Back to Wushu Forms (11/30)

I was running a little late to class today so I called up Yuan Ming to ask him to let Zhang Laoshi know that I would be a few minutes late.

Then, as my cab pulled up to the front gate of the Sports Center, who was in the cab right in front of me but Yuan Ming!  He had run an errand for a coach to get something for one of the kids.  He met up with Xin Rue right in front of the medical building and they walked in so I think one of them might be sick.

In any case, it turned out I didn’t need to worry. Zhang Laoshi wasn’t in class today.  I found out later that he was in a meeting and left one of the students in charge.

According to the schedule, today was a form practice day.  Mostly small combinations done over and over and over.  I got there just as they were running around for warm-ups so I quickly got ready and did my own run around the far carpet.  I joined in with them when they got to stretching.

Of course, I couldn’t do nandu, so after my standard wall-sits practice I shot some video of them practicing their jumps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdkKXEln4o8

My back was still hurting me from the Friday conditioning workout.  As a result, when we started on basics my performance was a little lack-luster.  But I stuck with it and tried to keep up.  I was behind Yue Xiao Yu and throughout the class she was very helpful, providing me with suggestions and tips for my nanquan.  She also mentioned that Wu Ya Nan had left for a competition.  Perhaps he is going to Hong Kong?  I don’t remember seeing his name on the roster, but maybe someone got sick …

Anyway, over the previous two days I had been mentally reworking the beginning of my 3rd section, so I spent pretty much the whole forms-practice time on that.  After basics and nandu, it was pretty much just small sections practice for everyone.  So, we just kept going back and forth along the carpet, non-stop, working on our forms.  And for me that meant working on the first half of my 3rd section.

When I got a bit tuckered I would sit down and drink some water and get a bit of video footage.  But then I would get back up and get back in line.  I think all-in-all I probably went about 20 times back and forth along the carpet, which meant that the rest of them probably did closer to 35 or 40.

Here is a video where you can see some of the athletes working on their combinations.  I through in Qi Peng Hui’s double broadsword practice too, since I had it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjlaXrOokq8

After we did our combinations, a bunch of the athletes in our group grabbed their short weapons and were told to practice flowers and reverse flowers.  They would do the drills over and over for a minute and then rest for 30 seconds.  They did about 6 rounds of these.  And if you have ever done this, you know how tired your shoulders and arms get.  I took this one during their 3rd and 4th rotations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=225Bci006HM

Eventually the class ended around 5:10 and as people and coaches made their way out of the wushu guan, a few of the students stuck around to polish some of their movements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlNEr7iKW58

One student in particular, who was in my group but does changquan / dao and has redish hair, really works hard.  Even after a full class, he still stayed behind to work on his stuff.  And while other athletes had already started playing their daily afternoon soccer game on one half of the room, he stayed on the far side walking through his form, doing some conditioning and stretching and working hard.  It was very motivational.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtxHaZ5u6P0

After class I took off for home.  Tomorrow I have some errands to run in the afternoon so I won’t be able to go to class.  I’m going to be calling Zhang Laoshi though and asking him about the possibility of switching from the afternoons to the mornings, as I think it will help both my overall training regimen, as well as my work schedule at home.

With any luck, come Wednesday morning, I will be back at it, training hard again.

Oh, and just for good measure, here is a copy of the class schedule for this week: