Rose was invited by renowned Push Hands and Chinese Wrestling expert Master Ni Zeng Zhao to join his weekly training session in Xin Zhuang Park on Saturday morning.
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Master Ni’s group of extremely dedicated students meet up to four times a week for training, under the experienced and watchful eye of Master Ni and his own teacher, the famous wrestling coach Grandmaster Liu Da Hai.
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Grandmaster Liu, who was a wrestling coach and competitor for the Shanghai Wrestling Team back in the late1950’s, is now in his mid-80’s, but still sharp and keen in his advice to the young team of wrestlers under Master Ni’s wing.
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The team of 12 students are all from a variety of professions and backgrounds, many of them from outside provinces, some making their living opening their own companies; but all working here raising their families and looking to enrich their lives in Shanghai’s busy metropolis.
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The group has not only built up their own health and fitness under Master Ni’s watchful and encouraging guidance, but have also forged strong friendships and relationships with their wrestling brothers and friends here in Shanghai.
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The group go through a vigorous basic training warm up session, which includes strength and endurance training, falling and rolling techniques, (especially important to prevent injury during the later wrestling match ups), lifting and throwing techniques, plus speed and hand techniques for wrestling throws.?
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After the warm ups, Master Ni pairs the students up for 10 minute heat wrestling matches, before switching the pairs around, so everyone gets a chance to compete with the other team members.
The matches are all practised enthusiastically and competitively, but at the same time in a good spirit.
After matches wearing the traditional wrestling garb, the students then disrobe the wrestling tunic and continue wrestling bare chested, so that they can practise the grips and throws without the benefit of the “gi” or tunic, which means they are not dependent on purely using the clothing to control the opponent, but also can control his body and joints directly and adroitly too.?
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Rose was deeply impressed by the complete concentration, commitment and devotion shown by the students and by Master Ni’s vocal and humorous instructional coaching, which inspires and motivates, plus encourages all the students to give their best; creating a wonderful team spirit, which allows for great generosity of spirit and camaraderie among the group.
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Their enthusiasm and love of what they do and their team spirit is something we can all learn from and Rose felt very lucky to have had the chance to participate in the training session and meet such a wonderful Grandmaster as Master Liu Da Hai.
Thank you to Master Ni and his group for their hospitality and for the delicious lunch that followed; it was a fantastic experience and DDA hopes to have the opportunity to take part again in the future, plus introduce more western students and martial arts enthusiasts to this amazing and now rare?traditional?Chinese martial art.
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For more information about the group, please contact Rose Oliver, or check out Master Ni Zeng Zhao’s blog on Sina.com.