Out of all the hundreds and thousands of Wushu athletes in China and around the world, there are only a few that stand out among the few that stand out. I’m gonna center my discussion around four athletes, though there are a few more. Those athletes are Jia Ping of Anhui (1981-1988), Zhao Shao Yi (1987-1993), Li Yan Long (1981-1989), and Liu Hai Bo of Henan (1990-2001). These guys and gals took Wushu to a new level by not only learning and mastering the basics, but creating and developing a style that was so unique and improvisational- absolute virtuosos. These four athletes and a few others were able to do things that athletes of their time could not do nor any athletes could after them. In a sport where the average athlete, even in China, had some technical flaws and some shortcomings in their foundation, these fourth athletes completely mastered the basics and took those basics to a new and different level. While everyone at the time was working on scales, staying in tune, and on basic classical tunes these athletes veered off the beaten path and created jazz, founded their own octaves, split atoms. It’s like watching arithmetic compared to their advanced algorithms, number theory, and differential equations. I could analyze each individual a little at a time, but you can see the greatness yourself. Have a nice day!
As good as a lot modern Non-Chinese athletes are these days, I feel a lot of them are missing quite a few details that classical Old School Modern Wushu had. First, I would like to say that international athletes, including American athletes, are cleaner, stronger, faster, and jump higher than their predecessors. However, one thing missing is the classic head snap. In the older days (meaning anywhere from 5-10 years ago) Wushu coaches emphasized a quick and jerky head snap at the end of every movement and especially on key poses at the end of sections in our form. This adds a sharpness and alertness in our forms as well as a nice theatrical/performance element to our form. Old school international athletes and of course old school Chinese athletes used to do this often to really punctuate their forms.
One good exercise to practice the head snap is to do it over and over again from the left to the right side. Also, it’s important to find a pin point to look at on the opposite wall and find it immediately at the end of the movement. Another way to practice is to start relaxed with eyes fixed in the front and hands relaxed by the sides. First, look left suddenly and at the same time raise the hands in a fist on the hip bones (where you usually place them to get ready to punch in Wushu). Then relax the hands down and relax the neck. Next, look right suddenly and raise the hands from a relaxed to a accelerated movement to the hip bone. Do again and again until you feel the head snap to be very clear and natural. I heard Chinese athletes in the 90′s used to cut their hair long enough so that when they when strke a pose in their form and turn their head their hair is still moving or vibrating after they already hit the pose. That is a very dramatic effect!
Next time I will talk more about spirit in the eyes and the specific “Wushu eyes” that are missing in many of this generation’s athletes. Have a nice day!
This is Di Guang Wen of the Beijing Wushu Team, active approximately from 1991-1998:
He’s got pretty head snaps, though I can’t find a video with someone specifically practicing the head snaps by itself. I’ll post if I find it, or be free to let me know if you find one! Sometimes they can be complemented with a wrist snapping or hand movement. Have a good one.
I begin this video with that beautiful form by Lu Yong Xu of Shandong. PLEASE watch the whole thing before you begin reading. See what happened? Yes he broke his weapon. It happens in Modern Wushu Schools and practices all the time. Why? Probably because Wushu swords, staffs, and spears are all a little thinner, a little more flexible, and a little lighter than traditional weapons. As a result, you train full power and full speed with these light weapons and something is bound to break. Here’s the thing: weapons break all the time, especially in the hands of a skilled athlete. I would say the longer an athlete has trained (in years) and better shape the athlete is in, AND the older the weapon(s) then something is bound to break or snap or splinter.
There’s one point I’m trying to make; if weapons break all the time then what happens to the athletes or to their classmates around them? From my experience NOTHING has every happened in the 10+ years that I’ve done Wushu. Isn’t that amazing? That of all the spear tips snapped and ricocheted, of all the staffs that have broken from taps and slams, all the broadsword and straightsword tips that have snapped and torn off that absolutely NO ONE was hurt in all the years that I’ve practiced Wushu. I feel that’s pretty amazing.
