Wushu
Friday 29/3: No training
Tuesday 02/4: No training
Friday 05/4: Informal Training @ North Court (5.30pm-7.30pm)
Taichi
All classes will run as usual.
Now let's talk about last Friday's training.
We started off with the usual laps around the track, followed by stretching, and then we headed back to the Mindbody studio to start kicks. During the kicking session, apart from the basics that have already been taught, we introduced the front sweep and back sweep for the beginners to try out. While it's only two new moves, it can be quite difficult to learn along with all the others especially when you have no prior martial arts training. I also noticed many newbies and even some returning students have a hard time learning certain things. As a result, here is a list of videos that might let beginners(and seniors!) have closer look at what they should be doing and in general what they can do to improve their technique:
- Horse Stance 马步
- Bow Stance 弓步
- Crouching Stance 仆步 a.k.a Flat Stance
- Front Kick 正踢腿
- Outside (Crescent) Kick 外摆腿
- Inside (Crescent) Kick 里合腿
- Side (Stretch) Kick 侧踢腿
- Spring Kick 弹腿 (advice in text)
- Front Push Kick 蹬腿 (advice in text)
- Front Sweep 前扫腿
- Back Sweep 后扫腿
The majority of these videos came from two Youtube Channels, first is JadeXu's Official Channel and the other is Flashmavi. Both have a bunch of other good instructional videos that may be worth checking out. Apart from these videos, everyone should always feel free to ask the coach or any seniors at training for advice. I promise that we are all friendly people!
After the kicking session, we then split the class into beginners and seniors. The beginners practiced quite a few basics such as punches, kicks, Five-steps and even the precursor to the front jump kick! That's actually quite a fair bit to learn only 3 weeks into the semester, I hope nobody feels overwhelmed, we've all been through that ^_^ . While this was going on, the senior's side were doing their jump kicks, people started showing off and then we had to do some conditioning. It was pretty tiring, and then the beginners joined us for even more conditioning. Needless to say, the next morning my neighbors heard many random old people noises coming from my house.
From what I could see, three weeks into training after a holiday that was way way way too long, everyone was doing pretty well (surprisingly). The beginners that joined us recently have also improved steadily, so keep up the good work!
