[2019] | cctv
THREADS
Tagou
Year of the Pig
From space!
Earth From Space to show our remarkable world as we’ve never seen it before
BBC1 show Earth From Space uses cameras on the ground, in the air and in space to show nature’s greatest spectacles, weather events and dramatic seasonal change
…
Shaolin kung-fu students put on a display of strength and coordination in Deng-feng China.
(Image: BBC/Freddie Claire)
9 of 12
Thousands of China’s Shaolin students move in unison in vast displays that can be captured from space.
(Image: BBC)
12 of 12
Well, not really. Not sure how these pix got stuffed into this pictorial essay but it’s the Mirror, so there you go. :rolleyes:
Shaolin Kung Fu Training: Spectacular Display Caught From Satellite | Earth From Spac
I recant. That was from space. Only the Mirror didn’t use those Earth From Space | BBC Earth pix.
Liu Haike
13:57, 17-May-2019
Chinese martial arts: Shaolin-style boxing
CGTN
Shaolin Kung Fu is one of the main martial art styles in China. It is named after the Shaolin Temple.
Shaolin-style boxing generally refers to the bare hand forms, weapon forms and sparring. Among the bare hand forms, the “Seven Star Fist” and “Long Guard the Heart and Mind Gate Fist” stand out. They don’t have many moves but both are powerful and practical. In Shaolin Kung Fu, the main hand position is the Dragon Claw, and the practitioners typically use circling blocks outward and inward and the dragon stance. When it comes to weapons, the Shaolin broadsword and stick techniques are fierce and strong.
Liu Haike’s family has been practicing Shaolin Kung Fu for 10 generations. Liu started to practice kung fu with his father even before he could remember, when he didn’t have to herd sheep and work on the farm. “Practicing kung fu gave me a fit body and a strong mind to overcome all difficulties,” said Liu. “I also become more humble when I practice, because I know there’s always somebody better than me and I need to improve myself all the time.”
CGTN Photo
Shaolin-style boxing is now mostly inherited by martial art schools and Liu works as a manager and a professional coach. He was a coach of the 2008 Beijing Olympics special training team for Chinese kickboxing, and coach of China’s national kickboxing team. He now works as the chief coach of the Henan Chinese kickboxing team.
CGTN Photo
“I feel that many techniques of Shaolin-style boxing can be used in Chinese kickboxing,” said Liu. “But Chinese kickboxing and traditional martial arts have different rules because modern sports care more about the practitioners’ safety. But we can still apply the concept of traditional kung fu, like ‘you either attack or defend’ in modern Chinese kickboxing, creating a new training method which works well in actual fighting. Till now we’ve trained many skilled athletes.”
Under Liu’s training, a couple of renowned Chinese kickboxing athletes emerged in Henan Province. During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, his pupil Zhang Shuaike won China’s first gold medal at the 56-kilogram level in Olympic history. In March 2014, as the coach of China’s national kickboxing team, his team members won three gold medals in the 5th World Junior Martial Arts Championship. In August 2014, his team won four gold medals in Chinese kickboxing in the Youth Olympic Games. In 2018, three pupils of Liu brought back 3 gold medals from the Asian Games.
On the other hand, Liu promotes martial arts as a performance. The performances of his students have been on the stage of 16 of CCTV’s Spring Festival Galas, as well as the opening/closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, Asian Games, and the Youth Olympic Games.
CGTN Photo
“Teaching martial arts is a heavy responsibility that requires us to inherit and pass on the ancestors’ knowledge,” Liu said. “We need to bring it to a larger stage. We need to cultivate more pupils. I hope that someday, Kung Fu could become an official Olympic sport.”
Director: Lei Rong,
Editor: Gao Xingzi
Filmed by: add later
Designer: Yu Peng
Article Written by: Zhu Siqi
Copy Editor: add later
Producer: Wen Yaru
Chief Editor: add later
Supervisor: Pang Xinhua
Liu Haike is the primary author of Shaolin Gong Fu A Course In Traditional Forms, published out of Tagou.
Tagou teaches ice hockey & surfing too?
Does Tagou have an ice rink now? And a wave machine? Shaolin is land-locked and the river isn’t big enough to surf. 