It must be God of War, good ole’ General Kwan, looking after us Wushu athletes and making sure us noobs don’t get hurt with our own weapons in this non-contact sport.
There are many instances in which I have seen or have been directly involved in broken and messed up weapons. First, I remember one day at my old Wushu school when someone was training in Qiangshu, or spearplay, with vigor and power and suddenly the spear tip broke off without warning and flew at my coach’s feet. Somehow she had the presence of mind to jump and it went whizzing under her. I seriously only heard the projectile, but did not see it! I think I’ve seen a few speartips broken and only once did someone hurt himself slightly from the ricochet of the splintered wood. In addition, my closest call with a weapons disaster happened around 2002. I came into the morning class and was practicing Daoshu, or broadsword, on my own in front of the mirror. I was working on compulsory broadsword and doing the move at 17 seconds in the mirror (front stance and spinning the sword horizontally over my head):
Just as I did that either my hands were sweaty, or I was tired, or I simply lost my grip. Behind me another student was learning a double hook form with the coach. I was facing the mirror and looking at myself when I flung the weapon straight behind me with the full force of spinning and the waist turn and my arm flinging out straight. At the same moment I did this the student happened to have struck a pose in a sideways front stance similar in direction as mine and had his right extended out (shoulder level) with the hooksword horizontal and the other hand to the side. My sword flung straight at him spinning vertically and met his sword (which was horizontal) at the exact moment he struck the post. The swords clashed and my sword decelerated and the tip slowly swung down vertically over his sword- only a couples inches or less from his face. That was a close call! I would say General Kwan was definitely smiling on us non-contact practitioners who dance around in silk pajamas (I mean Modern Wushu athletes ). Have a nice day!
I’ll start off this entry with a humorous tone. Yes, it is what it is. Everyone who’s ever had a bad cold and trained in Wushu on it, knows what this is. This might rule out the West Coast because it’s so “hella” warm over there. Oftentimes when I have a bad case of the sniffles I continue to go full 100% in the practice. Then comes an auspicious moment when I got for that butterfly kick. What is a butterfly kick? Here’s an example:
When I’m in midair, what happens, but the snot begins to emerge as I’m elevating. Then in a butterfly kick the body rotates horizontally in a counterclockwise motion. The snot usually comes out and wraps itself counterclockwise with the motion, and more often than not it pulls back and hits me in the face. Occasionally, it loses its gravitational pull to my nose and flies off like a projectile to make a stain on the carpet. It rarely hits anyone though. I wonder is the God of War, General Kwan, looking down on us.
It seems to me so many athletes these days are overly obsessed with the practice of nandu. Yes, it is important in the new age and new rules of Wushu, but honestly it’s only 2.0 of your final score! That leaves 8.0 points left to worry about your basics and your overall performance. Only in these modern days do we see people performing a backsweep as if it were a hard B level difficulty, or athletes in practice or performance hitting a jump inside/tornado kick 360 into a horse stance and behave as if they just stuck something great (in fact most modern athletes can’t even hit a solid tornado 360 into a splits!). It goes back to one thing: basics. What do I mean? The word “basics” mean different things to different people. In my opinion, Wushu has at least 3-4 dozen basics, if not more. So the word “basics” can carry many different meanings and connotations. I have feeling that the average Wushu athlete, whether intermediate or advanced level, will feel “basics” are simply walking up and down the floor briskly doing kick drills and some snap kick punch drills. Then when they think about “jump basics” they’re all about “tricks”. By tricks I mean going nuts, doing weird stunts, showing off, and seeing how much you can rotate. However, I would like to state that “basics” go beyond slap kick drills, and that there’s a whole other arena of basics that extend from the normal kick basics: they are “jump basics.” That’s right, rather worrying about how much rotation you can get or how much “ups” you can get on a jump, let’s break down the simple jump. The most simple and most fundamental of all the jumps is the jump front kick. This maneuver has many complex skills involved in performing a perfectly executed jump front kick. Here’s the breakdown:
1.) Begin from Changquan pose, preferably in toe point stance with all the weight on one leg and the other foot has to have a perfect toe point with little to no weight on the foot, arms extended and shoulders open and chest out
2.) The skip: wrists cross at the chest and the left foot steps first and then the right foot follows which leads to the skip, the feet clap together on the skip (toes points, and not dragging on the floor), and the arms stretched to the front and back in one line, with the hands in two perfect push palms with fingers glued together and the palms bent at least 90 degrees from the arm or more, eyes are focused on the front
3.) Two steps: after the skip, the left foot steps out briskly, and sets up one more step with the right foot- which is the jumping foot. There are different schools of thought as to how to come out of the skip. For example, some people feel taking a long left stride and then a short right stride will give you more leverage on the jump, others feel taking a short right stride followed by a long left stride could improve jump, some people feel (I am one of them) that crouching as low as you can on the last step can give you more spring while others like to stand higher on the jump and depend more on the calve muscles and the “punch” (sort of stomping hard on the ground to create the jump) to carry the jump. Either way, as we can see there is already a lot that goes into a simple jump. Also, some people ignore the big or small steps at the end and step normally which can be fine also. However, without SOME consideration of these details, many of these “trickers” simply “wing it” and just run and jump. That takes the “basics” out of the jump.
