24 Shaolin Kung Fu Basics That You Gonna Learn In China – Ch.2

BEFORE WINTER HAS STARTED

There were not many people at the school, maybe around ten. Most of the students went to the competition or were traveling. My dad and I arrived on the same day as a german girl and a guy from Angola. She became my roommate, and he became my father’s roommate. The first week every newcomer trained with Master Du. It was almost all day learning Shaolin customs and Shaolin Kung Fu basics. Below, I present all the Shaolin Kung Fu basics that I have learned during my first year of training in China.

The Chinese names of the two kicks presented above refer only to the position of the feet. In our training, we do a snap kick with a punch (left image) and a push kick with a push palm (right image).

I personally call it Ma Bu → Gong Bu Basics because this is what they are about. They train us to use Ma Bu → Gong Bu positions while punching.

My Master would call them:

步法练习 [bù fǎ liàn xí] – the literal translation is step training.

1. 弓步斜形 [gōng bù xié xíng] – which would be translated as bow stance diagonal shape. We never, though, use this English translation.

Although I got used to the Master Du way of teaching during one week, with the next few days, I started to like Master Yu and appreciate being in his group.

This was when the training started according to the schedule (see my training plan below). Each morning at 6 a.m., everybody had to show up to line up.

Soon, the days became shorter and nights longer. For this reason, after two months, the school abolished the rule. The strict lineup was at 8:30 a.m. Both morning and afternoon Tai Chi classes were optional. For me, there was no other option than to participate in every possible class. Thus, I ended up with around six-seven hours of diversified training a day. Which was equal to 30-35 hours of physical activity a week. Below you can see the length of each class, the time of day I had it, and the total time of training a day.

The strict lessons were 6 hours a day. Sometimes, I extended it by staying after the classes, doing exercises to strengthen my abs or/and improve my handstand. This is where the additional hour of training comes from. It was the first three months when I trained between the classes almost every day. The reason for that was my training companion – Sif, the girl from Denmark. After she left, I stopped doing it.

Sif arrived a couple of days after me. We were each other’s motivators. Each time, running, doing abs, push-ups, or spider crawl, we tried to be faster than the other, pushing ourselves over the limits. I was upset when she left the school.

ACUPUNCTURE CLASSES

Similarly, acupuncture class. I was so enthusiastic about it at the beginning. However, again, the classes were one big mess. Very quickly, I stopped participating in them. Instead, I bought a book, „Chinese acupuncture and moxibustion, “ and I started to study it alone in my room.