Tonight when I walked into kung fu class I noticed that just about the whole group was there. Almost 10 teenagers close to my age all taking class. And because all of us were there tonight, our sifu decided to make class extra... fun? I guess? We just did MORE stuff than usual, and it was fricken TIRING.
As a teacher he doesn't have to try so hard to push us because a lot of us are self motivated. And that is something that teachers love to see in students. You tell them to do a few things, and they're trying so hard that they're already sweating (like us for example). That was something I rarely got to see as an instructor in my taekwondo career which was always treat. At the same time it was shame because I was so limited to what I was allowed to teach at my old job that I could never pull my students forward to the level where they belonged..
Anyways, we started off with our usual warm ups running around the room, and our sifu is like.. In his mid-twenties? He's a 15 year old at heart though. So he picked up a chinese broadsword and started swinging it while chasing us around the room. I swear I was literally sprinting laps around the room for the longest time. I could feel my shoes almost turning sideways from pushing off the ground in a circular motion. If only the room was tilted like a nascar track hahaha.
Afterwards we started doing kicks across the room. Slowly we built up to doing a bunch of airborne kicks. In taekwondo terms, we did the equivalent to a jump spin crescent kick, and a 540. We did a lot of round house kicks and wheel kicks too. None seem to have those names in kung fu, except the round house kick however. At one point he said to do a push kick right after the 540, but the way he demonstrated it, his circular motion out of his 540 almost made it look like a wheel kick. So next thing I knew, we were all trying to do wheel kicks after our tornado kicks/540's. Eventually, I realized he wanted us to do the tricking equivalent of a Jackknife. That's hard to do!
As soon as we finished doing those kicks he had us pull out the big mats like usual. We started off with aerials and aerial twists. Everyone, but two of our classmates were capable of performing a basic aerial off of an inch mat for a boost. Four of us including myself were capable of performing an aerial twist. Usually I'm the only one twisting, but since everyone was there tonight, we had multiples of us twisting. You could tell our sifu was getting really excited seeing his students doing such things so he told he to try spinning TWICE. WTF TWICE???? I was scared, but I gave it shot. It wasn't too bad even though none of us could do it. Most of them were pulling their heads up (while arching back) before twisting, so they almost became butterfly twists which technically was incorrect. I wanted to keep my aerial twists are correct as possible, so I spun as much as I could while I was vertical in mid-air, but every single time I landed flat on my back. At least I got half an extra spin in! After that, Sifu pulled open all of the inch mats and had us practice round offs. Only 2 of us (including myself) were capable of doing a round off backflip. Sometimes I'm soooo grateful for my gymnastics and taekwondo experience. My first flip was a back tuck, but apparently Sifu wanted me to open up and arch my back a little with my arms down. In gymnastics terms he wanted me to do a sloppy lay out, so I gave him what he wanted. I'm surprised he didn't tell me to twist after that haha. At this point in the night, we had done so much jumping and flipping, it was really starting to take a toll on my legs. My calves were shaking and my thighs were extremely sore. My ankles were starting to hurt a little (along with the Achilles heels feeling sore), so I guess everyone has their limits. It was fun though.
After we finished flipping he spread out the mats and had us practice doing round house take downs. Basically one person does a roundhouse kick, and the other person catches the kicker's leg with both arms and tries to pull them to the ground using the technique they taught us. But they also taught us (as kickers) how to defend against the take down. So basically it was a game. One person had to take the other to the ground, while the other had to try to stay up for about 5 seconds. It's actually really difficult to do both depending on who you're facing. I was a little scared at first because this is how I originally sprained my ankle, so I tried to be as cautious as possible, but in the end, I just went all out. There was one part where he decided to show us an alternate method of taking them to the ground, so he told me to kick him so he could show the class. Basically, as the kicker you pushing against them to prevent them from taking you down. And you're pushing so hard in one direction, that you're extremely vulnerable in the opposite direction, so what the sifu did was redirect his arm and push me the other way to the ground. It's hard to explain through text, but here's what happened:
I kicked and then placed my hands in the defended position. Every time he tried to trip me, I hopped. You're supposed to do that apparently. You evade the trip, by hopping over them while holding their entire body in place with your arms and hands. But then what he did was do that redirection AS I was hopping. I honestly didn't see it coming. All I can remember was hopping, feeling my entire body spinning in mid-air while everything turned black, then having the wind knocked out of me as I slammed onto the ground unexpectedly. It all happened so fast that I didn't have time to break fall, so I hit the floor in the fetal position JUST on my back. It hurt! But I was alright....... Very tricky of him, I was just as amazed as I was in pain.
After so many things, we never had time to practice our forms nor do any conditioning. I was already beat tired though. It was a fun class! He kept going off at the end about wanting to make some sort of kung fu action movie. Last week when I had class, he recorded me (on his iphone) doing a bunch of kicks on some kicking shield with someone in the background making sound effects. It was silly, but my sifu is a child at heart. He's really fun to be with. After class ended, we all circled up and played ninja..... I haven't played ninja in a LONG time. I couldn't believe it was sifu's idea to play. He must've been really excited to see us all tonight.
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