Mark C. Moran

August in Austin – My Wushu Training Plan

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Now that I’m in a more-or-less stable location for the next 3 to 4 weeks, I wanted to put together a training plan so that I can at least maintain some semblance of “fitness” with my wushu.

It is my hope that, by writing down my wushu training plans here, I might be held more accountable to keep up with my training.  I will post up weekly updates of my progress towards my goals, as well as photos and videos from my training.  If I keep this stuff to myself I can be lazy and not do what I’m supposed to.  So, this is my effort to keep myself on track.

My Goals

I put together some goals that I’d like to accomplish in the next 4 weeks related to 4 specific areas:

1. Forms
2. Strength
3. Flexibility
4. Endurance

Let’s dig right in, shall we?

Forms

I have three main goals with my wushu forms, each related to a different style/weapon as follows:

Nanquan: Increase and establish the “fluency” of my form.

This means I am going to really try to smooth out my transitions, work on my rhythm and pacing, and make sure that the choreography is fine-tuned and exactly the way I want it.

Nandao: Re-choreograph my form and practice basic techniques

I haven’t touched my nandao in quite a while, so I’m going to try and choreograph a new form for my nandao and also focus some time and energy on the practice of specific basic techniques.

Nangun: Focus on basic techniques practice — no form development for now

There are around 5 fundamental nangun techniques that I’m going to focus on and try to really get solid.  No work on a form at the moment, but I’ll probably focus on choreographing something this fall.

Strength

I have 4 strength goals for this month.  Will I actually get them?  Hard to say.  But at least I’ll get farther than if I had never tried.  Here they are:

  1. 5 minute plank
  2. 50 pushups in a row
  3. 5 pull-ups (I really suck at pull-ups)
  4. 50 MB-GB transitions in a row

Flexibility

I have one goal for my flexibility.  I’ve gotten it before, but I’m not too close right now.  But I’m going to take my “100 Days to Head to Toe” training program and put it into practice.  My goal is:

  1. Get Head to Toe on both feet in 30 days.

boom.

Endurance

My endurance really is terrible right now.  I can barely do a section, let alone a whole form.  So, I’m going to focus on wind sprints and try to increase my endurance and ability to move quickly.  My goal is:

  1. Be able to do ten 100 meter sprints in less than 20 minutes.

Given that a 50 meter sprint takes me around 15 seconds right now, and a 100 meter sprint takes almost 30 seconds (no joke!), with recovery time between sprints at almost 2 minutes, that means I could currently do ten 100 meter sprints in around 30 minutes.

And that is assuming my legs don’t give out first.  I was doing 50 meter sprints in Beijing in June and I actually pulled a muscle in my quad.  So … we’ll see how it goes.  Slow and steady wins the wind sprints, right?

The other issue is that I have some problems with my ankles these days.  They’re a bit sore and feel slightly arthritic.  Strangely, it doesn’t hurt too much when I’m walking around.  I guess I need to move more.

My Training Plan

So, I’ve worked out a training plan based on a 3 days a week training wushu and 3 days a week of training on my own at a track or park early in the morning or late at night (before/after anyone can stare at me).

I will post up my plan each week, along with how I did the week before.  Here is this week’s plan:

Week 1 Goals and Plans (August 5-11, 2013)

Forms:

  • Nanquan: Focus on the introduction and the 3rd section of my form
  • Nandao: Focus on 1st section choreography
  • Nangun: 3 fondamental techniques, practice 25 times at the end of every wushu session.

Strength:

  • Get to a 90 second plank, 25 pushups in a row, 1 pull-up and 20 MB-GB transitions in a row.

Flexibility:

  • Train head to toe every morning and night, plus whenever I train, according to my 100 day program.

Endurance:

  • Be able to run ten 50m sprints within 20 minutes.

Here is my training schedule this week:

  • Monday: Evening wushu training near Far West with Steven. (Forms, Flexibility)
  • Tuesday: Early morning or late evening park training (Strength, Endurance, Flexibility).
  • Wednesday: Evening wushu training near Far West with Steven. (Forms, Flexibility)
  • Thursday: Early morning or late evening park training (Strength, Endurance, Flexibility)
  • Friday: Evening wushu training at UT Austin (Forms, Flexibility)
  • Saturday: Early morning or late evening park training (Strength, Endurance, Flexibility)

So, that is my plan this week.

Like I said, I’m putting this here on wushuzilla to help keep me accountable.  I figure if I’m putting this here for all of you to see, perhaps that will push me a bit harder to make sure I do it.

Have anything you want to share?  Have a training plan of your own?  Post up a comment and share!

Or, if you just feel like giving me a “jiayou” of support, that would be appreciated too. 🙂

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