Shaolin martial arts school promotes soccer on campus
By Shan Jie in Dengfeng Source:Global Times Published: 2019/7/28 17:53:39
A Shaolin martial arts boarding school is developing youth soccer training
Players with a martial arts background have some advantages, say their coaches
The school is also training talent for ice hockey, skating and surfing
Wan Yi (center) celebrates victory with teammates Zhou Jiangyin and goalkeeper Zhou Aoxiang. Photo: Li Hao/GT
Wan Yi is upside down.
The mid-July sun burns. He begins to shake, breathing heavily. Sweat drops from his face to the ground. The azure soccer jersey soaks into a deeper blue. His face turns beetroot.
A few minutes earlier, Wan and his 10-year-old teammates ran off the artificial grass field, having just won their match. Wan decided to celebrate in his own unique way, ball between feet.
It’s his superpower. He acquired it from five years of martial arts training.
Five minutes over, Wan puts his legs down and stands up again.
“Only I can do this!” Wan says, picks up his ball and races to join his teammates on the stand.
About 200 schoolmates on the stand cheer the players in an extremely organized way.
Tagou school players cheer from the stand. Photo: Li Hao/GT
Behind them all, another intense match is occurring between older boys.
Wan, 10, is a student at the Tagou martial arts school in Dengfeng, a county-level city administered by Zhengzhou, capital of Central China’s Henan Province.
All the students take martial arts training in the school.
When this relatively remote school with its deep links to the mythological Shaolin Temple unveiled its youth soccer training project in 2015, massive online attention ensued.
In the popular imagination, kung fu soccer is using a superpower - 10 bald superheroes in plain robes flying around the pitch and volleying the ball from a goalkeeper who apparently has eight arms…
Internet users yearned for Tagou’s secret kung fu skills to rescue China from centuries of soccer humiliation.
The 2001 movie Shaolin Soccer would appear more than a lightweight comedy movie for many online soccer aficionados.
Or as Wan puts it, “Soccer was invented in China. People will laugh at China if we do not play well.”
A midfielder in one of the school’s under-11 teams, Wan’s goal is to play for China’s national team and in the FIFA World Cup.
China’s men’s team played once in the World Cup, in 2002, and went home without a single goal from three group matches.
The government in 2015 stepped up efforts to promote soccer on campuses across the country.
Tagou started youth soccer training in December 2015. Wan was one of the earliest to join the program when teams were formed in 2016 by selecting children with perceived soccer talent.
Tagou, the only official Shaolin soccer youth training base under the sports bureau of Henan Province, has 1,519 young boys and girls aged 4 to 15, 23 teams based on different ages and capabilities.
Girls in Henan Tagou shirts prepare for kickoff at Tagou martial arts school in Dengfeng, Central China’s Henan Province. Photo: Li Hao/GT
“Children with a martial arts background are quicker, more flexible and determined,” Liu Songpu, who is in charge of the soccer department in Tagou school, tells the Global Times.
In four years, China has made notable progress in promoting soccer in schools through enhanced training, more games and upgraded facilities, Wang Dengfeng, a senior official at the Ministry of Education, said on July 23 in Beijing, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
China has named 24,126 primary and middle schools across the country as specialist soccer schools to spearhead youth soccer development, Xinhua reported.
Mysterious team
Zhu Xinggang scores in the U12-13 match of the Second Youth Games of China in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Right fist meeting left palm, Zhu bows solemnly and salutes the opposition goalkeeper.
But the kung fu bow backfires as the referee warns Zhu, believing the gesture by the Tagou school right winger was intended to humiliate his opponent.
“They don’t understand,” Coach Liu says. “The gesture is actually showing respect in martial arts.”
This is the first time Tagou’s soccer team played at a national level and crowds follow the mysterious team with Shaolin in its name.
At the end of the day, the team from Shaolin finish a respectable, if unmagical, fourth.
“People thought that soccer at the Shaolin kung fu school must be something mysterious,” Liu says. “But we are just the same.”
A Tagou player demonstrates the “controversial” kung fu bow at his dormitory. Photo: Li Hao/GT
The students take regular compulsory education courses including Chinese, math, English and science. They have two hours’ soccer training daily.
Every day all the players at Tagou have 1.5 hours’ training in martial arts.
“They have learned the Da Hong Fist, Xiao Hong Fist, Shao Lin Fist and Qi Xing Fist,” Zhao Yaodi, a coach to 20 young players under 7, tells the Global Times.
Zhao, 20, graduated from Tagou four years ago. He stayed at the school as a soccer coach after some training.
Most of the soccer coaches at the school have a martial arts background.
In three years, the number of soccer students has grown from 900 to 1,519.
As one of the most famous martial arts schools in Dengfeng, Tagou school has a deep connection with the Shaolin Temple.
Tagou students practice martial arts after lunch. Photo: Li Hao/GT
The school was built in 1978 by Liu Baoshan, who is from a martial arts family in the village near the temple.
The boarding school today has its original campus, which is only 2 kilometers from the Shaolin Temple.
In total the school has more than 35,000 students and teachers on three campuses, reads its official website.
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Continued from previous post
First match
July 16 was the first match day for the school’s annual sports meeting.
In the afternoon, the youngest players experience their first-ever formal game.
Coach Zhao’s team plays a five-a-side against a girls’ team the same age coached by Ma Yu, 18 years old.
Girls team coach Ma Yu directs her players. Photo: Li Hao/GT
The match is strictly by the rules. The girls must remove their flower headbands and tooth amulets. The players have full kit including shin guards and captain’s armband.
At kickoff, the girls appear unready.
Ma finds she must constantly shout instructions at her players, who appear a little overwhelmed by the occasion.
Zhao’s team are the more aggressive and experienced. They even appear to use some simple tactics. It’s a mismatch.
The girls quickly crumble to lose 10-0.
“I don’t mind we lost,” Ma tells the Global Times. “But they have to maintain a more focused attitude during the game.”
A boy scores from coach Zhao Yaodi’s team. Photo: Li Hao/GT
The Henan provincial sport bureau says women’s soccer development is a key project and it is also encouraged at the school.
Zhao and Ma’s players take care of themselves at boarding school.
Zhao’s 20 players have three aunties who look after them. Before the children arrive from canteen after lunch, the three are making beds, turning on the air conditioning and bringing them water in red plastic buckets.
When the players get back, they wash, change clothes and nap in their small wooden beds.
A dormitory assistant helps a boy wash his face. Photo: Li Hao/GT
Step by step
The school has 39 canteens but only three soccer pitches.
Players compete for space with thousands of other schoolmates in the crowded campus.
Coach Liu Songpu once visited the soccer school under Luneng Taishan Football Club in East China’s Shandong Province. Luneng has 26 pitches for hundreds of players.
“I am jealous,” he says.
A new campus with 10 soccer pitches is being built, says Zhao.
There’s no denying the coaches also need to improve.
g
Zhou Jiangyin (left) in match action. Photo: Li Hao/GT
“It’s OK for me to teach basic skills, but I lack knowledge of tactics,” Zhao admits.
The school has six Portuguese coaches sent by Henan sport bureau through the youth training promotion project. They have different duties - management, fitness, tactics and techniques.
“I often communicate with the foreign coaches to learn from them,” Zhao says.
When the Global Times reporter visited the school, the Portuguese coaches had gone back to their country for visas.
Talent treasure trove
Tagou is also tasked by the General Administration of Sports to find athletes for the summer and winter Olympics.
According to Henan government’s website in June 2018, 143 athletes left Tagou to join national training teams in sports including freestyle skiing, snowboarding and surfing.
An ice hockey team is also to be found in Tagou.
They practice with roller skates on the floor.
“These with martial arts background can make achievements in a very short time,” Feng Weifeng, who is in charge of publicity for the school, tells the Global Times. “They have great balance and flexibility.”
“We aim at the Olympics,” he says.
Newspaper headline: KUNG FU KICKS
THREADS
Shaolin Soccer for real
Tagou
Hockey?
