February 11th - Second Week of Training Begins

My Thoughts 🤔 我的想法

I like the training that we do here. It is fun and even though some students feel "trapped" in the school because of the sickness it doesn't bother me that much because I came here to train so training is what I'll do. I hope after a year here that I'll show some improvement of some kind as right now I don't feel any improvement yet. I have trouble going into the stances now, simple workouts like pull ups and dips are hard, and there is so much in the classes that I cannot do like the Jumps and Rolls.  But, I can do other things like the two forms I know and the sweeps. I'm one of the few guys that actually does Sanda too which is interesting.

I think what is causing me to get "overwhelmed" by the training we do is that my original goal was to do the splits and get stronger. Now that I'm here I've realized that there is so much to focus on and learn that my goal has gotten pushed to the side even though I didn't mean to. Master Peng told us a simple thing that they do at the Shaolin Temple before every single class and that is stretch. I think I will try to do this as well or at least stretch in my time between classes. Maybe that will help as recently I've been resting a lot... I've even missed the morning Tai Chi classes a few times. Master Yan said yesterday, "When you are the most exhausted is when you'll have the best Kung Fu so persist on through your training and don't stop"  (But he said it in Chinese)

Training 🥋 训练

The training here at Maling Shaolin Kung Fu School is good. Especially the optional classes because they are usually smaller so the teacher gets more of a focus with you. I've decided to do Wing Chun and Xing Yi Quan as the optional classes that I like as they seem very fun and useful to me. I also like the teachers who teach them so that helps as well.

My training on Sunday was "light" compared to what we normally do as I just focused on stretching and learning how to do the sweeps. I find the sweeps to be really fun to do as they look cool but they also stretch your leg muscles and help build control which all are useful since my end-of-the-year goal is to do the splits both ways.

Monday was back to normal classes so we had basic kicks from 正踢腿 to 弹腿 and even a jumping version of 弹腿. That basics class made me realize I have to work on my basics even more because they are terrible. I wasn't able to keep up with the group the Master put me in so I must also get faster and better. Then we moved on to forms where I reviewed 五步拳 and finally learned the last steps of 集体拳 (aka The Shaolin Group Form). I was told that if my basics are really good then everything else will be easier and since everything is hard here so far I'm guessing all of my basics are still bad... so I must 加油!

After the basic and forms class we all then worked on Sanda (Kickboxing) class which is always difficult but fun to do. To me Sanda feels an awful lot like karate but with different (maybe better) hand positioning. You kick with the top of your foot for everything, you do a lot of stance switches to get your kicks in, you chamber (raise) you knee before any kind of kick, and then a big focus is on kicking. It is like karate with boxing punches and it seems to work really well.

And finally after Sanda, it was my first class of Wing Chun taught by Master Peng. This martial art is very different from what I've learned in the past and what I'm learning now. The stance is weird, the footwork is different and you are supposed to be like a spring and use your core to generate force that goes outward to strike but you never over extend yourself. Kind of like a snap hit or a slap where you return your attack to yourself, using the power generated by speed to deal damage. Right now I'm learning the basics and very little of the first form. We will see how it goes.

What are you all doing this week? Learn anything new?

-Johnny "白武龙"