I think I'm going to find some WuShu studio around here and take some lessons or something. What is wushu? Well, this is as good a start as anything. In short, the term encompasses all of Chinese martial arts. The specific forms I find fascinating are ChangQuan (Long Fist) and Staff, though I drop my jaw in awe at most forms. I like Long Fist because it's acrobatic. It's a really great balance between grace, power, and flying.

An mpeg is worth a thousand words. Here is a clip of some Beijing wushu team athletes praticing some aerial maneuvers, mostly butterfly kicks. This is PRACTICE. They do this stuff 6 hours a day. WTF?!

wushu butterflies.mpeg [1.98MB]

My own history with wushu is short. Always liked martial arts. Had a cool freshman roommate by the name of Jay who was very decent at it and showed me some basics and answered my questions. I learned, poorly, something like the third beginning-level form of Long Fist one summer in Shanghai. I've long forgotten that form. Now I just do some stretches and kicks and fool around with my nunchucks and staff when I get a chance.

Problem with somebody like me starting wushu is that I'll never be "good". I'll never look anything *remotely* approaching the guys who want to be the beijing guys (that's two degrees removed). I'm too old, sort of. But I figure if in 5 years I can learn a form or two for exercise, I'll be happy. My main goal is to get around to using a staff.

Time to go try to do a split.

...

...F*ck! Ow!