checked out the 8 Step Praying Mantis school in the Sunset.  I called up the number in the phone book for “Wushu Resources” but a young girl answered and told me “My dad isn’t here right now”.  (It later turned out that was our own Sifu Bryant Fong’s daughter Marla.)

But finally, on March 3, 1995, when I had almost given up on finding a wushu school, I spotted something on a co-worker’s copy of “The Open Exchange“, an independent newspaper in San Francisco.  I grabbed the paper from my co-worker and my eyes bugged out.

“WUSHU WEST”.

The words were on the page.  And there was a picture of a woman holding her leg up next to her head holding a sword.  The text said that she had been a member of the Beijing Wushu Team and had trained with Jet Li.

Well, that’s all I needed to know.

I grabbed the phone and called the number and left a message.

That evening they returned my call …

To be continued in one week …

Now that I have left the Bay Area, my wushu training is, at least for the next month, on the back burner.  In the meantime I will focus more on other things and activities.  Once I’m in China I’ll get back on the bandwagon.

But since this is a temporary break from wushu, I wanted to go out the right way and write up my final Wushu Recap.  Enjoy!

Tuesday and Thursday

Tuesday’s class was the last time I would be teaching before Hao Zhi Hua returned from China. To be honest, I don’t remember the specifics of the class, so that must mean it was fairly run-of-the-mill. As I recall, on this particular day I focused a bit more on section combos. I spent some time teaching new nanquan to Pierre and Johnny too, as well as some more long fist for Kevin and Eddie.

On Thursday HZH was back in class. I suggested that she mostly observe so that she could see what sort of workouts we’ve been doing and what level everyone is at. So I ran the warmups, stretching and basics. We did sections as well.

After class she told everyone that we had improved quite a bit and that we all seemed much stronger.  Thats good to hear.  She also told me that I had lost weight and improved since China too, which is great since I was mostly worried about not building on all the stuff I had done in China.  Nothing worse than spending all that time and money in China and then just wasting it by not doing anything when you get back to the U.S. (*cough* Noah *cough*).

I was originally planning on going to Ding Wei’s on Saturday but it turned out that they cancelled the Saturday class so instead I spent the time at home working on the new Wushu West website.  You can check it out!  For a quick redeisgn I think it isn’t too bad.  At least it will be way easier to update now that it is on the WordPress CMS.

http://www.wushuwest.com

I spent a bunch of time updating the content and last weekend I trained Cary on how to update it so he at least can do things instead of me from now on.  I was going to train James as well, but time wasn’t permitting, I guess.  Anyway, Wordpress isn’t exactly rocket-science.  I’m sure things will be okay.

Sunday

Sunday’s class was fun, but probably because I didn’t have to teach at Wushu West for the first time since early June.  HZH had us focus a lot on basics and stretching and timed us for front stretch and continuous front slap kicks.  For front stretch (zheng ti tui) I did 15 in 11.28 seconds.  And for the continuous front slap kicks it was 15 in 8.82 seconds.  Not too bad, but I’m guessing I can improve if I keep at it.

One thing I noticed is that Lauren and Tyler have both improved quite a bit.  Lauren is way more stable and her basics are so much better than they were when I first saw her in the early spring.  And Tyler is much stronger and starting to show a bit more emotion in his wushu.  I can’t wait to see how they look the next time I’m in town.

Actually, everyone has been improving quite a bit.  And I’m afraid I can’t really take all the credit for that.  They have all been working pretty hard too, and that, more than me, is the reason for the growth.  I hope they can all keep it up.

Wushu Longevity and Mastery

After talking with Justin Ho online about longevity in wushu, I realize that the path I’m on and the way I’m training is a good one.  I am trying to develop my wushu not to accomodate the nandu rules or the acrobatics and new-age choreography, but in a way that allows me to continue enjoying wushu in the future without killing myself by doing things that aren’t suitable.  I can focus on certain aspects of wushu without worrying about others that aren’t going to help me out.  Training has become more cerebral or intellectual for me now, focusing more on specific ways to keep my foundation strong and my training long-lived, than on playing around with tricks and the latest fads.

I suppose that is probably true of any art form, when you think about it.

I can tell that I’m not as strong as I once was, but I’m definitely stronger than I was when I started this return to wushu in November.  And each month I will grow a bit more, improving and reclaiming a bit more of the ability that my lack of training has brought about.  I don’t want to become some super amazing athlete or anything, but I would like to at least know that I can improve my skill and increase my level.

After all, the real motivation for a student shouldn’t be whether or not they are learning lots of moves or learning new forms all the time, but should be whether or not they feel they have improvements yet to make.  I don’t mind not learning anything new, as long as I feel I can improve on what I have already learned.  Learning lots of things isn’t development.  It is just trying to stuff more food in the bowl than it needs to hold.  If you want a good meal of wushu, then quality, not quantity, is going to serve you better in the long run.

And when you focus on quality over quantity, then you are working towards mastery of the given subject.  You are developing gong fu.  When you prioritize quantity over quality, then you are fighting against it, and you will never have that high level skill in anything.

Just my two cents.

After Sunday’s class we had a BBQ over at Lauren, Tyler and Travis’ home.  It was a lot of fun and I ate a ton of really good food. Thanks so much to them and their parents, Susan and Michael, for inviting us over.  I also got a wonderful framed picture with little notes from everyone at Wushu West wishing me a good time in China and thanking me for teaching.  It was very touching.  I’ll stick a picture of it up on my blog when  I get some time (and am unpacked).  In the meantime you can see these photos I took at the party:

Wushu West Changes

I should also mention that there are some changes afoot at Wushu West.