And I thought soccer was weird…
China’s martial arts school builds ice hockey team
Source: Xinhua| 2021-04-10 07:48:32|Editor: huaxia
Players of Shaolin Tagou ice hockey team take a training session in Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School, Dengfeng City, central China’s Henan Province, March 30, 2021. Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School, a few kilometers away from the Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Shaolin Kung Fu, is building its ice hockey team. The students learn the sport on roller skates at a standard-size rink covered with floor, instead of ice. Practicing martial arts strengthens their physiques and provides them with athletic qualities that ice hockey requires, said training director Zhang Shanghang, who is from Beijing Sport University. Beijing 2022 has encouraged schools across the country to popularize winter sports and cultivate talents. As one of the pilot schools in ice hockey, Shaolin Tagou started the training with over 1,000 students aged from 6 to 15 in 2019. These students expect to play real ice hockey in the future," said Zhang. (Xinhua/Li An)
Aerial photo taken on March 30, 2021 shows players of Shaolin Tagou ice hockey team taking a training session in Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School, Dengfeng City, central China’s Henan Province. Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School, a few kilometers away from the Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Shaolin Kung Fu, is building its ice hockey team. The students learn the sport on roller skates at a standard-size rink covered with floor, instead of ice. Practicing martial arts strengthens their physiques and provides them with athletic qualities that ice hockey requires, said training director Zhang Shanghang, who is from Beijing Sport University. Beijing 2022 has encouraged schools across the country to popularize winter sports and cultivate talents. As one of the pilot schools in ice hockey, Shaolin Tagou started the training with over 1,000 students aged from 6 to 15 in 2019. These students expect to play real ice hockey in the future," said Zhang. (Xinhua/Li An)
Players of Shaolin Tagou ice hockey team practice martial arts in Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School, Dengfeng City, central China’s Henan Province, March 31, 2021. Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School, a few kilometers away from the Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Shaolin Kung Fu, is building its ice hockey team. The students learn the sport on roller skates at a standard-size rink covered with floor, instead of ice. Practicing martial arts strengthens their physiques and provides them with athletic qualities that ice hockey requires, said training director Zhang Shanghang, who is from Beijing Sport University. Beijing 2022 has encouraged schools across the country to popularize winter sports and cultivate talents. As one of the pilot schools in ice hockey, Shaolin Tagou started the training with over 1,000 students aged from 6 to 15 in 2019. These students expect to play real ice hockey in the future," said Zhang. (Xinhua/Hao Yuan)
[QUOTE=GeneChing;1320744]And I thought soccer was weird…[/QUOTE]
Somebody’s got to make a movie Shaolin Hockey that’s like Shaolin Soccer. I liked that movie. I’ve been telling my nephew that’s a professional hockey player that he’s got to learn Spring and Autumn Guan Dao Form…
Am I going to have to split this off into a Shaolin Hockey thread?
Gettin’ their kicks with sticks
By SHI FUTIAN | China Daily Global | Updated: 2021-05-03 00:00
Fearless kungfu kids proving well equipped to cope with hockey’s rough and tumble
As a novice of the sport, China’s ice hockey talent pool is still relatively thin. However, with the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics around the corner and the country’s ice and snow sports industry on the rise, more and more youngsters are picking up sticks to enjoy one of the world’s toughest team sports.
Among the unlikeliest of newcomers to the sport are students at Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Dengfeng, Henan province. In 2019, around 1,000 students signed up for the school’s newly formed hockey club. Ranging in age from 6 to 15 years old, the club encompasses seven squads in total.
But with no ice to practice on, players perfect their skills on roller skates, making for a diverse daily routine of academic studies, kungfu lessons and roller hockey.
“All the students have been through tough kungfu training since they were little kids. They have great physical strength, coordination and flexibility compared with everyday school kids,” Zhang Shanghang, the school’s ice hockey youth training director told Xinhua.
“They are perfect for the sport. Some of them can learn how to skate with all the equipment in just three days. And now we are planning to let them move on to the next step of trainingon ice.”
Pulling on a Team China jersey to represent their nation at the Winter Olympics is the ultimate dream for all the youngsters.
“My favorite player now is Zuo Tianyou of the Beijing College of Sports team. He has great dribbling skills,” said Huang Yuxuan, who watches ice hockey in his dormitory after training.
According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, China now has 537 male and 822 female ice hockey players, along with 8,147 juniors. The numbers are still low compared with the sport’s traditional powerhouses. Canada and the United States, for example, boast hockey populations of over 600,000 and 550,000 respectively.
Attracting more people onto the ice and developing the sport from grassroots level are seen as key to the sport’s future in China.
“We should fully take advantage of the Beijing Winter Olympics and facilitate the growth of Chinese ice hockey,” Hu Jiang, the coach of the Qiqihaer city ice hockey team in Heilongjiang province, told Chinanews.com in March.
“Compared with the ice hockey powerhouses of the world, China’s ice hockey development is still at a very early stage, and there is huge room for improvement,” Hu added.
"Building a professional league and developing the sport in schools and universities are vital for the sport’s development in China.
