Jinan - Day 2 (11.14): Hao Jiu Bu Jibbengong (Long Time No Basics)

2006.11.14 - 22:20

china. shandong. jinan - hotel room

After a quick breakfast of dojang (soy milk) and dumplings in the hotel’s cafeteria, I got myself ready and made my way to the wushu guan for the morning practice with Li De Hua. As usual, I was one of the first ones there (it takes me much longer to warm up than the typical Chinese athlete so I always come early to stretch and sweat) so I got ready (i.e. put on my ankle brace, two knee supports and petellar support) for class.

I should back up a bit and say that my workouts in Shanghai with Yang (Rong Kuan) Laoshi are not your typical wushu workouts. That is to say, they don’t focus on basics in the same way that most wushu schools do. As most of you know, typically when you go to wushu class you will, after warming up and stretching, go through a standard complement of wushu basics — front stretch kick, inside, outside, side stretch, etc. — before starting your forms. In Shanghai we don’t do that.

That isn’t to say we don’t do basics. But he focuses on a few very key basics and we pretty much never do any of the others. For example, I haven’t done an outside crescent kick basic in Yang Laoshi’s class EVER, but I’ve done rotations of front stretch kick 25 times around the carpet. I never do continuous drop stance - spear palms, but I’ve done more horse-bow snap transitions than I could possibly count. And to be honest, I guess it doesn’t really affect my forms much because I don’t have the typical long fist basics as any of my movements. And we are given a lot of time to work on combinations from our forms so it’s not an issue of not getting time to work on what you need to work on. It’s just … different.

And since I haven’t done the standard basics routine in a long time, I knew that it would be the main adjustment I would have to deal with when training with the Shandong Wushu Team. I watched their workouts last year — they do lots of basics.

So, the class was, just like your standard Chinese wushu class, very … “standard”. They ran around the carpet for a long time building up a sweat. Then we stretched. Then we did basics. I actually managed to get through all the basics without any problems. I think this is a result of two things:

First, I took about 6 days off of training to build up my strength for Shandong. Unlike some of you young whippersnappers out there, Taking a break actually improves my wushu endurance and condition. It’s mostly because I don’t heal as quickly as I used to. (Back when I was a kid you could cut me, but stick some neosporin and a bandaid on it and you could literally watch it heal up before your eyes.) So, the break helped me. I had trained pretty much non-stop for the previous 2 weeks and I was able to take all that training and absorb it into my body. I definitely felt a lot stronger in today’s class.

Second: We did a lot more running and stretching than I typically do in my classes in Shanghai (it’s much colder up here so maybe they try to make sure you are warmed up before class) so my legs and joints were good and loose before we started in on the basics.

After basics they all started working on jumps and nandu so I went on the side and did wall sits and calf raises. That stance training I’ve been doing in Shanghai really paid off. I’m up to 3 sets of 3 minute wall sits and I don’t even feel much muscle fatigue. Of course, if I go into full horse stance it is still a bit painful to hold, but it’s an improvement.

Then it was time for forms. They were doing half or 3/4 sections so I did the same. I managed to get through about 20 rotations but then they switched to duilian practice and my ankle also started to hurt. It’s been hurting for a couple weeks now but I must have aggravated it some more during class. There was a woman doctor (or possibly a medical assistant … wasn’t clear on that) who took a look at it and told me to come down to the medical center on the first floor when I had time.

After class (I spent the rest of the time just watching Cao Jing’s group practice — there was a really good nanquan guy there too) Li De Hua took me down to the medical center and a doctor-guy took a look at me. To be honest I didn’t understand most of what he said, and I was really hoping for some accupuncture and heat-lamp treatment, but he told me to come down and have them wrap up my ankle before each practice and also told me to use ice on it. I was a bit surprised at that because it’s the first time I’ve ever heard a Chinese doctor tell anyone to ice anything. Usually heat is the way they treat injuries, but I suppose there is a first time for everything.

On the table next to me was Ding Hai Juan, who I had met briefly last year. One of the team doctors said I looked familiar and Ding Hai Juan said that I had only come once last year briefly. I was suprised she remember me from my one day of watching their practice since the nanquan woman on the team had totally forgotten me when I talked to her in Hangzhou last June. It turned out that the team doctor had recognized me from Nationals in Shanghai this past September. Good eye.

