Tag Archives: wushu

The Little Guy and Wushu

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Over the past weekend, I took the little guy to observe a local contemporary wushu class. However, after expressing my interest for my son to take wushu lessons, the instructor said we might as well start today. So, the little guy attended his first formal wushu class!  As a side note, I took taiji lessons from the instructor for a couple of months about 5 yrs back.  When I showed up, he remembered me and recalled I had a wushu background.

We arrived at the school a bit early, so the teacher took my son over to the indoor trampoline to practice jumping. The little guy was receiving instruction on raising his hands as he jumps, resulting in more upward momentum.  After a couple of minutes, the teacher asked me son to try and spin while in the air. Then, teacher showed my son how crossing his arms midair would aid with the turn.  The teacher then told my son to just have fun and jump around however he liked.  I really liked how the teacher knew when to let kids be kids.  He knew just how much instruction a 4.5 yr old could take and when it should be playtime.

Next, my son was guided to the carpeted flooring area where students practice forms.  The teacher asked my son if he liked to jump.  As my son was nodding “yes”, the teacher placed a blue kicking pad on it’s said and asked my son to run and jump over the pad.  The little guy was able to easily clear the kicking pad, so the teacher provided some guidance on which leg to step with and which leg to jump with.  Next, the teacher placed another kicking pad under the already standing pad, forming an upside down T.  My son was not able to clear the pad at this height, but the teacher noted that my son was able to actually jump higher when the second pad was not present.  He went on further to note that in the child’s mind, they think it’s too high when their body is actually capable of doing more.  The teacher then pulled out a box of LEGOS for my son to play with.

Having a bit of wushu background myself, I could easily see the connection of this “play training” with wushu mechanics.  Wushu is all about optimal biomechanics and is like a cross between martial arts and gymnastics. Contemporary wushu teaches one’s body about flexibility, strength and coordination.  I definitely see these as beneficial characteristics for physical development. However, I will be sure to impart my own knowledge of structural alignment to my son to avoid any knee injuries.

Overall, my son had a great time when the formal class began. He learned some new stretches and covered some of the basic wushu kicks and punches.  Most importantly, he met new friends and developed more self confidence in his own abilities. I am glad my son is enrolled in wushu.  The teacher even gave me some homework to cover the basic stretches and kicking patterns with my son. Sounds like a good plan to me!

For those in the Illinois area and interested in some wushu training, here is the bio page of the instructor, Jinhua Guo of Championship Martial Arts Academy.

Floating Right Hip Update

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I just wanted to extend a gracious hat tip to blog reader, Richard Johnson (aka twocircles). Richard is a disciple of Chen Zhonghua and is an instructor in the Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method.  Richard was kind enough to provide some feedback on the issue with my Floating Right Hip.

After a couple of email exchanges and answers to  some posed tests, Richard was able to identify the that muscles on the left side of the hip between the top of my hip bone and thigh bone are holding tension.  This tension pulls my hips to the right.  Richard is currently pursuing higher education in Exercise Science.

Richard proposed a couple of adductor type exercises (like the inner/outer thigh Jane Fonda exercises) to get things back in line. I have been doing the exercises for a couple of weeks and I can already feel and notice a difference!

One of the exercises I do is: Standing straight up and down, while keeping my left leg straight, I slowly raise it to the side. I do the same for the right leg. For a visual, check out the NetFit resistance band abductor muscle exercise, however note that I do mine without resistance. I will repeat the same type of exercise, but this time lying down.

I think I really need to get off my arse and not lead such a sedentary lifestyle! I basically sit down in front of a computer for 8 hours a day at work. Then I come home and have very minimal physical activity (vacuuming, mowing lawn, basic cleaning).  I am planning to check out the local wushu school for my 5 yr old son this weekend. Perhaps it might not be a bad idea to start doing my kicks, stretches and wushu basics again.  I used to have a pretty mean double slap crescent kick.  The key word is "used to"…

Burpee Workout

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Last night, the weather was a bit bad so I decided to stay home and find some alterative workouts.  I decided to give a modified version of the ‘burpee‘ a try.Basically, instead of jumping at the end of the burpee, I did a calf raise instead.  One thing I noticed right away is that while I could easily go for 20 mins on an elliptical machine in the gym, I was pretty torn up after about 30 seconds of burpee action!

I had spoken to my buddy about this and he did not find it strange at all since the burpee involved a lot more muscle groups working together resulting in a more intense experience. I have to agree with him as I was engaging all parts of my body in maintaining good posture and form throughout the burpee exercise. To mix things up a bit, I intermingled burpees with a wushu kick punch drill I used to do. Basically, this is like doing squats but during the rise, one foot kicks while the opposite hand punches and ends with going back down into a squat. Repeat, but switch sides.  My instructor used to have us do 100 of these things during our training session that we could split up into whatever segments we wished.  Last night, I did them in segments of 25.

Reaching back even more into my wushu training, when I wanted to rest or take a breather, I would do a wall-sit. This is basically leaning against the wall and pretending like you’re sitting in a chair, quite the leg workout if you’re not used to it. This was how we rested back in wushu days.  If you wanted to drink water, wall sit, if you wanted to take a breather, wall sit.  If you’re not moving, you’re wall sitting.

I actually pulled quite a bit of exercises from my wushu training days and have incorporated them into a small cross-training interval timed training regime. It’s was actually very fun and the idea of moving from one exercise to the next with little to no rest in between was very challenging.  I am actually planning on not continuing the gym subscription come this April, so hopefully I will have some exercises to fill the gap.