Welcome to KUEN Wushu's Official Blog. KUEN Wushu is Singapore's 1st and biggest Sports Wushu Academy.
If you've ever wondered what it takes to manage your very own sports Wushu school, be sure to check back regularly for event updates, administrative woes, marketing headaches, training hiccups... "Anything" and "Whatever" that has got to do with keeping KUEN Wushu up & running.
Yup, we're back at Poiching School again. Its been 9 months since we last conducted our KUEN Wushu programmes over there. Many things have changed, but its nice to see the familiar faces of the teachers we used to work with from the PE department. In a weird sorta way, me and my trainers kinda missed the kids, now all "grown up" suddenly during our absence...heh. I hope the teachers and students are as glad to see us as we are to see them. :)
Apologies everyone! Arghh.... I haven't been writing for almost an entire month! What the heck have I been up to???
For starters, I've had Lasik done on my eyes. Yup, bye bye my beloved specs... Wow, to think that I've been wearing glasses since 8...gulp. I highly recommend it, anyone who can afford it and could afford at least 2 days of MC should do it. It'd be the best gift you can give yourself.
So if you see me and my bloodshot eyes this Friday (7th Sep) on Channel U's Money Week, don't be surprised... Yup, me going on TV again... and radio too. Completed both interviews for radio and tv today (tue), both gonna be aired on Friday afternoon for radio and night-time ard 9.30pm for TV I think. Do keep a look out for me and come back here to post in the shoutbox how good-looking or awful-looking I am (or sound) You know what they say, any feedback is better than no feedback. That probably means nobody's watching...heh
Ok, I've accumulated quite a stash of photos this past month of the school programmes that started and ended. Especially the ACES day ones on the 31st August we did at River Valley Primary and Greenwood Primary. The reviews from the teachers were fantastic and I really should give my trainers a well-deserved pat on the back. Great job guys!
Holiday week this week. Don't think we can rest tho... SEP submission date this saturday, so instead of taking it easy, i've requested for more meetings this week! Cheers! Don't everyone just love inefficient long draggy meetings? Yeah....
Sigh... Ended another programme at Greenwood Primary last week. Last lesson liao, quite sad actually. Will miss these super enthusiastic children, we machiam superstars when they all came rushing forward and overwhelmed us with their hugs and handshakes. We received thank you cards and letters scribbling words describing which trainer they loved the most and why they loved their Wushu lessons. Happy to have brought our fun and engaging Wushu programme to yet another few hundred happy students of Greenwood Primary.
Lately a question that pops up often in my head - "How to be at two places at one time?"
Well, you can't.
So when such instances present themselves, I weigh the consequences, prioritize, pick one, and pray the rest goes smoothly.
Wednesday - another mid week post. Phew...
Needed to conduct a teachers workshop at Dazhong Primary and be at TPY sports hall to attend the sports council SEP 2008 briefing. Well, the choice was pretty obvious between the two, I wouldn't sleep well at the SEP briefing knowing that I could have been at Dazhong conducting a great workshop for the teachers. Grin.
Of course I did send a rep in my stead and rushed over to the briefing after the workshop. I was late for an hour and a half and I was told I didn't miss much, everything I needed to know was in a piece of paper in the SEP folder. (Why am I not surprised?) At least the trip (and the carpark fees) wasn't for nothing, I met with Imran, he runs his own Sports Silat Academy. Brought him back to KUEN Wushu to show him around and discussed about possible collaborations between our companies. He's a nice guy. :) I've given my word to help him with the training facility for his Silat lesson on one of the nights we don't have classes.
In short it is a nation-wide funding programme available to all MOE schools to promote sports and increase sports participation.
KUEN Wushu Programmes have been endorsed under the SEP since the scheme started in 2006.
Sundays are generally sucky days for KUEN Wushu trainers. Thats becoz we have our excruciatingly long weekly meeting on Sunday afternoons when the KUEN trainers debrief, discuss, bicker, and b!tch about the past week's activities and lessons. The past Sunday was no different. In fact, it was made worse by the fact that we started late and ended even later. When I was done with them by 8pm, everyone nearly fainted from hunger. It was with this in mind that I decided to drive the trainers to a hearty meal at a nice little joint at GL lorong 44 where they sell chinese bbq, dishes and noodles.
