Monday, July 21, 2008

WUSHU-MANIA!

Well, apart from Le Tour there is one other sport that supersedes it to be my passion in life. WUSHU! Yes, I live & breathe Wushu and I can’t imagine myself not ever doing Wushu. Just a quick WUSHU 101 for my fellow readers out there, before I continue with this entry. Wushu (or modern Wushu or Contemporary Wushu) is referred to as a modern exhibition sport based on traditional Chinese martial arts, created in China.
Practicing Wushu and competing in world competitions have been my life for many years and although age is catching up with my survival in such a competitive elite sport, I’m finding myself moving on to expand further in teaching and studying of this sport. I’ve slowed down a lot the past couple of years, post-ACL injury, and have discovered the internal art of Taiji Quan. My particular area of study is the Chen Style Taiji.
Anyway, here are some of the highlights of my competition career and other candid Wushu shots.. Enjoy the photos! We continued with our competition training over the weekend and this morning at work, I walked like a cowboy who’s been riding on a horse for miles. Get your mind out of the gutter! I meant my thigh muscles are so sore, made walking real hard this morning. My training started with some running to warm up, after I asked Sam to drop me off at the end of the road and I ran all the way to school! Then did some stretching, basic plus nandu kicks (combo of difficulty movements + kicks) and some weight training. Legs, calves and arms. And then more floor stretching. This time our residential stretch master (my Sammy!) folded me in half and pressed me down for a few sets. Then it’s the side-splits stretches. Again, was folded in half and pressed. I found that I can do a low balance with leg inserted behind much easier now! Here’s how it looks like.
This was taken about a year ago, but now I can go slightly lower than this. Should’ve taken a photo of it yesterday! Would you believe it this is a difficult movement in Taiji?? Yes, this is the highest scoring low leg balance.
I hope to bring my camera to one of my training sessions and post some more updated photos..



1 comment:

pH said...

Would love to see ur photos!