First, the schedule will be changing for the fall season.  I believe beg/int wushu is 5:30 – 7:00 and advanced is 7:00 – 9:00.  sunday is the same.  They are also going to start offering some incentives for people to sign up for class and from what I understand they are also reducing the tuition.

Whenever I talk to people about Wushu West the first thing I usually hear after “Yeah, it is a great school”, “you have china carpets!” or “hao zhi hua is a great teacher” is “but it is really expensive”.  Well, that is no longer a factor as prices will be slashed across the board by over 25%, if not more.

They are also implementing a discount for college students and this month they have a half-off-your-first-month special for new students.

In any case, you can get more information from the website, or you can drop by for a free trial class and ask questions for yourself.

Tuesday

And so my last day of wushu training had come.  Not a huge class on this day but that suited me just fine.  I wanted to really try to put everything I could into the class since I wouldn’t be able to do wushu for a while.

And boy did I.   I got really wiped out from the basics and after the first several lines I had to start taking short breaks.  If you were there you probably heard me huffing and puffing.  It wasn’t pretty.

We focused a lot on basics for this class, which is great.  But the best part of the class was that I got to finish two things:

First, I got to finish teaching the new nanquan stuff to Pierre.  We hurriedly got through the rest of the section. Sure, he’ll have some practicing and remembering to do.  But at least we got that finished up.

The second thing is that I also go to finish teaching Eddie the Youth Compulsory Long Fist form.  I was there his first day of class and taught him the first moves of this form.  So it was a nice bookend to be there to teach him the end of the form as well.

At the end of class I ran conditioning.  And it was brutal.  LOTS of frog leaps and wall sits.  Lots of ab work and V-Ups.  I really wanted to push myself.   I was pretty sore by the end of it.  And worse of all, I had to stay up all night packing and preparing for my train ride to Salt Lake City in the morning.

I ended up sleeping most of the train ride, but we arrive at SLC around 4:30 AM so I have to wait 3 hours for the shuttle up to Idaho Falls.  I slept on that too, of course.  Anyway, I was picked up by my mom, we did some shopping, ate some lunch and by the time I got home I was pretty beat and ended up crashing rather hard.  Now I have a ton of unpacking and organizing to do so that I can be the most productive possible during the next 10 days.

Thanks

I also wanted to give a big thanks to all the folks in Berkeley who have put me up over the past year.  Shahaub, my brother-man, has been a big help to me allowing me to crash in his home on multiple occasions.  It has been wonderful introducing him to the world of American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Fringe, Dollhouse and more.  Don’t forget Shahaub — get some Alias on the playlist.

And then to James and Myles for putting me up at their home in Albany for this past month.  And a big thanks to their house-mates too; Amanda, Scott and Adam, and of course Jesse, in who’s room I stayed while he was out of town.

Also to my teacher, Hao Zhi Hua (who will probably never read this) for letting me crash in her living room whenever I needed to.

And thanks to all my friends who I’ve been able to spend some time with here and there.  And to the students at Wushu West who made working out fun.  And .. well, to everyone. I am very grateful for my experiences here in the Bay Area and all the people who make those experiences possible.

See you all next year!

My, time flies when you are training hard(ly).

This week had its ups and downs, but for the most part it was good.  I’m keeping up with my conditioning workouts after classes, and this week I even had a chance to go check out Ding Wei’s new school in Fremont.  If you haven’t heard, the former Sichuan Wushu Team member has started his own school up.

Training at Wushu West

But first, lets get to my training at Wushu West.  The one thing I wanted to do, which I didn’t get around to doing is figure out some more details with my nangun form.  I’ve got the first two sections pretty much down, and a rough skeleton of the 3rd and 4th.  Well, maybe more like a skeleton with lots of muscles and organs clinging to it.  Still need to wrap it up in skin and give it a nice hairdoo.

I ended up making some good progress on my nanquan though.  I have it all figured out and more-or-less finalized through the 3rd section, and most of the 4th as well.  The devil is in the details, as they say, and I still have a few fine-tuning things left to do.

Tuesday’s class was good.  I have found a good routine with the workouts where I get to train and teach at the same time.  I do the warm ups, stretching and what not with everyone (I’m working on being consistent with these so that everyone gets properly warmed up and stretched out, in other words, no more games where only half the people get a workout and the other half are lazy).  After that I do every other line of basics.  So I’ll lead the line of front stretch kicks, and then I’ll watch them to correct.  It is a good compromise for myself, I think.

Usually I sit out jumps, since I can’t really do them anyway, but I am not focusing a ton on them right now because most of the students really need to focus on their fundamentals (myself included).  What is the point of a twist if you can’t even do a proper horse stance?  Reardless of competition rules, based on good wushu, you need to be able to do the basics well before you do the aerial techniques.  So, as long as I’m leading a class, the basics get the emphasis (but not to the exclusion of any jumps).

Forms are going well.  I will usually do that part of class one of two ways:

The first way is how most people do it.  Just lots of sections.  Running through forms and as people do their stuff I give them corrections.  If they need me to, I might teach them the next few movements of their form or make suggestions on things to change.  But for the most part I like to encourage people to learn how to self-correct, and analyze their own forms for themselves.  I think this is a more valuable skill in the long run, because you never know if you will end up with a teacher or coach that even cares about helping you improve or not.  You have to be the person who is the most invested in your own improvement first.  Then after you, it should be your coach.  If you aren’t commited to getting better, why should they be?  Two lane road, y’know?

