WUSHU My previous Wushu thread turned into a war thread between Ninjas and Kung Fu fighters. I come here in peace and with a question. So other than the Ninjutsu I am thinking of practicing Wushu ( has San Da also ). Here is the website, let me know what you think: http://www.wushumalaysia.com.my/index2.html] I called the instructor awhile ago and discovered that the classes are actually far from where I stay. Hmm, and he said the class is on Saturday, from 1-3pm. My Ninjutsu sensei told me any martial art that is only for once a week is pants. The fees is cheap though, only rm50 a month which is the same as my Ninjutsu class'. I checked on Wing Chun, too expensive, forget it. So my question is, is once a week worth it? Anyone doing Wushu here?
Well, I did contemporary wushu for a number of years. It depends on your motivation, natural ability, aims and motivations. Really, for the kind of level you want - say, looking at the pro Chinese athletes - well, they train all day, with the legendary Chinese work ethic. That's the only way to achieve their kind of level - not only that, those people have already been selected for natural ability, and trained since being children. So, you have to moderate your ambitions somewhat in light of that. Nothing is impossible, but... O the other hand, I've seen people who have a very natural ability for the body language in wushu - and ike dance, it is a highly body language based art. Like having a good voice, you either have it or you don't. If you have it, then you can achieve a level you might be happy with if you don't, that's when you specifically need daily training with proper correction, just to get a so-so level. If you have the natural ability, it's possible you could take what you learned in one lesson and practice it dilligently all week - then get corrected the next lesson, practice all week again - and so on. Possible, but difficult. In terms of san da, if you have a partner you could train with all week, practicing what you've been shown then same deal. But in reality, very, very difficult - wushu is specifically unpopular, despite being the choice of movie stars, simpy because it requires a professional training attitude to get any where near looking like people like Jet Li. But...nothing doable is impossible.
In the beginning, it is important to get instructor face time, especially if the art is new to you. It will be harder without it.
Just a note on boady language ability - in wushu, even with all the face to face action you can handle, if you haven't got the body language you can't achieve what the Chinese achieve - because they're selected for that ability. I trained three classes a week with my coach, taught two basics classes on the inbetween days, which I trained on fully as well, and also did supplimentary training in my own time. What I got for that wasn't even a so-so level, because the by "so-so" the Chinese mean, yeah, you can do all the stuff, pretty much, but you can't do it great, and you can't do jumping, inverse particle accelerator kicks in to splits landing.... I just got a mediocre level in a few skill areas. The great irony is that you can fake being a traditional kung fu master (as long as you never have to fight) but short of wires and movie trickery, there's no way on earth to fake being good at wushu.
If you work hard on your own with the Wushu, you should be fine with 1 class per week. It will be harder with the San Da.
Thank you for all the replies guys. This is the instructor: http://www.robinwushu.com/home.htm So the classes are actually twice a week, Saturday and Sunday. ( So the title of this thread should be, Twice a week Wushu? ) When I spoke to him on the phone, hearing my voice he asked if the class is for me or... I said for me, then he asked how old am I. I am in my early twenties.., so I told him and he said ,"yea.." So is there a problem with age? He said he will email me the map to the locations of the classes. I see the students in the website, mostly kids.. I realize that they practice since childhood. But that won't demotivate me, I trust myself and know that I can as long as I am willing to absorb it with my level best. Now I wonder how to settle with the distance, it's far. I'll keep this updated.
Age isn't necessarily a problem. All elite gymnastic based exercises tend to have a very young elite - look at Olympic gymnasts, and how young they retire. But that's for the competing elite; for you, age shouldn't be a worry. You won't even reach your peak as a martial artist until your late 30s, believe me!
It's hard to develop high levels of flexibility and athleticism in your 20s if you don't already have it. The parallel between modern wushu (excluding sanda) and gymnastics is a good one here. Sure, a 20-something can learn, but they'll probably never be truly competitive with folks who have been training since age 6. That said, if you're not looking to get into the forms side of wushu for serious competition, but instead for your own personal enjoyment, go for it.
