I am competiting in on the 24th of July and 8th of August

grading


July 15th was grading. I signed up to grade my Wingchun fist form which i am also competiting in on the 24th and 8th. I practiced all week for it and felt ready. When i was performing my form in front of the Masters for grading i paused a bit towards the end. Then i continued and finished. Afterward i was so mad at myself for blanking out. Master told me after grading that i made a small mistake but then fixed it and said i still did good. The whole day i was a bit mad. Before dinner one of the translators where writing the top 3 high scores from grading. Out of 19 people the top three were, 1st place-Clement. 2nd-Me, and 3rd-Another friend of mine. I saw that and could not believe i got 2nd. i felt a little better and knew if i practiced enough before the competition i might be able to get a good score, maybe even a metal.


competition

On the 24th of July and the 8th of August, Kunyushan  Martial Art Academy enrolls in a competition in Yantai. The competition is a martial art form competition rather than a fighting competition. In the competition we can win medals, only gold and silver. My friend Andrew did the competitions last year and won 6 medals. He trained in china over 2 years though. I asked Master if i can compete in it. He said yes and told me i can do three forms in both competitions. I am doing my Baji Staff form, Baji Fist form, and a Wingchun Fist form as well. Master told me the competition judges are used to seeing a lot of shaolin/acrobatic forms from Chinese people. The Forms we learn are more traditional so we might not be scored as high so we must show a lot of power in our forms. He said Wingchun is not popular in northern china where we are so the judges might see my Wingchun form and think it is boring because it is all hand movements and i do not move my feet at all. I did not mind trying. It gives me another chance to get gold. So i have been training my forms non stop during classes, hours after dinner, and i even find myself doing forms in my sleep. I have 4 days until the competition and these past few days Master  paired me and Clement up so time each other and watch each others forms. The time limit for my three forms are 1 minute and 10 seconds for my Baji fist. My Baji staff form is 1 mintue 20 seconds. And my Wingchun form is 1 minute 20 seconds as well. The problem was i was taught to do the forms slow then fast in some parts. Well when i did my forms for the first time i was 1 minute 50 seconds for my staff, 1 minute 30 seconds for my baji fist, and 2 minutes for my Wingchun form because its a slow form. For the past week i have been working on my timing. Master showed me certain parts where to pause and then the rest is done faster. I got my wingchun form down to 1 minute 18 seconds, baji fist down to 1 minute 3 seconds, and my staff is 1 minute 6 seconds. I have a lot more practicing to do these next 4 days. but i believe i can do it. If not and i don't win, well then there's my reason for me to stay another year.



-Scott