As luck would have it, we stumbled upon a birthday dinner in progress, of which belongs to a certain World Wushu Champion - Mr Di Guang Wen. (Master Di or Di laoshi to all of you young punks out there..heh.) We know each other through a mutual friend and before we know it, someone pulled up a table and we were toasting beer on an empty stomach. Felt uneasy gate-crashing what seemed like a private mini gathering but he was a real sport and soon all thoughts of uneasiness were thrown out the window after the 4th beer...grin.
I also learnt an interesting thing about my trainers that night. One of the trainers can't drink... nearly puked, and thats only after 4 semi-filled glasses of beer. All in all it was a nice get-together with acquaintances whom hopefully will become closer after sharing this common experience. We even talked about a collaboration between himself, his networks and KUEN Wushu. I'm generally skeptical about such dinner table talk but I'm keeping my fingers crossed and see how things develop. I'll see what we can come up with when we next meet up, sober and serious...heh...
Remarks
A quick search online revealed the following info on Di Guangwen Laoshi:
- a World Wushu Champion (won the Gold in Changquan in the 1993 World Wushu Championships)
- 1994 China All-round Wushu Champion
- Former captain of the Beijing Wushu Team
- Key Wushu figure responsible for the success of "Dance En___ble's" Wushu classes in the 4 years he was in Singapore.
Impressive isn't it? I know I'd love to be able to put something like "World Wushu Champion" on my namecard. It'd surely do wonders for the company dontcha think?
Wow, a mid-week post. I must be relatively free this week. Actually I'm lying in bed now with a running nose and hoarse throat, think me caught a cold... :(
Went Fuhua this morning and did 3 classes of introductory Wushu lessons with the Sec 2 kids.
Happy to be back in Fuhua again after 2 years. I did an introductory programme with them in year 2005 for their Sec 2s too and some of them still recognise me after 2 years. Feels good to know I left a good enough impression, enough for them to remember me name even though it was years ago and only a short programme.
Anyway, as expected, these students were quite a handful, but nothing Mr Chin can't handle...grin. I hope they enjoyed the session as much as I've enjoyed teaching it (and torturing some of the poor kids with arm lifts and squats...heh) Hope they'll like what I have planned for them in the coming 9 weeks.
Sigh... me no voice again i think. Think tmr's classes gotta leave it to WL laoshi liao... sniff sniff.
We brought KUEN Wushu's signature Wushu Roadshow - getWushu to Tanglin Secondary last Friday. (20th July)
Amazing response from the students at Tanglin Sec. Even more so from the teachers, and I think the Principal was pleasantly surprised at the enthusiasm shown by the students.
Whats important is that the students enjoyed themselves and everyone on the team had fun doing it. (Tanglin Secondary - You guys ROCKED!)
getWushu Info:
The KUEN Wushu "getWushu - Sports Wushu Roadshow" was started in 2005, funded under the S'pore Sports Council's SPPP programme. It has since toured more than 20 schools , bringing Wushu Sports Exposure to students all over the island. It is a 3-part programme lasting 1 to 1.5 hrs, with lots of exhilarating Wushu action, live interaction with the students, audience tryouts, etc. All this done with a 10+ man team of Wushu athletes cum performers, MCs, Wushu trainers, photo/videographers, logistics, etc.
Sounds fun? Definitely!
Tiring? Hell yeah...
Its been hectic as hell this week. Post frequency dropped from every other day to once a week. My apologies to anyone who's been checking back only to find that the blog's been stagnant. Anyway, here's what we did for the whole week.
Mon 9th
- Wushu lessons @ RVPS in the morning with our adorable ZP laoshi. Did observations for all 3 lessons and he is VERY GOOD. Able to make revisions to lesson plans after obtaining feedback from Moi. Impressive... I like.
