Training in Shaolin

[小明 胡]

Now to the most interesting contribution, because nobody knows what
will be waiting, if he/she decides training Shaolin Kung Fu in
Shaolin. In order to say it briefly: PAIN! You will torture yourself.
The Chinese begin training at a very early age. At the age of 4 - 10
years parents give their children to one of the numerous Kung Fu
schools. The children's education lasts about 3 years in Shaolin. You
must consider that the children see their parents only during official
holidays (1 month every year). They have to be very independent at a
very young age. The coaches "take care of" the kids every time and
function as a mother replacement. But why are parents doing this to
their own children?

Value of Shaolin Kung Fu training in China
This is question is quite simple to answer because in China there is a
high unemployment ratio too. Learning Shaolin Kung Fu represents one
of the highest and sounded education in China. The pupil who finishes
successfully the final examinations in a Shaolin Kung Fu school,
possesses the possibility to start a carreer in the south (rich) China
as a policeman, in the army or is able to work as a bodygard (in every
Mc Donalds there is at least one police officer) or sing and dance at
the famous Beijing opera. Shaolin Kung Fu has a higher value than
studying at an university.

The carrot and the stick!
Daily training starts at 05:30 o'clock in the morning, normally with a
penetrating all over-sounding military siren. Minutes later a chaos on
the courses of the school follows. Thousands of pupils urge to the
training surfaces without having washed themselves. But why should
they? In the toilets hundreds of pupils fight for a bit of gutter
because nobody dares to appear too late to instruction lesson.
Each delay (and may it be only a minute) will be punished by the
coaches mercilessly, i.e. stick blows, press-ups, etc. The coach
possesses the absolute authority and has full freedom of action. Only
he has the might whether (and how) pupils are punished or not. We do
not know any coach who did not strike "his" children (Please consider
that the kids begin shaolin wushu with 4 years!). However there are
some coaches who exaggerate. We saw a coach - he was called "butcher"
by the foreigners - who hit the kids with a huge stick until it broke
(and I tell you, those sticks are very flexible). A special punishment
consisted of forcing the pupils do the crab. A rice bowl was placed on
their heads and if the bowl fell down they got some more hits and
beats. On average the crab had to be accomplished half an hour (!!!!).
For foreigners it is very hard watching helplessly crying small
children each day, seeing their fearful eyes filled with tears. But
nevertheless the punishment will be forgotten after the training and
the coach is like mommy again. The entire training can be compared
with military, i.e. the beginning of training with line and member up,
speech of the coach and marching.

Morning
At the morning training from 05:45 o'clock to 07:30 o'clock mainly
condition and high-speed strength are trained. First the musculature
is warmed up by running. It is already an overwhelming picture if
15,000 pupils run in military formations through Shaolin. With a lot
of middle sprints the high-speed strength is trained. While the
foreigners run as fast as they can (and I can ensure you that we ran
(like hell) on 100 m under 12 s!), but the coach runs with a long
stick at your side smiling and spurs you on running much more faster
and hitting your back too, if ones moves are too slowy (according to
his opinion). A popular goal are the stairs to the Bodhidharma Cave
consisting of 1000 stairs!!
The Shaolin monks run this distance each morning and their condition
is gigantic. But only few stages are necessary to get the pupils
sweating. Short sprints over 10 m stairs, limping on the left, right
and both legs absolutely hard. Downwards every pupil must make press-
ups, so the arms are trained too. After 1 3/4 h the training is over.
The musculature is tired, arms and legs very heavy.

Breakfast
Now it is breakfast time and a lot of restaurants invite you for
eating breakfast. This consists usually of Dou Fu Noir (Soybean), Ba
Bao Jou (8 precious objects soup) and Yao Tiao (deep-fry paste). Also
noodles and rice are eaten at breakfast. It is likely that the Chinese
sip their soup and noodles and you have to do the same.

