My room at the Kunyu school is extremely spartan. Despite my tendency towards minimalism, this place makes me feel that I've been living in luxury until today. It's small, dirty, hot, and isolated. The accommodations were much nicer when I lived in Army barracks; they at least had electric dryers rather than clothes lines. Air conditioning here is comprised of my arm and a lovely paper fan.
It's a good setting for training; there aren't many distractions at a place like this. The facilities have a minimalist feel to them, but they appear to have everything you need for training including a variety of heavy bags and other striking targets, two training halls, a sparring ring, trees for conditioning, stocked weapons racks, weights, and balancing poles planted in the ground.
Breakfast consists of rice, bread, boiled eggs, and warm milk. This is the same every day without variation. Lunch and dinner consist of rice, mixtures of veggies and meat, and hot tea. There is some minor variation in the veggie-meat mixtures. Fortunately, I love rice. We'll see if I still love rice after a month here. The food is all served in a single bowl and eaten with chopsticks, the drinks are drunk from smaller bowls. The Chinese do not appear to believe in cold water. I once asked Sifu where I could refill my water bottle and he directed me to the hot water. When I asked where I could get cold water for it he appeared surprised but directed me to a dispenser of lukewarm water.
If rules are broken or if one leaves the school during the week without prior authorization from his Sifu, the student is beaten with a staff.
This is Sparta.
Training consists of 1 ½ hours of morning training followed by a 30 minute break and then 1 hour second morning training. After lunch is 1 ½ hours afternoon training. Optionally one may also take 1 hour of Tai Chi and Qigong prior to the morning training and/or 1 hour of Qigong after the afternoon training. Several students have recommended taking it easy the first week. Consensus is that the first two weeks are hell while one acclimates to the training.
Here is what I logged each day during my first week:
Monday – Basics, Sanda
Morning training was grueling. It began with a short run of about 800 meters on flat ground. Running in Easthampton was one thing, here it seems more difficult. I assume it's because of the altitude being in the mountains, although it's also much hotter here. I hate running here. It seems like 8 km in Easthampton was easier than 800m here. Every morning training of every day begins with a run. Otherwise morning training was just going over some basic strikes and movements but it was constant.
[EDIT 8/25: It's not the elevation; it turns out that here at the base of the mountains we're only 46m above sea level. Maybe it's just the immediate and constant training right after jet lag. I hope so as this would be much more of a temporary effect.]
Afternoon training began with a run. I hate running here. Every afternoon training of every day begins with a run. The run was followed by Sanda, which is Chinese kickboxing. After Sanda training we did 50 pushups, followed by a run down the hill and back, then 40 pushups, then 30, then 20, then 10. Each set was followed by a run down the hill and back. These were short runs, but I hate running. I hate it even more after doing pushups.
Tuesday – Forms, Applications
I'm already sore from yesterday. While others worked on whatever forms they're learning, Sifu had me practice some stances that I need to know before proceeding to any Mantis forms. Although this was repetitive, I found a pleasant aesthetic in transitioning through these stances. 4 of the students were caught watching an ant fight rather than training. They were made to hold themselves in the pushup position while Sifu gave each a few painful whacks on their butts with his staff.
Whenever we go for the morning and afternoon runs, I always see some people that aren't able to run for all of it. I may have mentioned that I hate running, but I still make myself run the full distance and not walk any of it. Part of me says that I won't let myself give up like that, but part of me wonders if that resolve will still be there the next day, if the next time I will be just another of those walking part of it.
In the afternoon we did partner drills, going over some applications of some Mantis movements.
Wednesday – Conditioning, Power Training
After the first two days, I woke up wishing I could do something easy like work 8 or 9 hours at HFS.
After the usual morning run was conditioning. This consisted in part of repeatedly striking each other on various parts of the body to toughen it up. The stomach isn't much fun during this. It also consisted of striking trees, which I found much less yielding then flesh. My knuckles are still red from this. I kinda liked it. We also practiced some strikes on the heavy bags.
