May was busy

Okay, been a long time again, but I've got a chance to post again.

I've actually been really happy with how work has been going recently.  Not as fast as I would like it to, but I think that I have most of my results done.  I'm working on some finishing details at the moment, and I should be able to start getting my analysis reviewed in a couple of weeks.  I'll leave this alone for now, because there's a lot of other stuff that I want to talk about before it becomes far too late for me to mention it.

Anyway, last time I posted I mentioned that I was going to be going to the "Night of Wushu" being held at Stanford.  It seems like it's kind of hard to describe wushu to people.  I say that I've started taking wushu at stanford, and they wonder if I've suddenly taken up asian cooking or something (wushu sounds too much like mushu, or something like that).  I took a brief look at the wikipedia.com entry on wushu, and I think they said it should call to mind the idea of kung fu.  So that's cool.

I've got a really good friend in the TKD club who started taking wushu last year.  She's amazingly flexible, strong, and graceful.  So Audrey started doing really neat things right away.  She competed for Stanford at wushu collegiates last year.  I think she medalled a couple of times.  Really, really impressive.  Anyway, after getting to see her perform, and seeing a bunch of other people my size and smaller just doing incredible things, I started really wanting to try this.  Growing up, I was always kinda small so I never really thought I would be that athletic.  Growing up a little more, I started to find myself strong for my size.  In TKD I'm actually big enough to "bully" people in my weight class cuz I can hit harder than a few people.  So I guess one thing I lack is finesse, or any amount of fluidity, grace, that sort of thing.  So I'm close to the last person that should take up something that is very stylized.

Naturally, I took this as a challenge. :)

This quarter I started up with the stanford wushu club.  I was a little worried about this for a couple of reasons.  One, I'm kind of afraid to leave my feet.  I'm not very good at jumping (although I can jump high.  It's landing, or looking like I know what I'm doing is when I have issues) or spinning.  Wushu is pretty much a lot of jumping and spinning.  Two, around January I pulled what feels like a groin muscle, or something around there.  I tried resting it and that didn't work.  So I decided that I'd try to start working out again and see if I could gently bring things back to normal.  Well, wushu involves a lot of deep, long stretches.  The idea is to get you doing the splits ASAP.  Develop a lot of leg strength and a lot of flexibility.  Deep squats, etc.  Things that can be very painful for a pulled muscle.

I'm amazed, but I think all the stuff I've done with wushu has actually helped my recovery.  Things still hurt, but not nearly as much as they did when I first pulled it, or even when I was taking all the time off to rest things.  I guess the best rehab up to this point was just to work out.

Anyway, I've been involved with the club for a quarter now.  I've been taught how to do the first (beginner) set of movements.  Now I just have to look like I know what I'm doing.  My legs are getting a little stronger, but I still have a long way to go.  My flexibility has gotten better, I think.  I don't think my leg goes any higher, but it's easier to get to that height now.

Night of Wushu was a real motivator for me.  I got to see both of our instructors (Wong Laoshi and Zhang Laoshi) perform.  Wong Laoshi performed a drunken-style set (think jackie chan's "drunken master" movies), and Zhang Laoshi has an amazing double straight sword set.  I was nearly two hours of people doing amazing things.  Flying through the air (Audrey got literally thrown around in one of the fighting sets she did), using weapons, all the good stuff.  Really amazing, and I hope I have the time to keep at it.

With the Stanford school year up, there's a break in wushu practice for about a month.  Then both instructors plus several of the students are heading to Beijing to practice for a month.  Sounds awesome.  Hopefully someday I'll get that chance.  Better start really working on my splits...