担风袖月

Two weeks before I came to Hong Kong in 2005 I was at home in London, waiting for my work visa. I had plenty of time on my hands; and I visited China town, eating dim sum - trying to get an idea of what I am getting myself into by moving to Hong Kong. That month, Kung Fu Hustle was out and screening in London.

I loved the movie so much that I went to the movie theatre THREE times to watch it, and then went back two more times the following week. I loved the story, the special effects, the acting skills of the crew and, most of all, the fun side and the irony. (I think the movie was made to be a parody on a typical kung fu flick). Little did I know that four years later I will be: seriously into Chinese martial arts and I will meet, in person, one of my favourite characters in the movie.

Today, I was participating in my first wushu competition in Hong Kong. 2009 is the year when China celebrates 60^th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Chinese government is keen on making it a big event to promote China and the Chinese culture, and there is a number of martial art events held this summer in Hong Kong. Today’s competition was one of them.

I enrolled in the competition in order to experience what it was like to “compete”, and also to get extra reason to work harder on my forms and technique. In order to make (and measure) progress, I need to set goals. I also looked forward to getting formal feedback (the mark) from independent wushu judges.

Finally, I just like to perform :-)

I didn’t know what to expect, but I at the end of the day I left with a very positive feeling. The atmosphere was of mutual respect and encouragement. At least, this is what I felt as I couldn’t exactly follow what was happening (it was all in Cantonese, of course). And I loved being around wushu people.

And the meeting with the Kung Fu Hustle actor (and an important Hung Gar style sifu) made the day even more memorable.

I was a little bit anxious when I was flying into Koh Samui. I was to join training for Muay Thai, one of the most physically demanding fighting arts. I knew I was in for tough times, but I didn't know exactly how tough it would be.

The gym is in the Chaweng area, off the main road in a small village called Laan Dara. There is a sign “2 km to Chaweng Beach” at the road junction near the turn off to the village. There are two buildings, one with gym and the rooms upstairs (that’s where I stay), another with larger apartments and a swimming pool in the coartyard.

There are two training sessions a day, the morning one (8 to 10 am) and the evening one (5 to 7 pm). Day One, I start with the afternoon training at 5 pm. I turn up in the gym half an hour before, do some kicks and stretches. Noone around, only the reception girl, until a young guy turns up a few minutes before 5. His name is Chris, he is 16, and he seems half-Thai half English (speaking both languages with equal fluency). He says it was his third Muay Thai class.  Five minutes past 5, I hear a sound of gong, and a Thai trainer who’s just turned up hands me a skipping rope. Skipping for 10 minutes is the warm up routine, but on that day we have to skip for extra 5 minutes as the second trainer is late. (We had two, sometimes three trainers, for each training session.)

Skipping rope in the 30+ degree heat (the gym is outdoors; even though there are fans attached to the walls, unless you stand right in front of them, you don’t feel much) is a new experience for me, but I carry though it as best as I could. After the first three minutes I am already skipping in a pool of sweat; but I make it a point not to stop – we in China know the meaning of ‘eat bitter’ (吃苦)  :-)  Chris keeps stopping for breath every other minute… the boy needs some toughening up!

15 minutes of hell is over, and we do knee rotations, kicking and stretching, all in the bag area, where one wall is fully covered in mirrors and the other three sides have heavy bags haging from the ceiling. This is my favourite time: no other martial art put so much emphasis on the flexible and agile body as the Chinese wushu, and I could see its effects in the mirror. This is then followed by shadow boxing, when I make my first attempts at the Muay Thai basic stances, leg work and punching.

From that evening, and for the two days that followed, I would hear consistently: “Olga, legs straight” “Olga, chin down” and “Olga, hand protection” – the three basics of Muay Thai that are new to me and my body. At first, I am tempted to argue, for example, that straight legs stance is not as stable as when you bend your legs and lower the gravity centre; and that if I stretch my arm when punching too far, I could be easily grabbed and pulled over by my opponent that would cause me to lose balance and fall. However, I quickly realize that I came here to learn, not to teach - and it’s their style that I am learning. So I keep my mouth shut and do what I am told to do.

First time, a trainer tied my hand wraps, and in the two days that followed I still did master the art of wrapping the fist. They would look at my self-wrapped fist, smile and re-wrap it. Considering how long it took me to learn to tie the taikwondo belt, I must have some special disability in this area. We pick up gloves, we practice with the bag the moves we learnt during the shadow boxing, and then we move to kicks. Or, one kick – the “Thai kick”, which again leaves me wondering, once again, why I must keep the leg straight at all times. After years of roundhouse kicks when you unfold the leg hip-knee-feet, and then chamber it back in the opposite sequence, it is impossible NOT to bend it when kicking or chambering. So it takes me at least 20 kicks to do my first straight leg “Thai kick”, and once I’ve driven my shin into the bag at first full-power kick, I knew my shin would be dead on the following day. Second and third kicks are more painful, as I am hitting the sore spot on my shin – but the trainer keeps saying “continue” and I know that’s what he would say, it’s his job, and that’s what the training is about, to learn to forget the pain, so I continue kicking, but cannot bear myself to kick at full power any more.

