Four fundamental areas to focus on when training for wushu

Wushu training encompasses a wide range of subjects, including styles, techniques, and execution; however, novice practitioners would do well to focus on core fundamentals. Building on these four wushu training basics will build the right foundation and help you progress more effectively in each training session.

Before you move onto the carpet for your wushu training, you need to prepare your body for the rigorous activity. Performing some physical conditioning activities first can help to build up your body's strength, balance, and speed.

Wushu physical conditioning needs to focus on anaerobic exercise, which emphasizes spurts of intense physical activity within short periods. Wind sprinting is an excellent way to build up speed and prepares your body for the intense energy demands of wushu. In addition, you also need to build your strength through activities like wall squats, which improve leg strength, and push-ups for upper body strength.

Balance exercises are imperative, as they improve your coordination. Some of the most common balance exercises in wushu are the aeroplane balance and the high-knee stance.

To get wushu techniques and combinations right, your body needs to have a great deal of flexibility. Stretching exercises not only improve your body's flexibility, but also reduce potential injuries during training, as they loosen tight muscles and tendons before subjecting the body to rigorous training.

Some of the top stretching exercises you can do before actual training commences are hamstring stretches, front splits, head-to-toe stretches, and chest stretches. Typically, you'll start out with basic range-of-motion exercises to warm up. Light jogging might also be included in your training routine to warm up your body, before you move on the serious stretching exercises mentioned above.

Wushu instructors may also ask you to focus on a specific exercise to take care of a problem area.

For faster progress, you need to focus all your attention into mastering the fundamental techniques of this martial art. In other words, you need to get all your stances and kicks right to progress to the next level, which involves putting together everything you have learnt. The back stance, horse stance, and cat stance are the most commonly used stances in wushu.

You also need to have a good grip on the basic wushu kicks, like the front and side kicks, to be effective in your execution.

Once you have the fundamental techniques down pat, you need to focus on mixing those techniques into one fluid movement. The challenge here is to move from one technique to another in a way that looks polished.

Learning wushu takes a lot of energy and time. However, focusing on the basics first will fast-track your progress in this sport.