Invincible Seminar!

I was planning to take more pictures at CMAT, but as it turned out I left my Olympics Bag in Kenny's Bag and the day was so hectic neither of us ever left the venue once the competition began.  But as always CMAT was like old home week all my friends always show up to help.  Lots of thanks to Liu Yu, Li Jing, Emilio, Matt, Robert, Arthur, Marvin, Glenn, Johnny, Lily, Lawrence, Henry Look, and many others.........

Of course, I must thank the Shaolin Monks who showed at the end....that's usually when the judges all disappear.  So they arrived just in time!  But as things would have it, so does my other camera that I left at Shi Kun's car in Vegas in November.......so this is the only picture I took during CMAT  Just the way the Tao works.

The next day was Wudi's workshop................I was a little worried that it would not be well attended since we had such a short time to prepare................Coach Cui told me tho not to worry..............they were not here to make money but rather to make friends and to share ideas and techniques........and most importantly to relax.  It would of course only be a Beijing Team Coach who would think competition was relaxing........!!  Wudi and I discussed the Workshop a little bit.....as we were certain whoever attended their levels would be all different.  Wudi asked me for a suggestion.....so we hit on the idea of:  what makes you a Champion?  Everyone has some knowledge of Wushu.,but that which makes you a winner is somewhat intangible...but important.  As it was, only six athletes showed up......two of them were my students, and three from Houston...one from Canada.   Wudi began with asking: What is Wushu?  Might seem to be simple to answer............but Wudi pointed out Americans don't seem to know.........they know technique..........but have failed to capture the spirit and intensity of martial arts...........this was apparent to him after judging for several hours at CMAT.  So where does it all begin......why of course in Basics.....it's not enough to do them but it's how you do them.  So then he had each of  the athletes do their basics and added the invincible touch to it.......every movement must have intention.........you must have extension and also focus......these are the building blocks to your form.  He showed them when to focus and how..........he said one must use the entire body, most American Athletes only move their heads.  Then finally, he had each do their forms and he went over how each technique and movement should be done.  The three hours flew by rapidly..............Wudi finished with stressing paying attention to the small details, learning to focus properly, applying yin and yang to every movement, always try for maximum extension...but without raising the shoulders, and how posture can convey an attitude and an intensity.

After the seminar , we did a photo shoot for Wudi.  He and Emilio are writing an article on the elements of Drunken Sword.  This is one of the pictures I took.  Ben did most of the shooting so you can check his Facebook page for more photos.

After the photo shoot it was time to eat......the stone pot in the center was for the Bibimbop.......fabulous, especially with lots of Korean hot sauce!  Some of the members of our Taiji and fighting demo teams enjoyed the great meal....train hard eat well!

Li Jing dropped for eats too........you can also see Shahaub peeking out in the background......it was the perfect way to end CMAT 18..........with friends and food!

We then finished up the day with a banquet at my favorite Korean Restaurant Han iL Kwan......Cary brought over Yin and Gao Jing , who taught a workshop at Wushu West......Bruce and Doda from Canada dropped  by and so did Shahaub, Li jing and James...and of course all my Taiji students......so finally CMAT 18 has officially come to an end!  Yah!!  Cya all!