Wow training is hard here... let's make it harder!

Chinese word of the day: Wan Shang Hao-means-Good Evening.

British word of the day: Cheers-means-Thanks.

Morning training was pretty basic. I said, "Zao Cheng Hao," to Master Gou again. Did stretches and drills. Since grading is Friday everyone is practicing their forms. I also learned a new step to my second wing chun form.

Second class was Baji. We also practiced our forms that we’re going to grade. I was looking for Gertle who is my partner in my Baji Sparring form because he was not at morning class. His roommate who is in my Wing Chun group told me Gertle wasn’t feeling well. UH OH! Not good. I need him for Friday. If he is sick on Friday I’ll have Clement or Joseph be my partner. Master Gou also taught me my next step in my Baji form. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like I will be able to Grade both of my two forms I’m working on because I still have a few more steps to learn in Wing Chun and Baji on my second forms. I don’t mind. A lot of people are grading the same form I am grading this Friday and they have been working on it for months. I have just been working on it for 4 weeks. Well 3 since I was in the hospital one week. So I guess I’m grading at a fast pace.

After lunch I went to get my dry clothes from the clothes line. It’s more fun using a clothing line rather than a dryer. I might start using a clothes line back home. (Does any of my readers use a clothing line? Or are they just used here? Post your comments below)

Today the afternoon class was POWER TRAINING. Before we did the run we were introduced to a new student. He is from Saudi Arabia and is here for one month. He was observing our class and I was able to talk to him during stretching. He is 23 and came here before he starts college. He asked me how long I was here for and I told him about 6 months before I go home and start college. I told him i was only 18. He said, "Whoa you’re young then." He thought I was 22 or 23. NICE! I asked him why he came here. He told me he has practiced Wing Chun back in Canada where he goes to school and he wanted to learn a little bit before he starts school. I told him he chose the wrong day to join Wing Chun group. It’s POWER TRAINING day today. Luckily for him he was just observing then after awhile he went to watch the shaolin group.

When began the POWER TRAINING drills we started off with some warm up exercises. After warm us we did the ‘frog hops’ where you squat down and jump across the room. We were in two lines and I told the guy next to me which was Luigi, "Race you." And we started hoping across. Then the class did jump kicks, duck walks, and wheel barrels across the gym. Each time I was lined up against Luigi and each time I told him, "Race you!" I beat him every time. I even passed some guys in front of me in line like Rodney, my friend from Australia. When we were doing the frog hops and I passed Rodney I yelled back at him, " Come on Kangaroo man you should be good at hopping!" It made the work out a lot more fun and I pushed myself a lot harder. After the line drills we did POWER STRETCHING. I’m getting pretty flexible now. I can do the splits a little lower. With the help of Master Gou of course, who goes around pulling your leg out farther. After stretching we did push ups with our fingers bent. Then we did ten we had to do twenty push ups going from our Knuckles to Fingers and back to Knuckles. After that we did planks. "Only for 6 minutes," Master said. While we did the planks, Rodney was to my right. About 3 minutes into the planks on our knuckles of course, Rodney's arms began to shake. I noticed and I laughed at him. He would shoot me a dirty look. Then his body then he would collapse, he would quickly get back on his knuckles and his arms would again shake. And I would laugh even harder. Soon Rodney started laughing. I was laughing because I thought Rodney looked pretty funny but it was also a hurtful laugh. He did look like he was in pain and he was trying so hard. I could feel his pain and of course when I feel pain, I laugh. Now, each time I laughed my abs would tense up which would make doing the plank even harder. Guess that’s Karma for me.

Once we finished planks we would do 50 leg lifts. Now Rodney got his revenge. Rodney would finish first and say, "Ha did 52." This would make me compete and I would do an extra 3 and say, "HA! I did 55!" Then class was supposed to do 40 “V ups”. Rodney finished saying, "Did 45." Then I would finish and say, " 50!" We did about two more other exercises like that and me doing extra just to beat Rodney. Then he would stop telling me how many he was doing. We had to do 30 ‘backwards leg lifts’ and I said, "Did 40," just to be safe. Rodney laughed and said, " Ha did 32." Then after that i would do ten extra just to make sure I beat Rodney. Once we finished with POWER TRAINING I told Rodney, " HAHA I beat you." Rodney said, "Haha made you work harder though." Now that I think about it, I don’t know who really was the ‘winner’.

Making training a bit more competitive made it more fun and took my mind off the pain a bit. I laughed and told Rodney that I will write about our little competition on my blog today. I made a decision that I will do extra push ups, sit ups, and planks in my room during the week besides Wednesdays when we do those in POWER TRAINING. I am sure doing it every day will make me a lot more conditioned and in shape for class and for POWER TRAINING.

After class I showered up and got ready for dinner. Dinner was good and I had the usual. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s dinner we will have Dumplings.

Going to get some rest now. For some reason I feel pretty exhausted.

Goodnight.

-Scott