After that I walked back to my hotel and ate a small egg sandwich I had saved from breakfast and did some work online. I was able to talk to a bunch of folks back in the U.S. on IM too, which was nice. I also did a bit of web design work and took a nice 90 minute hot bath to soothe my muscles. The bathtub isn’t all that big, and I would have to readjust every once in a while to make sure all the various sore parts got soaked, but in the end I felt much better when it was over. I spent most of the time finishing a book I was reading so it was time well spent.

I have to say, while this isn’t the poshest hotel room in the world, I really like it. It’s comfortable and it’s nice to have a home-away-from-home for a little while where all I have to think about is wushu and some web projects. I realize that’s pretty much all I think about at home too, but for some reasons this is feeling much more like a relaxing vacation.

It’s not fancy, but it sure is comfy.

But I realized that the reason it’s relaxing is because I’m spending it alone. I dont’ have any friends in Jinan so I don’t have any obligations to hang out with people. I can do what I like, when I like, and not worry about meeting up with so-and-so or going to meet such-and-such person. Don’t get me wrong — I love my friends. It’s just nice to have a break and some “me” time for a change.

After that it was time for dinner. “What? No second class?”, you ask?

Yes. No second class.

I came to the realization a while back that two classes in one day on a continuous basis is no longer something my body will allow me to do without some major consequences. I can maintain it for a week or so, but after that I begin to get injured and hurt. A few years back I could have done it no problem — and perhaps once I’ve been training for longer than a month I will be able to do it again — but at this point in time it just isn’t an option. I’m pretty happy with having one intense workout a day though, and it’s far more than I’ve done over the previous year on a continuous basis so I’m not going to stress about it.

So where was I? Oh yes … dinner.

As I’m now in the “north” I decided to partake of some very northern food. Specifically, I went down to the hotel restaurant and got a half order of Beijing Kao Ya … Beijing Roast Duck. It was DELICIOUS. I also had a bit of a meat ball by accident (didn’t mean to order it, but the waitress misunderstood my horrendous Chinese) but it was also delicious so I didn’t mind.

Delicious Roast Duck!

I realize this isn’t Beijing, but the roast duck is still superb. And talk about CHEAP! Just just 18 rmb for the duck and 6 rmb for the wrappers, sauce, onions and cuccumber. That’s 24 rmb for more roast duck than I could eat (I didn’t make it through the whole plate). Not bad for about US$3.00, eh? One thing is for sure in Jinan — things are way cheaper than Shanghai.

After dinner I decided to spend the evening relaxing a bit (not that my 90 minute bath wasn’t relaxing, but I had also worked on web design stuff for a few hours as well) but I realized that in my rush to pack I hadn’t actually included any recreational items such as DVDs or books (aside from the one I had just finished).

So, I ended up learning something else that was different between Jinan and Shanghai (or Beijing, for that matter). It’s much harder to find bootleg DVDs here. First I asked my waitress, but she had no idea. Then I asked the receptionist and she suggested a store and wrote it down for me to show the taxi driver. He took me to the store but it turned out to be similar to a low-rent Carrefore. The only thing they had were legitimate copies of movies you’d never want to see. I picked up a VCD of “Imposter”, the Gary Sinese movie from a little while back and then went to get another cab. I asked that guy to take me to a DVD shop, but he misunderstood and took me to the big electronics store next to the Walmart downtown. (The electronics store wasn’t there last year so it was a pleasant surprise).

I explained that I was looking for DVDs and then he took me to the street o’food that Jenn, Wang Wei and I had walked around last year too. (The lady selling the bugs for consumption wasn’t there anymore. I guess the market for cooked insects is dwindling.) I walked down the aisles but it was similar to last year and the only DVDs I saw were bootleg softcore porn — not exactly the entertainment I was looking for.

A familiar sight and a pleasant surprise!

So, I gave up and had the taxi driver take me back to the hotel. When I got to my room I popped in “Imposter” (which I ended up enjoying) and then got ready for bed around 10:00. With the earlier wushu class time I’m finding my schedule adjusting to sleeping earlier as well.

And so ended my second full day in Jinan, Shandong. Will my ankle hold up? Will I have any interesting interactions with the wushu team? Will Cao Jing ask for my hand in marriage? Stay tuned and find out when I post a new update tomorrow!

Click here to view my Shandong 2006 Photo Album