I remember it was the 1994 nationals in HeFei (Gao An). Our
Beijing Team's main performance was to be a 3-man fighting set with Wu Jing,
Shang Yu, and me in the middle, "one-against-two!"
Before stepping onto the tournament carpet, we had completely perfected our
form. From beginning to finish, basic to complex movements, our trainer Xue
Yi(at that time Wu Bin was the general coach, while Xue Yi was the men's team
trainer) and we three team members were soaking wet with hard daily practice.
We watched a lot of wushu video footage for ideas, including some of Jackie
Chan's fighting films, which for me were a great personal inspiration to innovate,
to dare to break through the limits of the body and end in an execution of
an exquisite move. It was this spirit that motivated me in early 1993 to come
up with a form of two men launching a third upwards, who then performs a 720-degree
turn in mid-air!
As Wu Bin said, "You are the first man from the Beijing Wushu Team to
attempt the 720!" The form went like this: the center man (C) whip kicks
the man on his right (R) who defends with both hands from his left chest;
C then immediately attacks the man on the left (L) with a side heel kick,
L defends with both hands and catches C's leg as R grabs C's body, L and R
together throwing C up into the air with the intention of killing him dead
on the ground. However, using the power with which he is thrown into the air,
C makes a double twist (720 degrees); because of the rapidity of the turn
and the subsequent landing in a prone position, a high level of wushu ability
is thus demonstrated.
After designing the basic framework of the form, we practiced it thoroughly.
During this period of intense practice, I remember one particularly painful
incident: once thrown into the air, I underexerted myself and only made it
to 540 degrees and landed with a heavy thud on the floor!
I just happened to have a very large and painful pimple on my face at this
time, and that's exactly where the full force of my landing fell...the pain
shot all over my face, down my spine and through every bone in my body all
at once. Even today I wince at the thought of touching that spot on my face.
Preparing to the fullest, we entered the tournament ready to take first place.
And what do you know, in this 1994 national tournament we took the prize!
But...our competitors, the Tian Jin team (Trainer Liu Bao Yu£¬Team Members
Lang Rong Biao¡¢Wang Zhi Dong¡¢Su Dong) filed a complaint to the tournament
committee. They were pretty stict about playing by the rules at that tournament,
including rules about opening and finishing your form. And it was exactly
here that we had unwittingly committed a terrible mistake: in the beginning
of our form, Wu Jing was standing at my right, Shang Yu on my left, yet at
the end of our form they had switched positions! So you see after our getting
first place, the Tian Jin team filed a complaint (which cost them 1000 yuan)
on the basis that we had violated the rule that opening and final positions
be the same. After the judges deliberated this point, they decided to take
off one-tenth of a point from our score -- that doesn't sound like much, but
in this tournament scores were measured in increments of one-twentieth or
even one-hundreth of a point, so our penalty was quite sizable. As a result,
we were pushed down to sixth place! But every cloud has a silver lining: after
that year the Tian Jin team and another used my form in their performance,
a fact that makes me very proud!
I'm telling this story to get across the message that in whatever task you
are engaged, pay attention, pay attention, and pay attention again! May you
not commit a similar mistake in an important affair of your own. This story
is about my deepest regret, but that's life, soak it up, learn what you can,
because there's always tomorrow!
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My Strongest Impression
I started practicing wushu at the age of four, and ever since I have practiced
it continuously. I have my parents to thank for all the sacrifices and inconveniences
they put upon themselves to make my training happen!
When I was little, from about five and a half to eight years old, I studied
wushu at the Beijing Wushu Team's school; since it was quite far from my home,
my parents took turns taking me there, even in the pouring rain or biting cold,
just for the sake of giving me the chance to practice wushu.
One thing left a very deep impression on me once while my mother was taking
me to practice. To get to practice, we had to sit a while on a bus, which on
this particular day had no seats available; all I could do was cling to my mom's
side the whole ride.The bus engine droned on endlessly...**Hey!Is it raining?
How could it be raining on the bus?!** I looked up and saw my mother's teary
eyes; she was trying to hide her tears. ¡°Is it true that your back really hurts,
that your whole body is in pain?¡± she asked. Then it struck me: **Oh, so I was
dreaming then? It wasn't rain falling down onto my head, but my mother's tears?**
Like soft raindrops her tears tapping my head woke me up from my sleep. Then
I noticed that everyone on the bus was staring at me. **What? Why is everyone
staring at me? Did I really do something wrong?** My mother pulled my hand,
we were coming up to the Bei Hai Park stop, we were getting ready to get off.
¡°Let's go, Mama is going to take you to the park to play!¡±
¡°Mama, how did you know my whole body really hurts?¡± I inquired.
¡°You said so in your sleep,¡± she replied.
We spent the whole afternoon in the park and it made me so happy!
Afterwards, we returned home. My father was waiting for us, and when we walked
in the door he raised his eyebrows as if he knew something was awry. He eyed
me up and down and sensed something was wrong: my skin color and body posture
didn¡¯t seem like I had just undergone a long hard practice. He took my mom into
the other room, and they argued for a long time. My mom's side of the story
was that seeing me so utterly exhausted she decided to give me rest. My father,
on the other hand, felt that the difficult times that come with a hard practice
were part of the practice and shouldn't be run away from. Well, after that time,
my mother never again took me to play instead of practice.
At that time I was very small and I hadn't been practicing wushu for a long
time. I went through a lot of pain, even to the point of me not wanting to practice
at all! But at such times my father would sit me down and explain that there
was a logic to going through this pain, telling me a wushu proverb that has
always stuck to my practice: "Pain means you are improving, numbness means
you are getting worse, soreness means you haven't practiced." This proverb
gives those in wushu training a way to know whether they are practicing correctly
or not. The basic meaning is: 1. If your muscles and tendons
hurt, it means you are improving at the fastest rate (note: this doesn't equate
to wounding or injuring yourself). 2. Numbness means that you've been getting
worse for several days. During stretching, for example, pins and needles means
you're not stretching as well as before. 3. Soreness means that either you haven't
practiced enough, or perhaps not at all! Of course you have to bear in mind
that in any practice proper rest is essential.
Afterwards, I really understood the meaning of this proverb and started to understand
my body. My father would always say: "Never give up, stick it out to the
end!" and I took the bus myself to practice every day starting from eight
years old, through middle school, on to high school, and in every class I was
number one! That's because in my heart I have the drive to never lose, to always
be number one. You see my Chinese surname is Yi and my father gave me the full
name of Yi Shi Xiong. Yi: homonymous with "one" in Chinese; Shi: world,
in the whole world; Xiong: hero! The total meaning is therefore: "May you
be the number one hero in the whole world!" My father once told me: "When
you came into this world I didn't give you a lot money, for you would only lose
it somehow. What I did give you was wushu techniques, and the spirit and mind
to go along." I think these are the most riches anyone can receive, unattainable
by any amount of money. This philosophy is one with my heart forever! This is
also my webpage's motivation, that wushu is my way of life forever. I want to
make wushu expand, because wushu is without country borders, it's in every one
of us! I aim to
inspire everyone with this spirit, may the whole world practice wushu!
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