The second way is how I’ve seen a lot of schools in China do it, and one or two in the U.S. too.  Which is to do lines of form combinations.  Students pick a small combination of movements from their form that they need to work on/fix/modify/remember/figure out, and work on that combination 3 times down one side of the carpet and 3 times down the other side.  Then do a few rotations of that and go to a different combination.  It doesn’t have to be full speed.  In fact, it is better if the first few times it isn’t, so that you can focus on the technique.  Once you get the technique down, you can speed it up and figure out the pacing and rhythm.

So on Tuesday we did sections.  And on Thursday we did combo lines with a couple sections thrown in at the end for good measure.

Both classes we did lots of frog leaps and lunge walks at the end, plus conditioning for the abs and shins.  Tuesday I forgot the post-class splits training, but I did it on Thursday.

Ding Wei Wushu

As I mentioned, on Saturday I decided to head down to Fremont to check out Ding Wei’s new school and support his efforts to branch out on his own.  It was an interesting workout for a few reasons.  (And by “interesting” I don’t mean bad.  I just mean interesting.)

First, the class is a little shorter than I’ve become accustomed too.  But that is mainly because of China where we would train at least 2 – 2.5 hours each time.  And since coming back I’ve even gotten one or two classes up to 3 hours.  The classes at Ding Wei’s are an hour and a half, so I was caught a little by surprise at the end when we lined up to salute.  I probably should have paid better attention to the clock.

However, the second interesting thing sort of compensates for any shortage of time during class, because they tend to get to basics much faster than we do.  In China especially, they tend to warm up and play games for a good 35-40 minutes before stretching.  Which, to be honest, I think is sort of a waste of time.  At Wushu West I’ve been decreasing the warm up times and taking out the games.  We can usually get a good sweat on and be stretching within 25 minutes.  But at Ding Wei’s they warm up and stretch on their own in about 20 minutes or so before doing basics.  I wasn’t quite warmed up enough and so when we were doing basics my calves sort of cramped up on me.  I had to sit out a few lines to let the pain-fire subside a bit.

The other interesting item is that they are (for the time being) holding classes at a gymnastics school.  That means they are using the bouncy floor used for floor routines.  I definitely wasn’t used to that, and I kept readjusting and tripping over myself when I did my techniques.  That, combined with the dodgy quasi-muscle pull I got in Thursday’s class, meant I was pulling my stances up kind of high and not snapping some of my transitions are hard as I should; especially on the left side.

But all of these items aside, I think the most interesting is Ding Wei’s teaching method.

Now, I’m not saying this to put anyone down or push anyone else up.  This is just an observation on different methods of teaching.

One thing I noticed with Ding Wei is that he gives a lot of corrections and suggestions.  I actually like this.  And, truth be told, it has been a while since I’ve gotten any.  In China, I would almost never get any corrections from our coaches.  Xu Ming Hu didn’t actually correct me other than say “bu cuo” (not bad) and Luo Hong would sometimes not say anything.  I mean, I suppose sometimes no news is good news, but I wouldn’t have minded a few corrections on my techniques.  But during those 3 weeks I received almost none.  Fortunately that wasn’t the case for the other students, as most of them received lots of good comments.

Back when I was training in Shanghai and Shandong I sort of noticed the same thing.  And I suppose I have just gotten used to it over time.  If nothing else, it has helped me really learn to self-correct and adjust myself during training.  But at the same time, I sort of forgot what it was like to have someone really tweaking and adjusting everything you do.  At Wushu West I’m usually teaching, so I don’t get trained that much.  Once in a while Patti might give me a comment or suggestion, but they are sort of few and far between.

I think the last time I got a bunch of corrections was when I trained at Ma Jin Long’s school in San Diego in June.  It wasn’t him, but one of his assistant coaches, Liu Xiao Tang (or “Shan Shan” to her friends) who gave me lots of suggestions.  It actually caught me off guard because I wasn’t used to it.  I had to fight the urge to take it as critisism of my form and remember that the comments are meant to help make my wushu better.

So, again, when Ding Wei was coaching me and giving me comments and corrections on my nanquan, it was a bit of a surprise.  I wasn’t totally surprised though, since the one other time I’ve trained with him back in 2005 I remember him doing that as well.  The main thing I need to remember in those situations is that even if I don’t agree with the assessment of the way to do a specific technique, to not dismiss is just because I might feel differently.  One of his suggestions, which at first I sort of thought was strange, actually made good sense after some introspection.  So I will probably adopt this in my form (along with a few others he gave me).

This also speaks to Ding Wei as a person.  Some coaches are very hesitant to give corrections to someone else’s student for fear of hearing the dreaded “but my coach told me to do it this way!” from the visiting student.  I’m a little hesitant as well.  But if you are visiting a school, then I think that opens you up to receive that coach’s critiques, and I have a lot of respect for coaches who don’t let their fear of contradicting another coach, or their disinterest in someone who hasn’t signed a school contract, affect their ability to coach an athlete.  It shows a confidence in their ability to help athletes improve themselves.  Patti actually does this too, which I really appreciate about her.  If you come to the class, she will treat you pretty much like any other student in the class and give you corrections and comments, even if you are just there as a drop-in student.

And like I said before, I’m not trying to put anyone down here.  This lack of getting critiques really seems to apply mostly to me.  With Patti or coaches in China or with other coaches at other schools, most students get lots of great corrections.  Maybe it is because I’ve been doing wushu a long time, or maybe it is because they assume I can figure things out on my own, or because nanquan isn’t their forte,  but whatever the reason, it isn’t really a good or bad thing.  It just is the way it is.  I’m certainly not complaining.  (see above re: importance of learning self-correcting.)