4.) The jump: on the last step, which is on the right foot, the athlete should push or “punch” off hard on the ground and really straighten his/her back and stick out the chest. Next, the ahtlete should glue the left knee to the chest with the left foot perfectly pointed to the ground. As the athlete is rising higher in the air he/she should lift the hands up in slap kick position (right hand in front, left hand at the side at whatever angle) and as she (okay, I decided to stick with the feminime pronoun for now, the switching is giving me a headache) is near the peak of her height she should brisly slap her palms/hands together and start the right slap kick in the air. At the peak the right hand should slap the right foot (pointed toe) right on the shoe laces.
5.) Post flight: This is one point one of my old instructors used to emphasize. After the kick, some atheltes just relax and wait until they land on the ground. However, he emphasized the moment you kick to throw your chest up and to use your hamstrings to jerk your leg down immediately. This creates the “post flight” and real/illusional image of you floating after the kick. Sometimes this gives you more height, other times it gives you more hang time or the perceived notion of hang time since you made full use of your time in the air.
If this is how much goes into jump basics without even touching a running jump outside kick or even a tornado kick, think how much is missing from someone who only focuses on “tricking”, “nandu”, and “rotation”. It all has to be built on this technical foundation in order for the jumps to look good and for them to be performed with consistency and completed with good form. Also, forgive my interchangeable use of pronouns; I got excited in the heat of discussion and simply mixed them up. I promise to interchange femnine and masculine pronouns. At the moment, I have chosen the feminine, but I will use the masculine as well.
Please feel free to comment as it’d be nice someone else out there is reading or even care about this technical Wushu talk.
Check out Wu Gang’s jump front (great post flight!)
Now, I am an avid boxing fan. Because of my love of boxing I also know that much of the boxing world and general ratings come under The Ring Magazine’s Top Ten Pound-for-Pound List (p4p for short). From that concept, I’m inspired to write my top 10 pound-for-pound list for the Daoshu event of Modern Wushu, or also called “Broadsword” in English. If you are just tuning in, the broadsword is a single sided blade with curved blade on one end, and a blunt, flat surface on the other. The blade is roughly measured from one’s wrist to the middle or tip of their ear. The blade and tip are used for chopping, hacking, stabbing, and poking, and the dull side is for wrapping the sword and holding the sword on the back (wrapping means to bring the blunt side of the sword behind to back, which usually precedes a horizontal chop, slice, or hack).
Without further ado, here is my top 10 p4p list of the best Broadsword competitors in Modern Wushu:
1.) Lu Song Ting of Anhui: Active from about 1995-2001. He was the model for the “New” Broadsword Compulsory form in 1999.
2.) Zhang Kun Rong of Beijing Ti Da: Active from 2004-Present. He has won multiple National Titles in this event, including 2004 Broadswrod and Staff Champion. He is still active, and had an active rivalry with Hebei’s Zhao Jie (who was later found positive for doping in 2007 and suspended for years).