“We should attract more people to participate in the sport and the winter sports sector in general. We should let it grow from grassroots level to lay a solid foundation. We should also promote ice hockey culture among sports lovers.”
The hardy students at Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Dengfeng, Henan province have been honing their hockey skills since 2019. Combined with their kungfu training and academic studies, the kids practice roller hockey on a daily basis, with plans afoot to introduce them to action on the ice. XINHUA
XINHUA
XINHUA
XINHUA
XINHUA
Is there an ice rink in Dengfeng now? Because I can’t even grok that.
Dated but it just popped on my newsfeed
Chinese martial arts performance sets a new world record
ByGetNews PublishedJune 15, 2021
In the Spring Festival Gala 2019 hosted by China Central Television (CCTV), a group of 20,000 students from the Henan Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School performed a large-scale martial arts program, titled “The Soul of Shaolin”. The performance featured traditional Chinese martial arts.
The program set a world record for the largest martial arts ever performed, verified the WRCA, a brand under the UK-based World Record Certification Limited. In their performance, the boys demonstrated their accuracy, strength and power in each of their moves, all while following the background music. Many were stunned by the dazzling performance of the students.
Since its debut on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 2003, Henan Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School has been tempering its performance skills and innovating its program format. It has participated in 16 performances and won five awards. They performed “High Aspirations” and Programs such as “Young China” and “Picturesque Country” have been loved by audiences across the countries. Especially after the broadcast of “The Soul of Shaolin” in 2019, it attracted widespread praise.
The grand TV event, hailed as the biggest TV carnival in China, was in its 36th edition in 2019. The viewing figures, taken from all platforms during the live broadcast, were up about 42 million over the same period. A total of 239 domestic TV channels broadcast the gala live on Lunar New Year’s Eve while audiences from 163 countries and regions simultaneously watched the TV show through 218 overseas platforms. The gala has been a fixture of the Spring Festival celebrations since it was first broadcast live by China Central Television (CCTV) in 1983.
Media Contact
Company Name: World Record Certification Limited
Contact Person: Anselmo Oliva
Email: Send Email
Phone: 0044-2070483220
Country: China
Website: https://worldrecordcertification.com/
Li Yinggang
GLOBALink | Sports Geography: Henan, in the relays of Chinese martial arts
Source: XinhuaEditor: huaxia2022-09-29 21:55:02
0:00:00/2:27
25-year-old Li Yinggang is a coach at Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Songshan, central China’s Henan province. He started martial arts practise at the age of 9 and shifted to free combat 3 years later.
Since he was 16 years old, Li has been taking part in the professional free combat competitions, ever winning the titles of domestic and international events several times, including two golden belts of Chinese National Free Combat League. As Li Yinggang said, practicing traditional martial arts helps a lot for improving his free combat skills.
Nowadays, Li aims to impart his understandings and experience of traditional martial arts to students during his classes, hoping they can master the essence of martial arts, and inherit and develop Chinese martial arts.
Li Yinggang practices martial arts at Shaolin Temple in Songshan, central China’s Henan province, July 7, 2022.(Xinhua/Liu Jinhui)
Li Yinggang (in white) instructs students during a free combat class at Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Songshan, central China’s Henan province, July 6, 2022. (Xinhua/Wu Gang)
Li Yinggang (in black) instructs students during a martial arts class at Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Songshan, central China’s Henan province, July 7, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Jinhui)
Students practice during a martial arts class under the instructions of coach Li Yinggang at Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Songshan, central China’s Henan province, July 6, 2022. (Xinhua/Wu Gang)
Li Yinggang (C) instructs students during a martial arts class at Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Songshan, central China’s Henan province, July 6, 2022.(Xinhua/Wu Gang)
Li Yinggang (L) instructs students during a martial arts class at Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Songshan, central China’s Henan province, July 6, 2022.(Xinhua/Wu Gang)
Li Yinggang (R) instructs students during a martial arts class at Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Songshan, central China’s Henan province, July 6, 2022. (Xinhua/Wu Gang)
Photos by Wu Gang, Liu Jinghui
Video by Wu Gang, Liu Jinhui
There’s a vid behind the link.
I think the real issue with form factory schools is that in the past 20 years the educational standards and competitiveness has risen to where people with basic high school education can develop photographic memories, and if someone is used to memorizing entire pages of words and formulae, a one minute dance isnt that hard. Thus there is continued devaluation.