So, long story short, if you live in the South Bay and are looking for a wushu school, I recommend going to Ding Wei’s.   (Of course, all you Upper East Bay folks should head over to Wushu West. )

Sunday’s class was a good one, although I was pretty wiped by the end of it.  For the previous three or four days I hadn’t been getting enough sleep — only about 3 – 5 hours a night.  No particular reason, just finally readjusting myself to the time zone.  But Saturday night I made sure to get to bed at a more reasonable time and managed to get a good 8 – 9 hours of sleep.

But even given that I was still a bit tired since I haven’t really made up for the lack.  Class went as usual.  We did the form combos type of workout (see above) followed by a few sections.  One of the advantages of running class is that I can tailor them partially to what I need as well.  On Saturday when I was coming back from Ding Wei’s school on the BART, I figured out my 3rd section.  So I used Sunday’s class to hammer out the details.  it is coming along now, which is nice.

After class was conditioning — the usual fare.  But today my legs were really sore afterwards.  I’m glad Monday I’m not training, because I’m not sure I could do another one so soon (which is ironic since I was training daily in China).

So, for this week, here are some of the highlights:

Accomplishments

• Finished 1st section transition for nanquan
• Choreographed and figured out 3rd section for nanquan
• Figured out the basic structure of the 4th section for nanquan
• Kept up with conditioning and training schedule
• Legs are getting stronger
• Flexibility improving (almost have right splits)

Things to Work On

• Better sleeping schedule
• Finish up my nanquan form for GOOD (or at least for now)
• Work on my nangun and get it finalized
• Continue conditioning and flexibility training

This week I’m going to do the following:

• Tuesday (8/11) @ Wushu West: Nanquan 3-4
• Wednesday (8/12) @ Ding Wei: Nanquan 1-4
• Thursday (8/13) @ Wushu West: Nangun 1-2
• Sunday (8/15) @ Wushu West: Nangun 3-4

Wow, that was a long recap.  I better say goodbye for now.

In my efforts to keep better track of my wushu training, I’m going to (try to) write up a weekly summary of what I’ve done over the past 7 days, both the good and bad, and figure out those things I want to focus on for the following week.  It is mostly just to keep myself accountable to myself, but I’m blogging it in case it helps any of the two people who read this blog.

Looking Back

A bit of background on my wushu training: while its true that I’ve been training for the past 14 years or so, I should mention that it has not been all that consistent.  Most recently, during the two years I was in Hong Kong I didn’t train at all (those three classes at Li Fai’s, or the 2 classes of traditional Hung Gar don’t really count) so when I started up again this past year, it was pretty much from scratch (or slightly lower than scratch).

Initially I started off focusing on my endurance and overall physical condition.  Since I was in Idaho during the winter, I took advantage of the higher elevation and mostly focused on running, with a few days a week at the gym for some supplementary strength training.  The running continued through my visit to Hong Kong during Chinese New Year and then tapered off when I returned to Berkeley in February and started doing wushu again.

Since I was back in Berkeley I started training (very slowly and gradually to start) at Wushu West.  I started with just once a week until that felt comfortable.  Then I increased to twice a week.  By the time I left after CMAT in April I was doing two-three classes a week. Here is a video of me during that period of time in Berkeley:

Ewww … I was really slow and plodding, huh?  Ah well, gotta start somewhere.

When I returned to Idaho, I took advantage of the altitude once again and started doing three days a week of wushu training at a local Judo Dojo that I rented for an hour and a half.  I also would participate in a core training class before that so it was essentially 3 – 4 hours of training, three times a week, plus the occasional walk through the neighborhood.

I tell you, that first time trying to do a line of wushu basics at that altitude … it really wiped me out.  But after a week or two I was finally acclimating.  When I came back to Berkeley in the beginning of June I was feeling much better about my wushu prospects.  My flexibility was starting to come back and I felt much stronger.

June I didn’t get to train quite as much as I would have liked to, so when I went to China in July I was feeling a little unprepared.  But nothing prepares you for China training quite like going to China and training does.  The first week was brutal, but after that I started to get better.  I only trained once a day, which worked out to 5 or 6 times a week.  Quite a jump up for me, but I didn’t over-push myself and at the end of the month I was in better shape and stronger than when I had left (even though I hadn’t actually changed my body weight at all).

Here is a video of me training in China:

Recent Status

And so here we are.  We just got back from China on Monday.  Tuesday’s class wasn’t so great.  I was kind of out of it with a bit of traveler’s stomach so I mostly taught.  But by Thursday I felt much better.

There were a few specific things I’ve decided to focus on since coming back from China.  The first is that I want to really build up my leg strength.  After discussions with athletes in China I picked a few specific exercises that I’m going to do each workout to develop this area; frog leaps, shin lifts, calf hops and lunge walks.  I also want to work on building mycore with more ab work, although I’m a little lazy with those.  My arms are already too big — I don’t need to work on my upper body so much, except what is developed through the course of wushu training.

The other thing I want to focus on is flexibility.  This week I’ve been focusing on doing stretches, especially splits, at the end of class, when it is the most beneficial.  And it has already paid off.  I got my full left splits back today on my left side and my right splits are much farther than they have been in years.  The increase in leg strength has also helped my basics, as I’m finally able to do a real back sweep today, the first time I’ve done one in at least 4 years, if not longer.

Weekly Summary

So, here is the summary for the past week:

Improvements:

• Increased leg strength (felt a good sore after Thursday’s class)
• Full splits on left side and improved splits on right side
• Got my back sweep again!
• Participated in class from start to finish
• Worked out more of my new nangun form.  Section 1 and half of section 2 is done.