3.) Liu Hai Bo of Henan: Active from about 1990-2001. He is universally seen as the best Broadsword athlete of all time by most parties, but I beg to differ if you have ever seen Lu Song Ting of Anhui at his finest. However, Liu Hai Bo has a distinct style, along with clean broadsword wraps, good athleticism, and great choreography that will put him at the top of my people’s list.
4.) Lu Xiao Lei of Beijing: Active from about 1998-Present. She has some of the best choreography and Broadsword flavor of all time. It’s hard to put her at fourth when she really is one of the best out there and technically as good as anyone else on this list.
5.) Xu Ding Yuan of Beijing: Active from about 2000-2003. He retired early, but his videos are up on www.wushucentral.com (look up 2003 Beijing Practice). He had some of the cleanest broadsword technique of the 2003 Beijing Wushu Team squad, and some very good choreography. He was not the most athletic guy nor did he hit all of his nandu, but he is still one of my favorites of all time.
(*It starts to get kind of fuzzy here as my top five are the most clear cut in my opinion).
6.) Luo Jing : Active in the early 1970′s and early to mid 1980′s. Totally strong wraps and chops and very clean technique.
7.) Yuan Wen Qing of Shanxi: Active from about 1981-1997. He is an All-Time Great (especially in Changquan) and a great all around athlete, but I critique his broadsword wraps, which have traditionally been not very close to his body, and his technique has been very sloppy as well. However, he was very fast and had great rhythm and fierceness which made up for his lack of good technique.
8.) Zhao Zhi Guang of Shandong: Active from around 1999-2004. I believe he earned a National Title in 2002 (at least the National Collegiate Title), and his clean wraps and fierceness, and unique choreography earned him my p4p vote.
9.) Zhao Chang Jun of Shaanxi: Active from about 1978-1989. I know I’m going to get shot for putting him on the number 8th spot. I simply feel although had he had clean technque and close wraps, he was extremely tight in his shoulders and his transitions were very slow and stiff. Many people site how he has a lot of power in his technique, but I feel Yuan Wen Qing’s speed, athleticism, and momentum made YWQ a more powerful performer and broadsword pracititioner (in many ways, though not always, speed equals power).
10.) Jian Zhen Jiao of Beijing: Active from 1997-2002. His technique was slightly above average, but he was very athletic, had killer jumps, and amazing and innovative choreography.
Honorable mentions: Zhao Jie of Hebei, Feng Zhen of Anhui, He Jing De of Beijing, Shao Chang Jun of Beijing, Wang Xiao Na of Beijing, Shang Yu of Beijing, Cao Jing of Shandong.
Hello everyone. This is my first post on my new blog. I am an avid Modern Wushu fan and hope to post insights, opinions, and thoughts about the sport and martial art I love so much . I have been practicing Modern Wushu for more than 10 years, and internal martial arts as well (Yi Quan standing postures). I really do love Chinese Martial Arts- traditional or modern – and I already write a great deal about it myself, so I thought why not start a blog about it. I’m sure there are blogs about it all over the world, but I will try to include my niche. First and foremost, I am a fan of OLD SCHOOL Modern Wushu. What do I mean? I am a huge fan of the 70′s and 80′s Wushu in China. I also enjoy a lot of the 90′s Wushu too since they included good flavor, basics, and choreography with athleticism and high jumps. The 70′s and 80′s ring with such fan favorites as Li Lian Jie (Jet Li), Xu Xiang Dong (the Eagle King from Beijing), Li Zhi Zhou (best Zui Jian or Drunken Straightsword), Yang Shi Wen (best Nanquan or Southern Fist), Zhao Chang Jun (best overall Northern athlete of the late 70′s and all of the 80′s), and of course the most famous Yuan Wen Qing (created the Changquan, or Longfist, and Gunshu, or Staff, International Compulsory forms, which were in effect from 1989-1999). This blog is an old to Old School Modern Wushu and Traditional Martial Arts. I will try my best to update it regularly and keep the information fresh. Peace out!