For power training, the afternoon run was much longer than prior runs and was up a mountain to a temple. This time, my resolve was weak and I ran part of the way, walked part of the way. It's not terribly far, probably only about 4km, but it's really steep. My legs are sore from all of this running and other fun activities. After the run we had the pleasure of doing bear crawls, frog jumps, and duck walks up and down a hill, and then went through a regimen of holding various stances while carrying a brick in each hand. I was told that first week students are not expected to hold the bricks during this. Feeling like I had to make up for the run, I decided to get a pair of bricks anyways. Also, while everyone else was going for the smaller, broken bricks, I grabbed a pair of large, intact bricks. Perhaps not my brightest move. After this was upper body weight training and pullups.
The way my legs felt, weight training was a very welcome respite.
Thursday – Forms, Power Stretching
The morning run was followed by forms practice. I did well on the run this time as my performance during yesterday's run motivated me to push myself harder this morning.
As I have not yet learned any forms, Sifu just had me practice those movements that I have learned so far. This included a sequence of strikes that I was practicing on the heavy bag yesterday, so this time I decided to practice it on a tree. My elbow's a little banged up as a result.
The afternoon was power stretching. The other students joked that today they get to see if I'm a screamer, moaner, giggler, or heavy breather since this is my first day of power stretching. To give an example of power stretching, picture standing with your legs as far apart as you can get them. One student supports your waist while another supports you by your arms. Two other students then each grab a foot and pull you farther than your body has any desire to go. This was one of many stretches, and all were performed in similar fashion.
When I expressed my disappointment in not running the entire way to the temple yesterday to one of the particularly physically fit students, he explained to me that nobody runs the entire way at first, that the goal each time should just be to run a little farther than the last time, and that after about three months I'll probably be able to run the full distance. One of the students chuckled at the absurdity of my expecting to run all the way to the temple and back, having yet to do so himself. I needed to hear this as I was feeling discouraged by yesterday's afternoon run. I have been informed, however, that it was nothing compared to the Friday morning runs. At least the Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday runs are relatively short, as is the Wednesday morning run. Still, I hate running here.
Friday – The Mountain
Remember that run up to the temple on Wednesday? I'm told that we normally run that every Friday but we then run up and down the many stairs leading up to the temple proper several times. I'm told it's grueling, which I certainly believe after Wednesday. Wednesday we only ran to the base of the stairs.
Periodically, however, we do something special, and that is hike up Kunyu Mountain. Today was just such a day. This started at 830am. Prior to the hike we were each given two bread rolls and a small bottle of water. This was our lunch. After walking uphill for about 8km, a fellow student then told me that we are now at the base of the mountain and about to begin the difficult part. Going up the mountain had my legs screaming, especially with my body still trying to get accustomed to the training my first week. I questioned at more than one point whether or not I would make it to the top, as some of the students did not. I did make it, in part due to some words of encouragement from another student. Parts of the hike were up stairs going up the mountain, parts were going up uncertain rocky footing, and often it was very steep. Feiyue sneakers, with their thin soles, do very little to mitigate the discomfort of sharp rocks on blistered feet. I'll say that, when one questions whether or not the legs are going to continue cooperating to the top, it's very encouraging to have someone on their way down saying that I only have about 15 more minutes to the top. It also felt really good to tell someone coming up while I was coming down that they only had about 10 minutes left to the top. I don't know how high we were, but at the top of the mountain I could look down into the clouds. It was somewhat celebratory at the top, with students taking pictures of themselves having reached the top of Kunyu Shan. We rested a bit and ate our meager fare before beginning the descent. I returned to the school at 215. I believe most of the students did not take as long as that, although some did take longer and some did not make it the entire way to the top.
So the review of the first week is: the training is only like 4 hours total mandatory training a day with an additional 2 hours optional Tai Chi and Qigong but it's freaking intense. During my first week here I sometimes found myself questioning whether or not I can make it a year. My roommate, who is also here for a year, said that's normal, everyone feels that way the first week and that it'll be just as bad the second week. Everyone says that after those first two weeks you get accustomed to the regimen, so we'll see how I feel after two weeks.