- KRP, taken by moi in the afternoon. Sometimes serious, sometimes tiring, always fun. :)
To KRP kids: Betcha arms were tired huh? *grin*
Tue 10th
- RVPS by KT laoshi. Sheesh... this class nearly did us in i tell ya. Ultra active children, minimum response to instructions, short attention span. Requires maximum effort to motivate and get them interested. Got a feeling this might just be KT's trial by fire. Grin.
- ZP laoshi had a class @ SGS. Showed the students their performance video. Suffice to say they were more than pleased with themselves for putting up a decent show in such short notice, complete with custom made costumes.
Wed 11th
- HCI taken by Moi and WL. Struggling with the 30min time frame per cohort to engage the students and get them to learn some skills, while at the same time, maintain enough discipline to keep them in line. Not easy but not impossible either.
- GWPS also taken by Moi, with WL assisting. Mass programme - close to 200 children, but always SO MUCH FUN to teach!
Thu 12th
- Nearly dropped dead from fatigue. Was the Conducting in the morning @ HCI. Then its off to RVPS for WL's observations. Still had to go FHS to conduct my own class of Mod. Cert Programme...
Think thats why I almost fell sick on Friday. Lost my voice in the middle of the night. Bummer.
Fri 13th
- Wow. Black Friday leh. Didn't realise it until when I typed it out just now. No voice when i woke up in the morning. Msged KT told her they gotta handle the day's lessons liao. In the end I ended up Chief Conducting still, making raspy noises thru the mic. Weird thing was my voice got clearer as the day drew to a close at GWPS. Some potent stuff that medicine i had in the morning... I think there were bee-like bugs floating in the Chinese concoction me Mum made. Yucks....pUi!
Dat abt sums up the boring parts of my week last week.
Onwards trainers! Let us brave another week of screaming children and disinterested teenagers as we cut down the days to another weekend!
Its been a hectic week for the trainers and myself. The new term has started and gradually picking up steam. Just last week alone, we had 4 new school programmes starting and a couple more schools starting next week. Most are Wushu Mass Workout Programmes, anywhere from 80 to excess of 200 pax at a time.
The burden of conducting such large-scale programmes naturally falls on me as this happens to be my specialization, having done mass programmes countless times and accumulating invaluable experience every step of the way.
Something to share with you and my trainers. (or my fellow competitors if you're reading...grin. Man, I'm such a nice person... i know...) It is one thing to be standing in front of a class of 20 Wushu students coaching techniques. It is a whole different ballgame standing on the stage with a mic engaging 200 students and teachers in the hall with Wushu exercises, most of whom can't be bothered even if the roof caved in.
Here's the trick: You need to reach out with your infectious energy and hypnotize EVERY ONE OF THEM with your presence and have them move with you, laugh with you, sway with you...When you got them hooked on your every word, slip in the otherwise dorky-looking punches, kicks and stances. Mix in the right amounts of Easy-to-follow moves, a tiny bit of Challenge, a generous serving of Humour - VOILA! Mag-ni-fi-cent!
In short, you need to be a Duracell Bunny in an apron and chef's hat, holding a microphone in one hand and a whistle in the other. Mmm... I bet I look sexy up there on stage. grin...
A nice lady teacher came up to me on Wed and asked where do i get all that energy bouncing ard on stage. Ok... you got me there. The cat's out of the bag - I'm a Redbull Junkie. *wink*
I went Jumpin tonight. Heard it was good. Didn't think it'd be this good. Friggin good show.
So glad I bought the tiks, would've kicked myself if I let something like this pass.
The martial arts wasn't exactly top-notch but the comedy, acting, audience interaction and pure energy from the performers sizzled...phew... The performers clearly loved the stage and we the audience couldn't stop ourselves from loving them back. I clapped so hard my palms hurt at the end of the whole show.
Dang... I should really learn to do some of the trickz they've pulled off - like soaring thru the air!
Shouldn't be too hard I hope. We're not half-bad Wushu people. Uh-uh... Not bad at all.