Things to Improve:

• Need to do more ab work conditioning
• More shin strengthening conditioning
• Have a better plan of my own form items to work on when I come to class
• More stance work, especially nanquan basics

This coming week I have the following plan:

• Tuesday: Wushu West (nangun section 2, nanquan section 3)
• Thursday: Wushu West (nangun section 3, nanquan section 4)
• Saturday: Ding Wei Wushu (nanquan)
• Sunday: Wushu West (nangun section 4, nanquan closing)

In addition, for each class I will try to do the following conditioning and flexibility exercises:

• Frog Leaps
• Lunge Walks
• Calf Hops
• Shin Lifts w/Back Planks
• Situps/Crunches
• Backlifts
• Heel Touches
• Front Splits

Future Wushu Plans

Looking farther to the future, my plan is to focus on wushu training while I’m here in Berkeley.

When I go to Idaho at the end of the month, besides focusing on wedding planning, I’m going to work on my endurance.  Get back up with my running and try to rent out the dojo space again a few times a week for more wushu practice.  I really want to get my forms finalized while I’m in Idaho.

I’ll be in Seattle for 2 days too, and if I can manage it I would like to drop by Northwest Wushu for a class. I still haven’t trained with Li Tian Yuan yet.

Then in Haiti for 10 days, where I’ll just try to keep up with my conditioning and stretching.

Then in L.A. for a couple days where I’ll try to drop by Hu Jian Qiang’s school (because I’ve always wanted to train with Mr. Nan Bei Shaolin himself).

After that I’ll be in China where the wushu will hopefully be fairly easy to find (hopefully).  I have a couple possible connections with the Shaanxi Wushu Team, which apparently trains pretty close to where I’ll be living.  We’ll see what I can find.  Worst case scenario, I could always train at this place, located a few miles from my Xi’an home.

This blog entry is being written for Wushu West’s website, wushuwest.com. However, since I’m the one writing it, I thought it might be of interest to other folks too. If you would like to learn more, please visit the Wushu West website.

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At last it is time for the last blog entry from this recent trip to China (and now hopefully I can get some actual work accomplished).

I should also mention that I went back and updated all of the previous entries with new photographs and videos that weren’t in the previous ones. Especially for the Shaolin Temple and Xi’an legs of our trip. So, be sure to visit narom.net or wushuwest.com to check those out (I don’t think they will port over to facebook or alivenotdead).

I’ll probably also post up some additional stuff on wushuzilla.com, if I have some time, and I’ve been slowly posting some wushu videos on my wushuzilla youtube channel too, so you can visit that if you are interested.

Saturday, June 25, 2009

Anyway, the last time I posted we were headed back from Xi’an to Beijing on the train. We woke up nice and early and got our things together before disembarking. However, I managed to snap a few nice photos of the surrounding countryside before we did (click a thumbnail to view).

We were greeted by our local tour guide who would accompany us on the bus from the Train station to Shi Cha Hai. Kent had left us in Xi’an so this was officially the end of our tour.

When we arrived in Shi Cha Hai it was time to re-acclimate to the environment. For most of us, the next 2 days would be spent socializing and shopping.

I saw Shahaub and Wu Di pretty much right after arriving and as Wu Di was leaving to get a haircut, I decided to join him and get one as well (Thanks Wu Di for the haircut!). The salon was nice and after I was done, I got us something to eat and took a few pictures of him with tin foil in his hair:

Then it was back to the school where I got myself situated in the room I would be sharing with Pierre.

As I was unpacking I realized that I had left the charger for my laptop in Xi’an! I quickly made some calls and learned that the hotel had found it and that Ruhi would be able to pick it up for me. I just needed to get a new one in the meantime (it doesn’t hurt to have a backup cable anyway).

I first went to a couple local electronics stores, but they didn’t have anything that I needed, so I finally went to the Electronics store located on People’s Sports Stadium South Street. They had what I needed and I was able to bargain it down a little bit. Phew! problem solved.

In the evening Patti had arranged for everyone to go to Mistica Pizza for a group dinner. The food was pretty good but the entertainment was even better. The singer played guitar and had a song list so that you could request a song or even go up and sing it yourself. Wu Di, Shahaub and some of their friends showed up too and we were serenaded by Wu Di’s dulcet tones

I didn’t get a video of Wu Di singing, but I was able to get some of the guitar player singing a bit of James Blunt. Coincidentally, during most of the night Daniel Wu was on the TV as the special guest of a variety show where he was showing the hosts how to ride a skateboard and do various acting exercises. You can see a bit of it in the clip

It was getting late so I rode in a taxi with Jonah and Noah back to Shi Cha Hai. When I went back to my room I unpacked some stuff, worked on blogs, and then I hit the hay.

Sunday, June 26, 2009

After waking up I finished up a bit of blog work and cleaned up. I was going to be meeting up my old friend Marco Goodman, who had been living in China since 2004 or so. In fact, the last time I saw him was 2006 when he dropped by Shi Cha Hai for a quick class. He had been living in Liaoning but recently moved to Beijing where he was preparing to work on his MBA in China.

He came by the school and then we headed towards Ya Xiu. But the food at Ya Xiu didn’t seem to suit us so we ended up going to McDonald’s instead. It seems that food at Ya Xiu is bargainable, which seemed strange to us. I don’t mind bargaining for clothes or bags, but bargaining for a meal isn’t something I’m as used to.

Anyway, after that he went with me to get fitted for my suit. While there we ran in to James, Myles, Pierre, Ashley, Lauren, Susan, and Jennifer. Patti showed up a bit later as well. Marco and I went down to the luggage floor and ended up having a lengthy conversation with a few girls down there about the business of selling goods. We learned quite a bit about the mark-ups they put on items, but it was nothing compared to what I would learn later on.