We finish off bag training with some lighter jump kicks. At the end, I take Chris through some basic stretches (the guy seemed very tight for a 16 year old). That evening, it is only two of us for the class (the Thai New Year’s Eve), and both of us  being beginners, and this being the eve of Songkran, we’ve had it easy.

Day Two, and I am not in a hurry to go downstairs to meet my friend the skipping rope. However, I am downstairs before 8 am, I hear the gong and I grab the skipping rope. There are some guys in the gym (but no Chris) but I am the only one who is skipping this morning. Never mind. On that day, I am joined for the training by a French guy who has MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) background and is going to stay here fore a month (thank you, financial crisis). This is his first day and he is still jet lagged. He is stretching while I am skipping.

1o minutes are over, a pool of sweat is again on the floor where I stand, and we proceed to jumps, knee rotations, stretch kicks and shadow boxing. The pace is still OK for me; the French guy is frequently out of breath. (I would feel the pace of training to speed up on that day in the afternoon, when I am joined by an experienced Muay Thai fighter from Sweden).

More bag work, again “Olga, chin down”, “Olga, hand protection”, “legs straight”, today followed by rounds in the ring with the trainer. My bruises are becoming more prominent, I am happy I would have something to show for my training back home in Hong Kong :-). They also hurt more when I hit the bag or the instructor’s  kicking shield :-(

We finish with a hundred of push ups , and after a short break I watch an MMA instructor to show the French guy new ways of ground locking. The MMA instructor is all muscle, tattoos and testosterone, his hair is bleached blond and he trains 6 hours a day (I asked him). They keep fighting on the ground, no flying kicks or back flips, so I get bored quickly and leave for a session at the pool. I decide that the sun heat would help to soften the pain of my bruises.  

In mid-day and after the evening training, I would go for a walk to the Chaweng Beach, to eat, window-shop or just sit in the airconditioned Starbucks with a Chinese book and a cup of coffee.

Evening training starts, I am with the Swedish fighter and the easy times are over. The kicking routine speeds up, and since it’s two of us with the two instructors, we have their full attention.  That’s when I start pushing myself to keep going through pain and exhaustion. And then, after the class, exausted but totallly at peace, I keep hanging around the gym feeling like I fully deserved the rest, and enjoying every minute of it.

Day Three is the day following the Sonkran, and the gym is full! The young Chris turns out with a bunch of friends, and the trainers are bossing them around. Plus, there is a couple of Western girls (Dutch or English) who look like they’ve done some serious Muay Thai training before; and their friend, a young English guy who I recognise from before – he fought a Thai fighter (and won) in the Chaweng Stadium on the first night of my arrival. 

The skipping area is packed, so I take my rope outside, just by the  entrance with the Buddha shrine - and I am immediately told by the trainer to go back, as I was skipping with my back to Buddha. I stay there, but turn to face him, and keep my eyes on the floor, hoping I am sufficiently respectful.

The rest of the class is just like another day, stretch kicks, shadow boxing, bag work, ring work. We alternate in the ring, once one person is in, the rest are doing bag work. Today, I am allowed to go soft on elbow strikes as my elbows are purple coloured from bruises of yesterday. We finish by inevitable 100 stomache crunches  (these few hundred crunches done over three days made me uncapable of getting up from bed without singificant help from hands and elbows for days afterwards).

After the class, I sit down by the ring, and just take everything in. I feel that I am going to miss this place. The senior trainer sits down next to me. He has been doing Muay Thai for over 20 years, and a picture of his younger self is hanging at the reception. At that picture, he is a decorated Champion fighter. He bears himself with a confidence and composure of a fighter, of someone who knows what it means to be hit, to be hurt, and how to overlook the pain and hit back.

I leave the Samui island that afternoon. This is my third time in Samui, and this is the first time that I am sorry to leave. In fact, not counting my very first trip to Thailand in 2003, this is the first time I feel sorry to leave Thailand. It looks like sweating and getting bruised, beaten and shouted at have made me feel closer to the Thai culture than any other experiences: numerous trips around the country, work assignments or meditations and temple visits .

PS Today, I went and bought a skipping rope. 

PPS photos are on the Facebook: Muay Thai. Gym's address: www.superprosamui.com