How To Take a Ton of Wushu Videos (12/14)

Ruhi had been asking to come watch me train for a while, and since I’ve been at the wushu school for a little while, and Yue Xiao Yu had thought it would be okay, we both headed over to the Shaanxi Provincial Sports Training Center’s wushu guan for a bit of Monday afternoon forms training.

My alterior motive for doing this was to get some videos of my own training so that I could see what I looked like and figure out what I need to work on.  (my own wushu videos will only be available for those registered on ...Read more

How to Maintain Your Motivation for Training (12/14)

The other day I received an e-mail from a friend back in the U.S.  They were discussing their increasing lack of motivation to train in wushu.  Some of it was related to feeling they had started too late, or a lack of involvement in the school by other students or some other things.  I wrote out some of my thoughts on the subject for them, but thought it might be something that a lot of wushu athletes out there are/have been/will be dealing with.

I have changed the specifics to protect the innocent...Read more

Bonus: Bike Shopping with Yue Xiao Yu (12/13)

Today Yue Xiao Yu was kind enough to help Ruhi and I as we went to puchase a bike.  I realized that it was a better use of my time and money to start biking to wushu class (its only 5 – 6 km from my home) and so we set out to do some bike shopping.  I also had a chance to do a quick interview with her in the cab and introduce her to everyone.

Here, for your viewing pleasure is our trip to go bike shopping with Yue Xiao Yu!

And for those of you on alivenotdead.com or Facebook, you can check out the...Read more

Wushu Retrospective (Part 4) – 1996-1998: An Introduction to Wushu Politics

When I first started training at Wushu West my focus was pretty much centered on the world inside my school. It took me a couple months just to get to know my fellow students and start bonding with them.

But it became clear after a short time that there was a whole world of wushu outside our four walls, and that the world had it’s own sorted history that I was soon to get a crash course on.

In hind-sight it was all pretty silly, of course. But that’s the benefit of ...Read more

48 Hours to Southern China

After a very quick trip (around 48 hours) to the south of China I am back in Xi’an. Nothing major to post up, but just wanted to let everyone know that I am back and should be blogging regularly again soon.

I went down south to renew my visa. I flew down on Thursday afternoon to Guangzhou, took a bus to the Futian border crossing in Shenzhen, and then took another bus from Lok Ma Chau to Tin Shui Wai in Hong Kong where I stayed with Jack, actually not sleeping at all the whole night.

I left off at 9:30 AM and took...Read more

Sprinting at the Track (12/9)

As I mentioned yesterday, today was a day at the track.  And not only that but it was a day for the athletes to run sprints.

It turned out that the last couple days have gotten noticeably colder than previous weeks.  Highs around 8°C (46°F) and lows around 0°C (32°F).  Seeing one’s breath is not even difficult.

I showed up a little before 3:00 and took a little walk around the track to warm myself up.  I really bundled up today.  I had two pants on (my workout pants and some outer track pants) and 4 layers on top...Read more

Power Training and Demo Practice (12/8)

Yesterday’s workout wiped me out so much that today was practically a non-workout day for me.  I considered not going, but I knew that I should go, even if I wasn’t able to really go for it.  Any effort > Zero effort,right?

The main issue was that my left knee was pretty sore from yesterday’s training.  It wasn’t a debilitating soreness, but it hurt enough for me to lay off it.  While they were playing tag I did wall sits and stretched my knee out.  And after stretching it was time for Power Training.

Lots of Forms and Who’s Who (12/7)

Those two days off from training and the relatively light schedule last week really helped my recovery and today I got to class and was raring to go.

We did the group warm up and then they started with wushu tag for the “sweat inducer”. As I mentioned before, playing wushu tag with professional athletes half my age is no walk in the proverbial park, but this time I tried it out. There was one time where I was chasing after a whole sequence of athletes, but eventually I was able to tag someone and sub someone else ...Read more

Wushuzilla Bonus Video

As a way to thank those of you who come to wushuzilla.com, I’m going to occasionally post up some bonus material that won’t be on youtube or any other location.  In addition, I will also occasionally post up some bonus videos that will only be viewable if you are logged in to wushuzilla.com.

Of course, registration is free and takes less time than a front slap kick.  Just enter your info on the right side there and it is done.

And if you aren’t logged in or visiting wushuzilla.com, not to worry.  I’ll still be blogging ...Read more

Wushu Retrospective (Part 3) – 1995-1996: Competitions and Demonstrations

This is part 3 of my Wushu Retrospective, a look back at my personal history with the sport of wushu.  Please note that there are syncing issues with the sound on the following videos that I didn’t have time to fix before posting them up.

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It was round-about the time I was 3/4 of the way through learning the 1970’s compulsory form that I found out I would be competing in August. Part of the reason I agreed to compete was because I had gone to watch the ...Read more