THE COMPETITION
last sunday marked the first ever (at least in china) traditional, internal martial art competition for a single form - tai yi wu shin quan. this form is unique to wudang mountain, and it beautifully displays yin softness blended it yang explosiveness. over 100 contestants were present.. most of which were either monks, apprentice monks, students from the mountain schools, or members of the official wudang demonstration team. aside from the incredibly skilled, there were also a handful of scrubs to serve as comic relief. our school, the wudang shan traditional internal kung fu academy, was the only school to have foreigners compete.there were three levels of competition,.. passing one level allows one to progress to the next. the first two levels were held on sunday,.. then from there, the top 40 contestants were invited back the following thursday to compete again on television. from there, the top 18 go to beijing for the ultimate competition showdown extravaganza. big party.
the first level was tai yi form demonstration. for this portion i was terrified! i managed to play it cool thinking it would be easy until it was time for me to actually step out onto the carpet. once in the hot seat, my mind went completely blank, my breath fleeted me, my heart beat tripled, and my body went on autopilot. not only was this my first competition, but here i am in front of wudang's finest.. not to mention my master, my master's master, and all their martial family. i managed to get through a third of the motions without slipping up and then i finally regained my composure. from there, i caught up with my breath, and rocked the set in champion fashion without any mistakes.
the next level of the competition was for a traditional weapon. for the first level, participants had to demonstrate tai yi only,.. but for the weapons portion, contestants could demonstrate any traditional weapon they chose. for myself, i learned the spear just for the occasion - but i've only been practicing it for three weeks so i only know 1/3 of the set.. and beyond that, my ankle injury kept me from training it as much as i would have liked to. needless to say, my form is crap, especially against wudang's finest martial artists.. but this time i was not nervous at all and i managed to pull off a descent demonstration.
by the end of it all, i managed to place 31st, making the cut to advance to the next level of competition - fighting. however, much to the dismay of nearly everyone i know, i decided to forfeit. i caught the worst from every single one of my martial brothers.. 'you're scared,' 'don't be a wimp,' 'you're so big, you could win so easy!' even shifu gave me a hard time about it - but in the end he understood. i'm here in wudang to cultivate spirit - not fists.
the messed up part is that CCTV5 (china television) was counting on some lao wai (foreigners) to compete to help boost the ratings,.. and once i decided to quit, the two other foreigners from our school that qualified decided to quit also - CCTV was not very happy about that. as a result, i was further barraged with questions and insults on my manhood. they even had the grandmaster come talk to me to try and convince me to compete.. but, i respectfully ke tuo'd (traditional bow - kneeling and touching the head to the floor), and explained my position. luckily, the grandmaster understood me and took my side.. CCTV is not very happy - no lao wai for them.
THE MASTER'S CHALLENGE
since i decided not to fight in the competition, yuan shifu challenged me to a fight in class. nothing serious, but intense none the less. the whole time he kept kicking my legs with lighting speed, and with each connection he would say 'POINT,' 'POINT,' 'POINT' (the competition would have been tallied by points, not knock out). whenever i tried to get in close to cut off the range of his kicks, he'd just smack me in the throat or punch me in the solar plexus.. each time saying 'POINT,' 'POINT,' 'POINT.' after twenty minutes of ridicule, much to the entertainment of my classmates, i managed to get a few good hits in.. a few body shots, a couple kicks, and one solid fa jing blast. now the trash talking turned into questioning.. 'whhhhhhyyyyy you don't fight?' 'whhhhhhhyyyyy you scared?' finally, after over a half hour of beat down, yuan shifu's cell phone rang and we stopped... both of us drenched with sweat, and breathing heavy. shifu gave me a smile and said.. 'you're good.. it's too bad you don't fight.'
THE MASTER CLEANSE
now that the competition is all over, i can finally get back to my routine. stretching, qigong, tai chi, and regular fasting. it feels like forever since my last fast.. i even skipped my weekly fruit days in light of all the training i had to endure.. but as soon as the competition was over i started a heavy cleanse.
i decided to do the good old master cleanse.. water, lemon, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper - THANKS MOM FOR SENDING ME THE INGREDIENTS!!! i took one day of apples to ease into the fast, and now i'm on day two of the juice. so far so good,.. i'm looking to do at least seven days of the juice with a few extra days to ease in and out.. so about ten days total. the lemon juice is really good, the maple syrup is super tasty, and the cayenne gives the mix a welcomed kick. in all, i think this cleanse is very enjoyable.. i'll be sure to let you all know how it goes/went next week.
FIN
that's all for this week folks. next week we'll be going to the 1000 year old temple for a meditation retreat, and the week after that i'll be going to shanghai to get some leisure time in. then.. shortly after that, i'm heading to beijing to see my old master Y.C. Chiang (shaolin, chinese culture) and his wife, Hui Liu (dayan qigong, painting), at their art exhibit at the national museum. big things in store - stay tuned.
ALOHA
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