February 13th - Foggy Training and Humbling Sparring

A Foggy Morning in Xinyi

My Thoughts 🤔 我的想法

07:55
It is Thursday, I've done so much this week physically and mentally. I'm starting to see what I like and dislike about this place while also seeing how far I have to go to actually "master" these skills that they are teaching me. I'd like to learn the basics way more because after practicing them I feel like I improve in everything from stamina, flexibility, coordination and more. I've also learned the importance of recovery, eating well, and stretching after our workouts. It will be interesting to see how far I've come after a year of training as right now that seems so far away. Writing my good and bad experiences here really helps me keep going so thank you to those that look at this and I hope you can continue towards your goals as well.

Eggs, Tomatoes, Veggies, and Rice

19:00
I learned just remembered that tomorrow is my first test in front of all the school's masters. I guess I will perform my two forms, 五步拳 and 集体拳. I'm not nervous but I don't feel prepared for a test so soon. I have just started and my basics are still bad. I've heard speed is the key when it comes to performing these forms but I just want to do them at my pace, my way, so I know that what I did is... me to my fullest. In reality, I'm tested everyday when I'm here as the coaches notice what you do on the weekends, they see how you train in class, and they can see if you are giving your fullest or not. So this "test" tomorrow is just one of many that I will have to conquer in my year here. I still hope I do well.

Training 🥋 训练

07:55
So far the training has been a lot. So many things to remember and so many things we are told to do in our free time to prepare ourselves for the future classes. In Shaolin Classes I'm still learning the basic kicks and punch combinations as well as two forms. In Baji Quan I am learning the basic form and every class I learn a new move and it's use. Same in Xing Yi Quan and Wing Chun. On top of all the various martial arts we are learning we have a class for flips and jumps where they are trying to teach me how to back flip and then our Qi Gong/Conditioning class where they are training my body to be tougher. Then there is Sanda (Kickboxing) where I am learning the basics of how to fight as my basics are not good.

And that is my experience here so far, my basics are not good so I am unable to do the advanced moves. It'll be a long journey but, hopefully, after a year my basics will be good.

18:42
Now, it is after classes and after a filling dinner that I may reflect on what my training was today. Thursday and Fridays at Maling Kung Fu School are the easier days.You have the option to do morning Tai Chi everyday which is a nice warm up and a nice additional class for those who are focusing on doing Tai Chi... I didn't do it today as I was sleeping. (nice excuse) But then we go into the morning Qi Gong (气功) class which is a nice relaxing class where you can learn things like 八段锦 or 少林易筋经 which are these stretching/breathing routines to help stretch not the muscles but the tendons in your body while the breath refreshes and awakens you.  

Then, we went into conditioning which is like what you see in the movies. You're hitting a bag of sand (or in our case metal bbs) with your palm, lifting things with your fingers to improve your tiger/eagle claw, and then you are hitting each other in various parts of the body to get stronger. My hands and arms were tired and bruised after but now they are okay. If you do the conditioning correctly you shouldn't be mangled and damaged after. We all then had our lunch time but soon went into power training which was leg day today. Lots of tree hugging, squatting, duck walking, bear crawling, frog hopping and running.

After that it is over, you have an hour of free time before dinner and then after dinner you have your free time to do what you wish. For me, I've been stretching in my free time which seems to help me recover from all the various different workouts we do and then I come and write!

I have a "test" tomorrow to see how my skills are, how is your week going to end?

-Johnny "白武龙"