The Weekly Wushu Recap (8/2)

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

Li Tian Yuan

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.

Hu Jian Qiang

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.

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