February 7th - My First Week of Training

My Thoughts 🤔 我的想法

This week of training has been interesting. A lot of ups and downs throughout it and many thoughts have gone through my head through the entire ordeal. I'd say Monday training is the hardest and then it slowly gets easier as the week goes on with Friday being the easiest (only two hours of training). There is good and bad to Maling Shaolin Kung Fu School just like there is good and bad to anything. I think a big part of it is me getting used to living here and dealing with a new kind of training but, one thing really does bother me...

I paid so much money to train by myself.

This thought has gone through my mind a lot. Many times I've been training with others during class and after class a few people usually stick around but there have been a couple of times where I am in forms class or just after class and I realize I am just by myself practicing. This could be because I'm still new which, I understand as I have to learn the basics before I can move on to the cooler weapons or group forms. So maybe that is the only problem is that I'm still new... which really isn't a problem.

Average Breakfast: Egg, Bread, Porridge

Another thing is that some of the classes don't "exist" anymore due to there not being a translator. Wushu Theory, Massage, and Mandarin Class are no longer available leaving a good chunk of knowledge missing from the curriculum. Without a translator some of the training is difficult as some time is spent translating and trying to understand but Master Ning and Master Peng both speak understandable English, which is good. Which leads me to the training.

The training is good, it will challenge you in every way possible but sometimes the challenge isn't a good challenge. You're just thrown into class and told to do moves. If you don't know it then you either copy other students or the teacher will take the students who don't know what to do aside and teach them. Jumps and Rolls class comes to mind as I've never done anything like it before but I was told to do "Tiger Rolls" over a stick, head stand rolls and more without any training.

New Shoes

I personally like the Shaolin Basics classes, Power Training, Forms Class, and Xing Yi Quan class the best. Ba Ji Quan and Tai Chi Quan are both uninteresting to me but Tai Chi is a good morning warm up. I don't really care for Jumps and Rolls even though I've heard its important to learn this for certain advanced forms in the future. Finally, I despise the Power Stretching class. I've done two sessions of it and I just don't like it as I feel it isn't the best way to stretch and I don't feel good after or during the class. Now, some students really like the Power Stretching as it has helped them immensely; I will keep doing power stretching but my thoughts, so far, are the same.

It is finally the weekend, what are you doing this weekend?

-Johnny