A Nerdy Girl Gets Around

Today was our last day of training at Shichahai, which makes me an unhappy monkey. We’re repacking and consolidating our things tonight, because we’re leaving Beijing early tomorrow, and heading to Xi’an, and then we’ll be off to Tai’an a couple days after that. It *is* cool that we’ll get to see other parts of China outside of Beijing, but we could’ve easily spent the whole trip in Beijing and had plenty of things to do… and more awesome training, of course

I’m very, very glad that I did this now, at this point in my life, because I don’t know that I’d have held up as well, even one year from now. I had a fairly normal run of soreness on Thursday and Friday, but on Saturday’s practice, my hip flexors were basically dead. I couldn’t go as low in drop stances, my crescent kicks weren’t as fast, and cartwheels… eugh. Trying to do too much on any hip-opening moves still hurts like a mother. It’s a rough reminder that, athletically speaking, I’m not exactly the springiest of spring chickens.

It’s definitely motivation to train harder at home, though. I’ve surprised myself with how much I’ve been able to keep improving, even as I approach the dreaded 3-0, and I guess I still believe that I haven’t reached my peak yet.  And, just yesterday, I saw Zhao Chang Jun doing a crazy squat drill in the weight room, and then I was informed that he’s 31 years old and still competing among the best that Beijing wushu has to offer. Sure, he did have a 15-year-or-so head-start on me with the training, but it’s a glimmer of hope, nonetheless.

This was most definitely worth it, pain and all. It’s been educational, and it was the extra kick in the ass I needed to keep going. I hope I can come back here later (not *too* much later), and for longer, when I’m both wiser and stronger.

Me on China carpet! (thanks go to Goo for taking the shots of me)

After doing southern fist for all of our other practices, I surprised our teacher by doing my old intermediate long fist form on my last day. Combo X FTW

Goo is faster than a speeding camera!

Our teacher for our practices at Shichahai explaining a move. (even though it looks like she’s going for a nose pick)

One of the other students from my school works on eagle claw.

Taken as I passed through the doors of the Shichahai lobby for the last time.

It seems fitting to start with the whole reason I’m here: the training!

We got up bright and early on our first morning here, so we could make it over to Shichahai for the a.m training session. We arrived on the campus with no real idea of what to expect, but I have to admit that, when we arrived at a small outdoor track, and they told us to run 10 laps as a warmup, I wasn’t the happiest camper. Running is one of those things I sometimes force myself to do because it’s good for me, but I *never* actually enjoy it.

I have to admit, the situation wasn’t as intimidating as it could’ve been, that first day: our group is all foreigners, so there are the 6 of us who came in from Portland; my homeboy Goo, whom I know from my UO Wushu days; Johnny, who’s originally from Iowa, but has lived in China for 15-or-so years, and another guy whose name I didn’t catch, largely because he’s Italian and doesn’t speak much English. There were more foreigners practicing separately from us–from the Israeli wushu team, according to one of their t-shirts–and a lot of people from all over come to this place to learn.

The actual practice session was, oddly enough, a lot like we trained at UO: basics, combos, and sections of your forms. But, of course we never had a China-trained instructor correcting our moves at UO. The woman training us has been incredibly patient–one of the people from our group is 9 years old and only a blue belt, so we’re doing a lot of things he’s not familiar with, but she’s been cheerfully leading him through the new moves, with a little help and translation from us older kids.

The temperature here is well into the 90s and 100s, and in the wushu hall, it isn’t much cooler. You sweat buckets from start to finish, but your body feels amazingly loose and flexible… apparently, they purposely use less air conditioning because the warmer temperature *does* loosen you up. They have a system for all of this stuff: their gym is full of fancy conditioning equipment, there are rooms for all different types of training, and seeing the athletes from other disciplines as they wander the halls is pretty nuts. These people are ridiculously well-conditioned, and the sanda guys are just HUGE. (sanda = full-contact sparring) It’s a little strange how institutionalized sports are here.

I’m very tired and sore, but honestly, I’m loving it. Shockingly, I even got complimented once, on the loudness of my foot slaps during crescent kicks. (loud = good) I was expecting comments more along the lines of, I don’t know, “lazy, slow, fat American,” maybe? Hahaha. I think that getting props on my technique just made me a little more afraid of what lay ahead on the following day’s training: if they’re giving compliments to a weekend warrior like myself, they must be going easy.