Student Experiences (Germany)




　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　08.2005-09.2006

Summary of my study of chinese martial arts.  

When I first heard of the shaolin-monks I was absolutely amazed of their great skills. But of course I know that they have to dedicate a big chapter in their life to train in shaolin temple. Some of them even their whole life. However, after a while my interest made me go to China to study Saolin Kung Fu. I have been to China from august 2005 until September 2006. During that period I studied not just Shaolin Kung Fu but also mantis boxing. I have never heard before of that style but when I started to learn mantis I became more and more interested. At the beginning the training was quite hard but after a while when your body gets used to train every day then you can enjoy your improvement. Your body will become stronger and more flexible. But you should be honest with yourself. It is not enough just to go to China. If you want to improve you need the will to work hard. But then you can earn a great benefit.

During the 14 month of my training I learned shaolin-forms and mantis-forms as well. Students often say to learn forms is not very practical. Honestly speaking that is nonsense. Things are just then not practical if you are not good at them. So it depends on you if you make things practical. When you are able to do a form really well then you are also able to use the actions of a form in a fight. At the beginning you need patience and a strong will. Everybody had to start from beginning once. Also students who are going to china to learn martial arts have to. You have to start with basics. Basics as kicks, punches and also stands are very important for learning any kind of martial arts. That is why you have to do them again and again. The better you are at basics the easier you are able to learn advanced things later. That is the way the masters will teach you. You just have to follow your master and then you are able to achieve a great success.

I am very glad that I have been to Yantai to learn martial arts. During my study I learned Taiji, Qigong, Shaolin Kung Fu and mantis boxing. The masters are the best I ever met. Finally the conditions to learn martial arts are great. Now it depends on your ambition how serious you handle the training. I have seen students who were able to improve in a really short time. Even some students could discover abilities which they haven't known about themselves before. For instance a student could do the back flip after a really short time. I think there is no limiting to learn something. It doesn't matter what age people have. Decisive is the will of somebody to learn something. Once there was a man in our academy who was 75 years old. He was there to learn Taiji but even he could do some running and kicks. Another example is our Qigong master. He is more than 70 years old but he is in a better shape than many students who are 40 to 50 years younger. All these things are part of a great experience which I made during my study. All the knowledge I gained I could take back home to keep on practising on my own. But hopefully once I will go back to China to learn some knew things. I am looking forward to that. I want to say thanks to all the masters for their teaching and I want to express my deepest respect to them. I will always remember you and I hope I will see you again in the future.

My kindest regards

Christoph

E_mail:   baumannchristopher@googlemail.com