Shanghai (12/14): Plan = Productive

Since starting up wushu again I have been slowly building up my endurance. I have yet to really do an entire full 2.5 hour class but I can usually make it pretty strong through the first hour or 90 minutes. Of course, during jumps I typically work on wall sits or stances, but generally I just go as long as I can, do as much as I can, and then stop when I’m too tired to continue.

But I was watching a show the other day and a trainer was saying that he teaches his clients that every time they go into the gym they need to have a plan of attack — a plan of what they are going to accomplish so that they can focus all their energy on completing the tasks. “Focus in on what you want to do like a laser beam and be as efficient and effective as possible while you are there” he said (I’m slightly paraphrasing).

I realized that I used to do that before. I’d have a list of what I wanted to accomplish when I went into the gym, or I’d have a list of the things I wanted to work on during wushu class (assuming the coach doesn’t throw me a curve ball) but since starting up again I haven’t been doing that as much.

Part of the reason is, as I mentioned before, I’m just getting back my endurance and I’m pretty happy if I can even get through a solid 90 minutes of practice. When I’m sucking air and just trying to not look like a goober on the carpet it’s hard to follow a list of to-do’s for my workout.

But I decided to do it for today’s class. It wasn’t anything major. I wrote down that I wanted to do 2 of each section and 2 double sections at the end, followed by specific conditioning at the end of class.

Today’s class format allowed some of that to happen and some of it didn’t. We didn’t do any open hand basics after our warm-up. We pulled out weapons and worked on weapon basics. I grabbed a nan gun and pretty much worked on combinations from the first section of the compulsory form. Then, after that we switched to sections, and I worked on nanquan. However due to the format of today’s class I couldn’t take the time to do a double section in the rotation, but I was able to do 3 of each section for the first 3 sections, which is 9 sections. Some of you kids might not think that is very impressive, but when you’re 37 and attempt to do 9 sections of wushu you might feel differently.

After that they did their “100 nandu” practice. Basically, the coach assigns a point value to nandu: 720 is 2 points, everything else is 1 point. The kids do a combination of nandu movements and if they land them cleanly (and he’s a stickler on this) he calls out the point tally. “1 …. 3 … 4 …. 5 …. ” up until they reach 100. It usually takes them about 10 minutes to get through the 100 nandu. And of course they don’t land every one perfectly (they’re only 10 or 12 years old, after all), but it sure does get them to push through a ton of nandu quickly. If you do the math, there are 7 people doing the nandu, and each person typically attempts the same number of nandu (give or take), and I’d say that they usually land their nandu at least 60% of the time. Assuming an equal point value for all nandu (they don’t land their 720’s as often as other movements so it balances out) you divide 100 by 7 people and then divide that by 0.60.

((100/7)/0.6) = 23.8 nandu attempts per person in the space of 10 minutes. Or, 2.38 nandu attempts per minute.

Of course, there is some time overlap where one person is finishing while another goes, or two might do a move at the same time. But for the most part, that is still a lot of nandu in a short period of time.

But I have digressed. I was talking about my training today. While they were doing their 100 nandu practice, I did my wall sits (3 sets of 2 minutes) and conditioning (sprints and frog leaps) as well as stretching (200 Head to Toe stretches, 3 minutes each leg for front splits and 3 minutes of side splits) and then spent the rest of the time figuring out some choreography changes for my nanquan.

The main thing I’m happy about is that I actually did all the conditioning and stretching I had put on my list. Usually that is where I falter but today I managed to push through it so I was stoked about that.

And that feeling of accomplishment really does translate into other areas. I had some work to do for the Jet site in the evening and I managed to power through it, using that feeling of productivity to help me get the job done. All in all it was a very productive day.

I’m definitley going to make sure I have a good plan of attack tomorrow. It doesn’t have to just be for wushu, but having a solid plan of what I want to accomplish each day (and sticking with it) really does make me feel better about myself. Not that I don’t feel good in general, but it’s just that extra icing on the cake.

Hmm .. cake.

That sounds really good right now ….

Which is strange, because I don’t really like sweets ….

As I said, in the evening I did some work on jetli.com. I posted up the lastest information on Jet Li’s collaboration with the Red Cross. They are working together to develop the “Jet Li One Foundation Project” in mainland China. They even have an SMS donation system set up. Pretty neat. You can get more information here.

After I finished that I went down the street to get a massage. 1 hour for just 58 RMB. My body feels much better now. I also ate some 2 RMB noodles and 3 RMB dumplings for dinner.