Power Training and Demo Practice (12/8)

Yesterday’s workout wiped me out so much that today was practically a non-workout day for me.  I considered not going, but I knew that I should go, even if I wasn’t able to really go for it.  Any effort > Zero effort,right?

The main issue was that my left knee was pretty sore from yesterday’s training.  It wasn’t a debilitating soreness, but it hurt enough for me to lay off it.  While they were playing tag I did wall sits and stretched my knee out.  And after stretching it was time for Power Training.

Power Training

This was the other reason I showed up today; because I knew we weren’t doing wushu so I wouldn’t be compromising my knee too much.

This time around, however, I was able to get a little bit of video of the training they do.  (You are welcome. )

First was the Pop Squats (as I like to call them).  I paid more attention to the weight this time.  Our group (smaller/weaker folks) did 30 kg (not including the bar), then increased by 10kg each set up to 70kg.  Each set they only do about 5 reps.  What I didn’t mention before that is very important is the quick sprint right after you do it, along with some hops to work the muscles.  The other group did much higher weights than us, but they’re also much stronger.

Here is an athlete doing his last rep and then a sprint:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhFijVxzhsc

The second exercise was the hops.  They brought the weight down to just 20kg and we did 3 sets of 15 reps.  Here is an athlete pumping some of these out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLhypXZ5BlQ

Then we went to the carpet.  I couldn’t do most of the following exercises except one or two, so for most of the time I did wall sits and taiji stance practice.  Their first exercise was the 3-jump.  It is the exercise where they jump up do high knees, jump up do butt kicks and jump up and do side splits.  Quick jumps, 10 sets of the rotating 3.  No video since I was doing my stuff on the side.

They did several lines of frog leaps and small hops as well.  I got some footage of that here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR06TxkuMEQ

It was also a power training day for the taiji group.  They do a lot more balance and core strength training than we do.  Especially the balance stuff.  Here  you can see them on the squishy balance things (I don’t know what they are called), doing some core strength and balance training.  They would also do a lot of exercises with the big yoga balls too, but I didn’t get any of that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOhN_MC9D5Y

I participated in a bit of core training exercises on the carpet.  Our group brought out the yoga balls too, and also did some balance and core training, which is nice to see.  I filed some of that stuff too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vzMqLXOWWc

And then suddenly class had ended.  I mentioned to Coach Zhang that I would be going to GZ/HK on Thursday and would be back after the weekend.  I also appologized for having knee problems today.  He said not to worry about it, adding “everyone here has knee problems”.

Zhang Yang

As people were leaving I also got the name of another athlete.   Zhang Yang is the other main female athlete in our group (there are two young girls too) and she was at the Binzhou All China Games competing in Duilian for the Shaanxi Wushu Team.  Her main events are Chang Quan and Jian Shu.  I assume she does Qiang Shu too, but I have yet to see her practice it.  Here is a picture of her, as well as her competition footage from All China Games:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF16qTVUSzM

Demo Practice

After class had ended (a tad early, I might add), the flags came out again and some of the guys from the 1 – 3 class came in to the room for demo practice.  I tried to get some details on the demo from Coach Zhang but he said he didn’t really know the details and could only say that they didn’t have much time before they needed to perform.  Then he took off.  It turns out he isn’t actually in charge of the demo.  His assistant coach is.

I stuck around to get some footage of their practice.  The angle wasn’t so great, but you can get a general idea of what they are up to here.  Keep in mind that they are still learning it and most of them are just walking through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fp8KOyuZhw

Embarassing Moments in Wushu

As I was leaving class today I happened to be walking out as the same time as Chu Feng Ling.  I mentioned her a while back, but she is from Zhao Chang Jun’s generation (they used to train together) and is known for her Fanzi Quan.  I happened to have some footage of her competition so I stuck it on youtube, which you can see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL-dQK2nkVU

In any case, as we were walking out, it was one of those situations in which we were both going in the same direction at the same time so we ended up walking next to each other.  Truth be told, she is from the Golden Age of wushu in China and I find people from that generation a little intimidating so I was sort of nervous.

Overall we had a fairly pleasant conversation.  I learned that she lived near the West Gate and had a 17 year old kid who was about to start college.  But since I was a little nervous I started asking random questions to fill up the silence while we were walking (in hind sight I should have just been quiet and waited for her to talk).  I won’t repeat what I said, but by the end I think she ended up running to her bus a little quicker than was probably necessary.  I seemed to have scared her off.

Smooth move Mark.

it was one of those situations where you wished the conversation had ended about half-way through when you were still doing well.  lol.  Ah well, lesson learned.

Tomorrow they are running at the track.  My legs felt much better after practice so my light training seems to have paid off.  I’ll come to run and see how things go.  They are going to be running sprints (2