After a while Marco had to leave so I went back up to hang out with the Wushu West folks. Since I wasn’t buying anything, I decided to further my education and learned some Anhui dialect from the local workers on the 3rd floor. It actually reminded me a lot of Shanghainese.

After a while I got sort of bored, so I decided to head back down to the bottom floor again. This is where things got interesting.

I ended up hanging out down there for a few hours talking with the 4 Anhui (and 1 Hangzhou) girls who were working near the escalator. I was there long enough that I actually ended up helping them with some of the sales.

I worked at the hat stall for a while learning the right phrases to call out to people as they walk by and ignore you.

I worked at the belt and wallet stall learning the mark-up mathematics on various items and how much they should be sold for. (Foreigners really get shafted here.)

In fact, I even managed to sell a card holder to some Chinese guy who thought I was the boss for the stand (since I didn’t have on the typical blue or pink worker shirt).

I could write a whole blog entry on what I learned from that experience, but I won’t bore you with the details. Sufficeth to say, it was very educational (and I have a new-found respect for how difficult that job can be).

After returning to Shi Cha Hai I grabbed some food in the cafeteria and then went to my room to pack. 20 minutes later I decided to head to the lobby to watch “So You Think You Can Dance” with Shahaub, Lauren, Ashley and Jennifer. We did that until my battery died around 3 AM. Then I caught some z’s.

Monday, June 27, 2009

It was time to leave! Boo! We all got up nice and early and headed to the lobby with all of our luggage. There were 8 of us heading back on the plane. Lauren, Tyler, Susan and Travis were continuing on to other parts of China, Patti was staying a few more weeks, and James would be coming the next day.

The ride to the airport was quick (that new expressway really helps) and soon enough we were all checked in to the flight and waiting at the gate to board our plane.

I slept pretty much the whole way (which is why I stayed up so late the night before) and when we arrived at SFO on Monday morning at 8:30 AM I was ready to go.

We picked up our luggage, made our way through customs (with the exception of Myles, whom they apparently thought was carrying drugs in his Panda hat) and greeted our various family members outside.

And thus ends this blog of the Wushu West trip to China, 2009. I hope you enjoyed all of it. Of course, if you are interested in taking wushu and are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, you are more than welcome to drop by Wushu West and check it out for yourself.

This blog entry is being written for Wushu West’s website, wushuwest.com. However, since I’m the one writing it, I thought it might be of interest to other folks too. If you would like to learn more, please visit the Wushu West website.

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Edit 7/28: I’ve added photos and video to this entry. Many photos courtesy of Pierre Combes. Thanks Pierre!

Thursday, July 24, 2009

Our bus ride from the Shaolin Temple to Xi’an was pretty interesting. I’ve taken buses across parts of China before, but not quite like this. A tour bus is much more comfortable than one of the long-distance coaches that you can take here. Our journey took us through some mountains that ran parallel to the Yellow River. Some of the views we got were just breathtaking, and I was able to grab a few shots that don’t do it justice.

We stopped a few times along the way to get gas or relieve ourselves, but 6 hours later we arrived in Xi’an. Now, I should mention that my time in Xi’an wasn’t spent with the Wushu West group. As a result, this blog isn’t so much about what they did. I will ask one of them to write up what they did in Xi’an, but if the previous requests for blogs are any indication, don’t hold your breath.

Here is a look around a Chinese truck/rest stop:

I was actually just in Xi’an 8 months ago during last year’s China Wushu Nationals (perhaps you read my blogs back then?) so it was very familiar to me. I really like Xi’an a lot for its combination of new and old, and my time this trip didn’t change that opinion at all.

We were all staying for the night at the super nice Grand Park hotel, located just across from the South Gate of the city. The view was fantastic, since we were on the 9th floor, and the amenties were spectaular, especially in comparison to the hotel at the Shaolin Temple.

The first evening we ate dinner together at the buffet downstairs in the hotel. Very good food, very fresh and lots of choices, so everyone was pretty happy. The normal rate for that dinner is 118 RMB, and the rooms run around 800 RMB, so I think the tour group definitely arranged a discount.

After dinner some of us went for a walk around the South Gate. We saw some street vendors and performances, and then walked by a wine store that James said was stocked with some of the best wines in the world. He said that very few wine stores in the U.S. would be able to have the selection of wines this place had. One bottle was over $14,000 USD! A little pricey, if you ask me, but James is the professional wine expert, not me.

Ruhi had also met us in Beijing. She lives in Xi’an and had gone there a few days before us. Since we will be living in Xi’an after getting married I wanted to check out the apartment and see the neighborhood I would be moving to. First we went to see her place and then we grabbed a quick foot massage, which I slept through entirely. Then I went back to the hotel and slept.

The other funny thing that happened is that we randomly ran in to an old student of Ruhi’s, named Phoenix, who works at the hotel. I guess living in Xi’an for 8 years means you tend to randomly run in to old friends.

Friday, July 25, 2009

This is the day where paths diverged. Everyone else spent the day going and seeing the Terracotta Warriors, the South Gate or the Goose Whatchamacallit. I had some errands to run (first of which was to post up that blog entry that we were alive) and then I went with Ruhi to Xi Gao Xin (West High Tech Zone in Xi’an) to get measured for a ring. We also went to a nice place for a quick bite. We did meet up with the Wushu West group during both lunch and dinner.

Here are several photos that Pierre took of their trip to the Terracotta Warriors. Enjoy!

The lunch was at a nice dumpling restaurant next to the Bell Tower. Amazing dumplings, of which I took many photos. Here are a few:

At the lunch two things happened.

