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This page holds details of what activities Lu Yan was involved in during 2005.
Reviews given by her students of her teaching are also presented here. Other
pieces of news that are related to her, the Beijing Wushu team or about Wushu in
general that may be of interest to the reader are also presented or linked to
here.
Note that on older pieces of news the links to external websites may now be
redundant.
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 Lu
Yan is an exceptional coach, there is no doubt about it. But when you have an
exceptional student being taught by an exceptional coach, well, you just can’t
lose! This month we had exactly that when Aaron Yung came to study with Lu Yan
for 3 weeks.
Aaron had studied Wushu for 3 or 4 years and his skills had already reached a
very high standard. He told us though that for quite a long time now he hadn’t
progressed, try as he might he couldn’t seem to go to the next level. You know
what its like – you train and train and train but as hard as you work, you just
can’t seem to make that breakthrough.
This is where a good coach comes into their own. Although Aaron was only with Lu
Yan for 3 weeks, his improvement was noticeable!
Aaron wanted to concentrate on his Qiang (spear) and also work on his basic
Chang Quan. Initially Lu Yan ran through the old compulsory taolu’s with Aaron,
honing his moves. From this she could see what Aaron’s strong points were and
what skills he needed more work on. She then went on to create a new taolu for
Aaron, utilising his best skills and incorporating new moves to help him develop
his existing skill set.
One of the main things that she focused on when teaching Aaron was his spirit
and timing. Aaron is a very competent Wushu performer – his moves are clean and
well executed – the one thing that let him down was that he lacked that
‘something’ that makes people sit up and take notice. This is what Lu Yan
concentrated on, and by the time 3 weeks had passed Aaron’s Wushu had changed.
He had a lot of new moves, but more importantly he now had a lot more fire in
his moves, each one having conviction.
Aaron had also learnt something that is so important in Wushu, and that is
tempo. A Wushu taolu has to have slow moves that are actually performed slowly
and fast moves that are exactly that, fast! The tempo of a taolu is what makes
the difference between an average and a great performance.
This is what Aaron had to say about Lu Yan's teaching:
"I would like to thank Lu Yan for passing so much wisdom onto me, it
was truly a great experience. I have learned more during my short time training
with Lu Yan than I ever have before, I loved training with her. Hopefully we can
meet up again in the near future"
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Aaron was an extremely dedicated student, working hard for 2 and a half hours
everyday. He seemed to know no pain when it came to stretching, really pushed
himself in the ji ben gong, and was generally a pleasure to teach.
Lu Yan would like to sincerely thank Aaron for his efforts and is really looking
forward to seeing him again soon in Beijing. She would also like to wish him
every success in his ongoing studies at University.
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Well this month turned out to be a lot busier than expected! Initially we were
hoping to spend some time looking into a new server to house luyanwushu.com, but
instead we came across some new content for the website.
We have now got hold of two new video clips of Lu Yan from the two films that
she appeared in. The first film, Aces Go Places 5, was filmed in Hong Kong and
has Lu Yan playing a martial arts instructor for the Police Force. There’s an
excellent fight scene where she takes on the four heroes of the film… we’ve cut
that portion of the film out ready to add to the website. Only problem is that
it’s huge, about 40Mb! So we’re gonna play with it a bit more, cut its size down
and then add it to the Media pages. So look out
for that soon!
The second film is called A Warriors Tragedy. This has Lu Yan mostly appearing
as a stunt double for the leading lady, although you do see her briefly towards
the end of the film. At this stage we’re thinking that a few stills from the
film will be better than a video. Look out for these in the
Media section later too.
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 October
was an important month for Wushu, what with the 10th All China Games being held
in Nanjing, and the official announcement that there will be a Wushu Competition
‘acknowledged’ by the Olympic Committee at the 2008 Olympic Games held in
Beijing (although what 'acknowledged' really means remains to be determined, but
at least there will be some sort of Wushu competition).
Lu Yan made the trip to Nanjing to watch the competition and also found to her
delight that so had a lot of her Wushu friends. It was a great event which
everyone thoroughly enjoyed. We’re currently preparing a new article about this
event which will be held in the Articles
section. Please bear with us until we’ve completed it!
 This
month Lu Yan was also really pleased to welcome The Ray and AndyL from Wushu One
Family to study with her in Beijing. She was very impressed with how hard the
guys worked, especially since they were out enjoying the Beijing nightlife most
nights too!
In a very short space of time Ray and Andy had each picked up a new taolu, and
then moved on to grasp a duilian too… the only disappointing thing was that the
time went far too quickly!
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Lu Yan would like to express her thanks to Ray and Andy, as it is especially
encouraging for a coach to teach students who are enthusiastic and so willing to
learn. The guys didn’t stop working for the full duration of each class, pushing
themselves hard, so Lu Yan could see how much they love Wushu.
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Over the past few weeks several new Videos and a new Article have been made
available to us, which we have been busy cropping, chopping and editing ready to
add to the website. We would like to sincerely thank all the people who have
helped us to get this content together.
Three new videos have been added to the Videos
section.
The first one has been kindly provided by Raffi from
beijingwushuteam.com and shows the first time that Lu Yan, Hao Zhihua and
Hui Xuna competed their three person duilian. They later went on to win three
Gold medals in National Competitions with the same duilian.
