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Published: September 5th 2008
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Sword Form
Me learning sword form in my orange robes! Training
Upon arrival at the academy you get the option of 3 different martial art styles Shaolin (Flashy acrobatics with weapons) Baji (Shaolin for people that cant jump) Sanda (Practical fighting, kick-boxing and spend 90%!o(MISSING)f their time kicking or punching a bag). However you can swap at any time to another style and many students staying for longer periods will do a stint in each. I chose Shaolin as I was reliably informed the teaching there was the best in the academy and it has certainly pleased and impressed me. For my first week I recieved one-on-one training with a lower-master who taught me the basic stretches and the start of the first fist-form, teaching me to the point where I could effectively join in with the rest of the Shaolin group. While very tiring this taught me alot that served as the foundations for future training sessions, but aparently I was somewhat fortunate in this respect as many other newcomers dont recieve one-on-one training. Alot appears to depend upon the status of Masters in the academy which is constantly in-flux, during my time here ive seen 2 masters leave and 2 new ones come, with no explaination
Sword Form2
Me again! I dont normally wear these clothes, theyre damn uncomfortable and are for pictoral and ceremonial purposes only! as to where theyve gone. This is one great benefit of the Shaolin Master here as he seems to have stayed for the last 5yrs+, while the Sanda and Baji Masters are fresh during my time here. Due to Sanda and Baji being freshly taught here the groups are smaller with Sanda currently at 3 students, Baji at 5ish and Shaolin at 8-10. The training alternatives to Shaolin seem to change alot which frustrates many people who have specifically came for Tai Chi - shortly followed by the Master leaving - if you specifically want to learn something I would confirm with the headmaster that it is on offer at the academy.
Morning Training The daily routine begins with an alarm at 5:00am in time for the morning training at 5:20am, which typically starts with a series of stretches followed by a 2km odd run up and down a hilly road. This run is normally followed by a series of painful excerises from bear-crawling (hands and feetish) stairs to frog jumping around the courtyard. Due to the hard nature of morning training it is frequently avoided by 50-75%!o(MISSING)f the students at the academy, who recieve sporadic and
Sword
My new sword, only cost me about 6 pounds! lacklustre punishments. Enforcement of the 'rules' seems to have slackened off in recent years as in the past everyone would be physically forced out of bed to attend these sessions also with the threat of expulsion. However some people here have stayed 3+ months and only attended 3-4 morning sessions and have faced little to no retribution, possibly due to Westerners complaining about the previous stricter regime.
Qi Gong Qi Gong directly follows morning training and is even less popular, due to being so early in the morning it is typcially attended by 5 orso (out of the 25+ in the academy) people. Qi gong consists of a slow series of movements with the aim to relax the body and soothe the mind. To me it appears mighty similar to yoga and its offspring forms with one excercise in particular that id heard elsewhere before - where eyes are closed and hands held out imagining a ball until eventually you can feel the ball. I admit ive not attended many of these sessions as it tends to be the same routine, and am personally more relaxed by another 30min nap or read! The most entertaining element
Dragon Master!
The infamous dragon master in his standard attire! of Qi Gong is that its lead by the Long Sifu (Dragon Master) who is an aparently infamous master - at least 70yrs old - and incessantly chuckles about everything aparently taking great delight in leading the group through the same exercise over and over. The Dragon Master is also something of a legend and is often caught urinating in the training hall, much to everyone elses amusement.
Late Morning Training Late morning training follows after breakfast and consists of a 1:30hr slot followed by a 30min break then another 1hr slot. A weekly routine starts here with
Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays being assigned to practicing basic forms. In the time here ive learnt the basic stretches/kicks/punches and the first two fist forms. Im currently learning the first sword form as well, but that seems pretty hard and i doubt ill have come close to perfecting it before i leave!
Tuesday is assigned to acrobatics (Shaolin group only), which has taught me how todo cartwheels which id never been able todo in the past - next on the learning list is a cartwheel without using hands but i doubt ill learn that before
Assault Course Forest
Assault course forest, showing the punching bags and the water-log-bucket game! i leave! Most other people here can do insane things thou, that would look impressive in a Jackie Chan film!
Wensdays is group activity day, where the masters decide on a group adventure for the day. On occasions this has been a trip to the local temple, a run to Yehe (10k each way), adventures on the stairway to heaven (the 365 stairs) and various sports such as basketball/football/ultimate frisbee.
Mandarin Lessons The Mandarin lessons taught at the academy are inter-changable with the morning training sessions, with a beginners lesson followed by an advanced one. Sadly its somewhat generous to call them lessons, as its lead by an uncertified teacher with no control in the classroom and dubious English skills. In general they appear to be used more as a way to avoid training than any great desire to learn Mandarin, this is the only real aspect of the academy that has disapointed me and if you want to learn Mandarin you'd be alot better off elsewhere. Many students now study alone as they tend to learn more that way, using the self-teach book you can buy at the academy or through the internet.
Assault Course Forest2
The chinese kids with the big hole and other aparatus! Theres also the problem that many lessons never occur, during my 3 weeks so far ive had 3-4 lessons.
Afternoon Training Afternoon training is the main training of the day with a 2hr session (2pm-4pm) of intense work-out often in one of the two nearby forests the castle forest and the assault course forest. The castle forest is just beyond the local tourist attraction and activities there always start with a hilly run through the forest, often used as a walking trail by tourists, this is then followed by intense form training in a spacious area of the forest which can be especially awkward due to limited area and the presence of insects and trees, making the whole event extremely sweaty and is usually the least favourite of the students. The assault course forest is alot more exciting, with numerous activities going on. Normally we start with 140+ jumps in and out of a hole (armpit height) which i greatly struggle with and have seriously bloodied and bruised knees from scrambling out the hole so many times! Theres also a collection of punching bags which you kick and punch in a series and are then supposed to dodge the returning swing from the bags. My favourite activity there is the situp bars, where 2 wooden logs are risen above the air and you hang upside-down from them, with the task of thrusting your body up towards your legs to work the abs. This is often made more entertaining by hanging buckets from the raised logs and placing buckets on the floor, with the objective of transfering water betweeen the two using a bowl.
Evening Training Evening training is usually more free-form where you can do whatever you like as long as its fitness based its only an hour long and often in the dark so id usually practice a form under the stars in the cool or go for a quick run without the intense heat of the day.
Anyway thats me done for the day, hopefully gonna add some more pictures at a later date and will prob write a little about Siping/Changchun next weekend!
~Lukey
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