After breakfast: training
After short recovery the next training begins at 09:00 o'clock with a
loose jogging, warming up and the high-speed strength training. But
now primarily the stretching is being trained.
In contrast to German training the stretch is being trained not until
pain arises, but far beyond pain. A popular exercise is the doing the
split. The pupil is lying on his back and 2 other students hold his
arms and legs and the coaches pushes with his whole body, in order to
press the student doing the split (I could hardly move the next
several days). According to this, there are a lot of such exercises.
Another exercise consists of a student sitting down, pressing his sole
in front of him together. A lot of people have some problems therefore
another person stands on his knees and presses those down to the
ground by his body weight. Everyone of us had to makeo the crab. This
is very painful for untrained persons but in Shaolin the coach lifts
you up and shakes your body... every pupil will have to cry out louldy
and some days later you will have enormous back pain (but it seems to
work). Arms, legs and all other muscles (which you did not know
before) are stretched. Afterwards the basic elements of the Shaolin
Kung Fu are taught: Leg movements, blocking, striking, stands. This
part differs not too much from our well-known training, however the
repetition rate is much higher. Because the students repeat the same
techniques again and again and again and so highest perfection is
obtained. Training ends at 11:30 o'clock.

Lunch
In one of the numerous restaurants or in the school it is possible to
eat. There are numerous dishes but no menu. Thus you go into the
kitchen, show something you like and the cook prepares a tasty, warm
meal. Rice and noodles are the most important (and most inexpensive)
food. Meat is expensive and you can one only dream of a steak. Rather
the meat is cut into small pieces and mixed to the vegetables.
Preferably tomatoes, potatoes and different vegetables are used. By
the way there is no chance to order coffee or chocolate.
After noon we have some time to recover the maltreated body. On one of
the numerous stone banks we can watch a lot of Chinese, but there is
no time for relaxing. You are mostly surrounded by a cluster of
Chinese and they want to talk to you or take some pcitures. If you
want to rest this is not the place. In the school, on the road, even
in the mountains there are Chinese looking for contact with
foreigners.

Afternoon training
At 2:00 pm in the afternoon training begins again. This training is
the most interesting one because new forms and weapons will be taught
now. But also this training begins with a warming up training, with
stretching and with basic techniques. These basic techniques are
absolute necessary. The first form (every student has to learn this)
in Shaolin is the Wu Bu Quan. This form consists of five different
basic stands and is relatively simple to learn. With each form new
stands, techniques and also acrobatic elements are inserted. The
advanced Shaolin student learns the somersault forwards and backwards,
the flic flac, the jumped cartwheel and a lot of other jumped
techniques. The jump strength of the Chinese is gigantic and
somersault appears for the audience as very simple (but I tell you, it
isn't acutally!).
Due to their bodies foreigners have bigger problems learning these
techniques.
Usually weapon training starts with long stick (gun) and followed by
sword (dao). The mobile weapons are more difficult to learn and
therefore they are taught to the older students. Mobile weapons are
the 9-section whip (jiu jie bian), the three-section-stick (san jie
gun), the two-section-stick (liang jie gun) and the whip (bian). Those
weapons combined with fantastic acrobatic elements constitute the
fascination of the Shaolin Kung Fu. Training ends at 6:00 pm.

End of training
After a arduous day it is worth to wash oneself for the first time.
Most schools do not have their own showers and so once a week they
visit an external wash and shower room. It sounds awful but after a
short time it doesn't matter. The dinner is the same like lunch. At
9:30 pm most of the students fall tired into bed because next morning
the siren will sound again at 05:30 am.

Penalty Training
Some Chinese take an extra training from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm but
occasionally the entire group is forced due to bad achievements to an
extra training. In regular intervals the achievement of each group is
examined by the school master. During bad achievement the coach is
requested to train the group more harder (and to punish them).

Remarks of training
Training is accomplished on 6 days a week. Each school has another day
off (otherwise 15,000 pupils would have free at one time). The time of
training vary from school to school and is depending on season. Please
consider that training (with exception of some Chinese and some
foreigners) take place outside on a stone-hard ground.
There is no light and in winter you will be running in nearly absolute
darkness!!! All acrobatic elements are trained on the stone-hard
ground with exception of some thin mats. Accidents, verse dipping,
etc. are daily but it is not permitted to pupils to be ill. Even
absolutely weakened or hobbled, they must participate at training. 1
month in the year, mostly in January or February is a month off.

Foreigners in Training
A lot of foreigners do not get over this hard training. Within one
week the body has strong cramps and it revolts. Sometimes the cramps
are so strong that you have no chance rising the stairs. Each step
means pain and the body recovers only slowly. After the first month
the pain eases, but during the next training months pain will still
remain a little bit. During learning new techniques and weapons "new"
muscles are stressed. Also effusion of blood cannot be avoided.

Resumee
Who still feels the desire training Shaolin Kung Fu after this report
and is absolutely sure he will survive this rough training conditions,
will begin a painful and eventful adventure. This is for sure!