First, it was Travis’ birthday. He turned 7 years old, so we had a cake and a song for him. He seemed to enjoy it.

Second, there was a performance/competition by children of employees of the restaurant. It actually got started as everyone left, but while they were testing the sound system, this boy played a flute song that was freaking amazing. I uploaded a video of it, but I’m not sure I will be able to post it here until after I leave China. Be sure to come back to check it out in a few days.

Edit (7/28): Here are two videos of him playing. First is a mic check, and second is the end of his actual performance.

It was actually a competition of story telling. All the kids (about 10 of them) were judged on how well they recited a story that was pre-written about dumplings. The skills ranged from super nervous kids reading from the paper, to well-composed, confident children that had arms movements and great vocal skill.

Ruhi and I stayed to watch it after everyone left for the next leg of their tour. Here are some videos:

And here is one of one of the girls singing. Believe it or not, I think it is English.

We had to pick up the ring and run a few other errands. We finally met up with the Wushu West folks again at their dinner stop: hot pot near the city center.

The meal was good and afterward we all piled in to the bus and headed across town in terrible traffic to the train station. This was my second or third time at the Xi’an train station so at least I wasn’t super overwhelmed. I have to say that it IS a bit more disorganized than the Beijing West station (or the central one, for that matter).

After a while we were tour-guided in to the terminal and made our way to the train. Once again it was an overnight trip to Beijing. We watched some videos on my laptop (Futurama, Bolt) before going to bed.

This blog entry is being written for Wushu West’s website, wushuwest.com. However, since I’m the one writing it, I thought it might be of interest to other folks too. If you would like to learn more, please visit the Wushu West website.

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Edit 7/28: I have added the photos and videos to this entry

Edit: 7/26: Since I can’t access Picasa right now, I’m going to just use the default image uploader that comes with my Wordpress package. I will provide a link to all the photos at the end of the entry so that you can see what we were up to

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

So, as I said before, we were all preparing for our trip to other parts of China. We gathered in the lobby of Shi Cha Hai’s International Plaza Hotel and loaded up in to the tour bus that would take us to the West Rail Station in Beijing. For each leg of our trip, Kent would be following us and helping keep us organized. We would also have a local guide for each location, that was more familiar with the area we were visiting. And of course a bus and driver would be with us the whole time too.

This was my first time doing a tour of any sort, so it was a very interesting experience for me. While you might not get a great indepth look at the culture or society where you are visiting, it is a great way to get a general overview and feel for what that area has to offer, so that the next time you visit you can explore just those area that interest you the most. I might sign up for tours more often in the future, if the opportunity presents itself.

Anyway, we all go dropped off at the train station. It was my 2nd time taking a train from this station, so I was familiar with it, but for the others it was quite an opportunity to witness the famous Chinese train system first-hand. It is quite a hustle and bustle of humanity.

We hung out in the Soft Seat lounge for a while before boarding our train. For those of you who don’t know, Chinese trains are divided in to 4 classes. From worst to best, they are Hard Seat, Soft Seat, Hard Sleeper and Soft Sleeper. The Soft Sleeper car was where we would be staying. It was a closed-door compartment with 4 bunks. I would be rooming with Pierre, James and Noah on both of our train legs.

After getting on the train and acclimating to the environment most of us hit the hay in anticipation of an early arrival in Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

I managed to grab a quick video as we were arriving in Zhengzhou, so you can see what it looks like from a train in China:

After we arrived and groggily shuffled off the train, the first thing I noticed was how muggy it was. As it turned out, that was because it was going to be raining for most of our time in Henan.

But first it was time for breakfast. Meals are included as part of our tour package so we were escorted to the first and only time we would experience fast-food; a quick bite at KFC. Of course, at this point most of us didn’t mind the taste of home.

After breakfast we piled in to our tour bus and met our local tour guide, Jackie Chen. He was very familiar with the Shaolin Temple and surrounding area and would be showing us around.

After the 1 hour drive to the mountainous area where the Shaolin Temple was located, we were first taken to a Daoist Temple, where we explored and took lots of photos. The temple, originally burned down, was rebuilt in the style of the Forbidden City. So if it looks like that sort of place, that is the reason. They call it Xiao Gu Gong (at least that was the local name), “Little Forbidden City”.

After that we went to check in to our hotel. It was a very opulent school located just down the road from the Shaolin Temple. In this area there are several dozen martial arts schools, each with anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand students who live and train there. The best of these students are chosen to become “Warrior Monks” at the Shaolin Temple.

Warrior Monks are different than other types of monks, in that they are not subject to the same rules as Buddhist Monks. A the Shaolin Temple there are around 300 monks, with only about 80 of them being “Buddhist Monks”. The requirements for Buddhis Monks are what you would imagine; no meat, no drinking, no sex, no spouce, etc. and they are never leave the temple until they die. The other requirement for the Shaolin Buddhist Monks is that they be over 80 and have graduated and studied at an official Buddhist University.

The Warrior Monks on the other hand are allowed to leave the temple at a certain point in their lives where they can go on and live a “normal” life, with meat, alcohol, and the rest of life’s various sins. Most of them go off to teach at the same schools they came from. Some others become bodyguards or security officials.

Anyway, enough of the lecture. The hotel was actually owened by one of the larger martial arts schools in the area and had its own practice carpet right off of the lobby. You could sit and watch people training, which a few of us did while waiting to check in to the hotel.

I was rooming with James this time, and after a quick shower we went down to meet up for lunch at a Buddhist Temple only for women monks. It was a delicious vegetarian meal and we were soon full and satisfied. But it was time for us to walk off all that food with a trip to the Shaolin Temple.