The second video is taken from the 'Dragons of the Orient' DVD/VCD. This shows
Lu Yan performing her Gun shu routine.
The final video is from when Lu Yan, Li Lianjie and Cai Yahui performed in
America in 1974. This classic piece of footage shows the three of them
performing their Gun duilian. We are also trying to locate their spear versus
empty hand duilian - if anyone knows where it can be found, then please
contact us.
We are also very excited to have a new Article, kindly provided by Andrea Falk
from The Wushu Centre. This is a
transcript of an interview that Andrea did last year with four members of the
first generation Beijing Wushu Team, including Lu Yan. The interview has some
great insight into how these Wushu legends feel about how Wushu has changed over
the last few years. The article can be found in the
Articles section.
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 In
August this year the Beijing Wushu Institute hosted an International Wushu
Competition, inviting teams from around the world to attend. A team from
Singapore took part in the Competition and whilst in Beijing, several members of
the delegation also undertook some training with Lu Yan.
In Singapore these students predominantly train Taiji, but wanted to learn some
basic Chang Quan and a simple Taolu from Lu Yan. Lu Yan hence taught them the
Wushu ji ben gong, and the third Chang Quan form, as published by the Chinese
Wushu Association.
Lu Yan was pleased with the training progression over the week and hopes that
her students will continue to practice what she has taught them.
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 Lu
Yan was invited to teach for a week in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with the
Canada East Wushu school. Halifax is a beautiful city, boasting several
large parks and the world's largest natural harbour. All the training was held
outside so Lu Yan really got to enjoy the quality of this environment.
Lu Yan taught Gun shu for the week, first concentrating on the basic Gun skills.
Andrew Gordon, the head of the school, had already given his students a good
grounding in these so Lu Yan swiftly moved on to teach the group a Gun taolu.
Within a week everyone had mastered the moves and was able to competently
perform the set.
Whilst in Canada Lu Yan also taught Sanjiegun and Fanzi Quan and was again
highly impressed with the speed with which her students picked up the moves.
The students of Canada East all showed a deep respect for the skills that Lu Yan
possesses, every one of them training hard everyday for the duration of her
trip. They were very courteous and passed on the following comments about Lu
Yan's teaching:
"Coach Lu's excellent teaching abilities and her wonderful personality made
the experience extremely enjoyable. Thank you again." - Angela Gillis,
Canada East Wushu
"Lu Jiaolian's extraordinary skill as a teacher and martial artist, mingled
with her kind hearted spirit make being her student an unforgettable experience.
It was a privilege and an honour." - Alex Panagopoulos, Canada East Wushu
"Lu Jiaolian is an excellent coach who managed to convey her very impressive
skills in an easy to understand way, despite the language barrier. I found that
she was very kind and considerate and that one gets better almost by osmosis:
your skill level improves dramatically simply because she's around and you find
yourself doing things you didn't think you could." - Steve Sharam, Canada
East Wushu
"We had an excellent time with Coach Lu in Halifax. Aside from being one of
the world's top coaches, she has a great personality and teaching method that
transcends the language barrier. We eagerly look forward to her next visit."
- Aaron Elliott, Canada East Wushu
"Coach Lu gave step by step quality instruction with the students best
intentions in mind at all times, great eye for performance troubles and the
cleanest lines I've ever witnessed first hand." - Aaron Adams, Canada East
Wushu
Lu Yan was very impressed with the spirit and determination of the students, and
hopes that they will continue to study and train Wushu as diligently as they are
now.
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Lu Yan would like to thank Andrew and his family for going out of their way
to make her stay in Halifax as enjoyable as it was. Their hospitality was truly
exceptional and Lu Yan sincerely appreciates all their efforts.
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 On
Sunday July 3rd and Monday July 4th Lu Yan gave seminars to the students of the
Dreaming Dragon Wushu school, based in North London. The head of the school
Huang Ping, herself a Chinese Wushu Champion, is a friend of Lu Yan from their
competition years.
The first night was spent running through everyone's basic skills and then
splitting the class into groups of advanced and intermediate abilities. The
advanced group performed their taolu's for Lu Yan to hone, while she taught the
intermediate group a basic Chang Quan sequence.
The second night was held in a larger hall with more students attending. The
class started with Wushu basics again and Lu Yan then taught everyone a
different Chang Quan sequence.
Both nights were very well attended, with everyone agreeing that the seminars
were a great success and enjoyed by all.
Ray from Wushu One Family attended both
seminars and he commented:
"Coach Lu is without doubt one of the all time greats, and it was a huge
honour to get the opportunity to learn from her. The little corrections she gave
me significantly improved some of my lamest techniques, and gave me that
Beijing-esque feeling you get when you might be doing something a bit right!"
"The sanjiegun and jian demonstrations she gave were sick and demonstrated some
of those dirty skills that earned her a place in the wushu hall of fame." -
The Ray
Thanks Ray! Keep it real!
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Lu Yan would like to extend her thanks to Huang Ping for organising the
events so well and for ensuring that she was comfortable throughout her stay in
London. Thanks also go to The Ray from Wushu
One Family for providing the pictures.
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Want to learn more about Wushu? Visit the
Articles pages
Want to learn more about Lu Yan's Coaching Career? Visit the
Coaching Career pages
Want to learn more about training with Lu Yan? Visit the
Train with Lu Yan pages
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