The temple hadn’t changed since my last trip there in 2007, so at least I felt a familiarity with the surroundings. Fortunately this time there were considerably less people there.

We walked through the entry yard with all the shops, got our tickets (while waching “Nan Bei Shaolin” on the big screen TV) and then walked down to watch a demonstration at the on-site school. It was your typical Shaolin demonstration with some hard qi gong and various essoteric forms. You can probably youtube something similar. I did take the opportunity to take several pictures though, thanks to the good lighting.

After the demonstration we took a shuttle bus to the temple itself. Having a tour guide was a nice change for me, as I hadn’t really gotten much of the history of the temple the last time I was there. Jackie did a great job of sharing some of the history of the temple with us.

After the temple we walked up the street to the Pagoda Forest and then caught an electric shuttle back to the entrance. All in all we spent about 2 hours walking around the temple. Our feet were certainly due for a rest.

Back at the hotel we rested up before going out for a nice dinner. It was a local restaurant not too far away. They really have the meals down pat with these tours. They have pre-set menus at pre-arranged restaurants and the food is basically ready as soon as you sit down. You are pretty much in and out of the restaurant in under 45 minutes. Very efficient.

I used to live next to this restaurant in Shanghai that I would see tons of foreigners go in to with tour groups on a daily basis. “It must be pretty good” I thought to myself so I went to check it out. The food turned out to be so-so and super over-priced, but now I realize that those restaurants aren’t really set up for individual diners. They cater to the tour groups and have set menus that they specialize in. As a result, the tour groups get pretty good meals, but if you walked in off the street you would get an overpriced, so-so meal.

However, for us, the restaurants were located in a smaller town and not Shanghai, so they could accomodate both tours and smaller parties. In any case, the food was pretty good.

After dinner it was back to the hotel to rest and sleep. We needed it!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

In the morning I saw a very large contingent of students from the Shaolin School next to the hotel practicing outside. It was pretty neat. I hadn’t seen anything like that since the 2006 trip to the Temple. (I really need to post up a blog about that sometime. It was pretty amazing.)

Before leaving for Xi’an, we had arranged a practice session with some Shaolin Monk students (not warrior monks quite yet) in the hotel wushu practice area. There were five of them, and their skill level was actually pretty good. There was one in particular from Anhui who had some really strong basics and very good jumps. The level is certainly going up at the Shaolin Temple schools. Hopefully it continues to do so over time.

At the beginning of our practice they were a little shy and didn’t say much, but by the end we had broken the ice and managed to have some good conversations with them. I told one of them (the one from Anhui) that if he could give me his email address I would send him the photos. “I don’t have an e-mail address,” he replied “but I have a blog”.

I can only imagine what he writes about. But we exchanged contact information and hopefully he will get the photos once I am back in the U.S.

After the practice we showered and everyone got ready. We checked out of the hotel and headed for a nearby restaurant for lunch.

This was also goodbye to Jackie, as he was done with our Shaolin leg of the tour. After lunch we rode the bus the 6 hours through the mountains to Xi’an, Shaanxi, home of the Terracotta Warriors!

This blog entry is being written for Wushu West’s website, wushuwest.com. However, since I’m the one writing it, I thought it might be of interest to other folks too. If you would like to learn more, please visit the Wushu West website.

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EDIT: 7/28: Added photos from wushu practice

To be honest, it feels like a long time ago that we were in Beijing, even though it was technically only 3 days. I’m going to do a very quick summary of the last couple days. Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of Sunday and Monday, so you will have to do with this hastily-written entry. I really have so much stuff from the trip to Zhengzhou (Shaolin Temple) and Xi’an that I want to get to that as quickly as possible.

Sunday

It was our day off. As such, a lot of us had various things we wanted to accomplish before leaving Beijing on Tuesday. A lot of that involved going to Ya Xiu. For myself, I first had a nice lunch over at Patti’s home with a few of her family and some of the Wushu folks who were able to make it. It was a quick bite and after watching some strange sports on CCTV5, Ruhi and I headed to Ya Xiu.

The main task at hand was to figure out our wedding clothes. Coincidentally we also ended up running into Lauren, Ashley, Susan, James, Myles, Jennifer, Wu Di, Pierre and Shahaub there.

After shopping 6 of us headed back to the Singaporean restaurant from Friday night and we all had some great food. It was amazing to watch Wu Di when he’s hungry. A few of us almost lost some fingers. Then it was a taxi ride back to Shi Cha Hai and an evening relaxing and preparing for our last full day of workout.

Monday

Originally we had been told that the morning workout was at 8:00. So naturally we were all up nice and early. But then it turned out it was switched to 10:00, so we had to wait a couple hours. Poor Tyler actually went to the wushu guan. But we finally got situated and then worked out downstairs in the lower wushu hall. For myself, I was creating a Tiger form, so I made the first two sections of that. So far, so good. After class we also had a group meeting about our upcoming departure from Beijing.

After workout we didn’t have a ton of time to do things before our afternoon class. I went across the street with Ruhi to grab some bing from the restaurant I ate at back in 2004 or 2005 with Patti and her brother. It was still there and still delicious.

Afternoon practice was in the upstairs wushu hall. It was pretty empty as we were the only ones in the whole room. I spent some time figuring out my form and teaching Travis a few moves from my nanquan (Southern Fist) form. Ruhi had gone by that time, as she had a dinner appointment and was flying back to Xi’an on Tuesday morning.

Most of us spent the rest of the evening packing and preparing for our trip. Pierre and I also received a visit from Wu Di and Shahaub, along with Jennifer. After a while it was time for bed. zzzzzzzz.