JIAYO! worldwide wushu news and media

NOTE: This is the first in a series of Jiayo interviews with wushu athletes. Credit goes to forum moderator Y Chan for coming up with a great idea (and actually making it happen!). First up is an interview with Dennis Ta, whom I vaguely remember as a lanky little kid in the then standard SCWA dark blue wushu silks. Once he matured through his teens, Dennis exploded into a powerhouse competitor. Here’s Dennis’ response to Y Chan’s email interrogation. – Brandon

Dennis Ta - Pudao

10 Quick Questions with, U.S. Team member, Dennis Ta

What has your athletic career looked like, and how did you get started doing wushu?

I have always watched “Power Rangers” as a child so it sparked my interest in skin-tight color-coded battle suits and martial arts. I used to pretend that I was the Yellow Ranger, until I found out that behind that ferocious sabertooth morphin’ ninja was a female. At the time, my parents didn’t know which type of martial arts to put me into but they had a friend who had a son in Wushu. Soon enough, I was enrolled at Southern California Wushu Academy at age 7. After 9 years of training, I decided to try out for U.S. team for the first time and have had the honor of representing America in the 2007 Beijing World Games.

What was that experience like?

My first time trying out for teams was different. Smaller tournaments like CMAT and collegiates has a less amount of pressure so usually I’m able to relax and chat with my friends in between events but at team trials the pressure was much more intense. The environment wasn’t as fun as I hoped it to be, but I liked it though. It was my first taste of serious competition.

What was the coolest thing about competing at the Beijing World Games?

People there seemed to love Americans. It seems as if they think we are all rich. It was fun getting the attention because it made me seem important, even though I’m not. Also, the competition carpet was way cool. I’ve always seen those professional blue carpets in video but have never had the chance to experiment with one myself. It’s very different. I felt like I could jump 10x higher on that floor.

Can you tell us about your training history, and what you’ve learned from certain people?

I have stayed at Southern California Wushu Academy (SCWA) with Sifu Chris Ho for over 11 years now. In addition to Sifu Chris Ho, Coach Sha Dewei and Coach Wang Wei helped mold my wushu to what it is today.

“Higher, faster, stronger” is what my older wushu brother, Johnny Tri Nguyen, used to shove in my head when I was young. I still remember it today because I find myself always giving that advice to new students. The more influential mentor I had, the White Ranger, taught me that when I find myself in a difficult situation, simply yell “It’s morphin’ time!” and I will become a superhuman who can overcome anything. Finally, Captain Planet taught me not to pollute Mother Earth. The power is yours!

What’s your experience been like at SCWA?

SCWA training has always been a little tougher than most other schools I have trained at. We were taught that if we are not doing explosive Wushu, then we aren’t doing Wushu. The environment at SCWA is usually really quiet as soon as Sifu Chris Ho walks through the door too. If he knew we had the energy to talk, he’d make us train harder and harder until we’d shut up; so keeping quiet was the key to staying alive. But aside from the training, people there are nice! Come visit and we’ll play.

Outside of wushu, what influence has Sifu Chris Ho had on you?

Sifu Chris Ho taught me how to fish. Fishing is fun. It discplines me too. It forces me to repress my inner rage and learn how to be patient. I can’t expect the results of my training to come quick. I need to wait till the fish bites the bait. Reel it in and that’s when the medal goes over my neck. But other than that, he taught me how to be a responsible person who knows how to manage time efficiently in everyday life. Besides from being a Wushu coach, he takes on another full time job in order to financially support SCWA and to feed his family of five. He is Zordon. Therefore, I am Zordon.

You must get this question all the time: how has having a sister, that is as competitively successful as she is, affected your wushu?
Ngan puts more effort in wushu and emulating Power Ranger movements than I do, so when she’s around, I’m motivated to try harder. We both give each other honest feedback so we can do the flips and other nandu movements that we see the Power Rangers do. Also, I tend to do better at competitions when she’s there because her “jia you”s are insanely loud. Ngan is my Black King Bar. She carries me.

Since making the U.S. team, you’ve started attending university. Tell us about your university experience and its impact on your wushu.

Attending a university hasn’t really affected my wushu that much. My university, my home, and SCWA aren’t that far apart so I still get the same amount of training time. It’s true that sometimes I feel that I don’t get enough time in a day, and that could affect my training hours. But I remind myself of what the Power Rangers did, and it motivates me well. Works like a charm. It’s hard to juggle saving the world and going to school, but a Power Ranger’s gotta do what a Power Ranger’s gotta do. It’s already quite amazing I managed to draw time out for this interview.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on this really annoying interview about wushu. Just kidding! Truth is, I just want to graduate ASAP, so as of right now, school is my number one priority. I also have some other super secret projects up my sleeves, but I’m not going to disclose them in this interview! Just wait for the real thing. Patience, young padawans.

Fair enough, we’ll definitely be on the look out. So for the guys on their way up, what is your mind-set when preparing for competition and when competing?

I try to relax for the most part. I try to keep in mind that I’m not there to beat anyone but myself As long as I perform better than I do in class, then I’m content with whatever the results may be.

Dennis Ta - Changquan

Boom, there you have it! 10 quick questions with Dennis Ta– In and out. Thanks a lot Dennis for taking the time to do this interview and we look forward to seeing you tear it up at U.S. Team Trials this year.

From Thanh Nien Daily

Nguyen Phuong Lan did not take up wushu until she was 21 years old yet she still managed to become world champion of the martial art eight years later.

Now aged 38, the manager of Hanoi Wushu Club and head Taolu coach has a truckload of happy memories to recall.

Lan took a keen interest in martial arts from a young age but put in five years of swimming training before going to work at the Hai Chau Confectionery Factory.

“Many people are surprised to hear I used to work in a confectionery factory. It’s an interesting story,” Lan said.

“In those days, we made candy on a seasonal basis. When the season ended, the workers had to do other jobs like digging or making bricks. However, everybody loved the hard work.”

She got married when she turned 20, but her enthusiasm for martial arts never waned.

One day, she went with some friends to the home of Hoang Vinh Giang, who was director of the Hanoi Department of Physical Training and Sports at the time.

Giang told them he wanted to form a wushu team so Lan enrolled in the course that had just opened to supply athletes for the team. She spent her days working in the factory and her early mornings and evenings practicing wushu.

“I was 21 years old when I started, much older than the others in the class. And my baby was only 10 months old, so the training was pretty hard for me,” Lan said. “Physically, I was not fit, but I was determined to be as good as any of my classmates.”

When wushu first came to Vietnam in 1992, there were almost no training facilities for it, so the class had to rely on videos brought in from China.

It wasn’t until more than a year later that the sports department got around to signing up a Chinese coach.

By then Lan was so eager to shine in wushu that she gave up her factory job.

“It was financially very hard because it meant I had no income. The department only gave us VND60,000 (US$3.37) a month. Fortunately, my hubby and family gave me plenty of support,” Lan said.

Her first overseas competition was the South East Asian Games in Singapore in 1993.

Her nandao performance won heaps of praise, particularly from the Chinese, but she only managed to bag the bronze medal.

“I was shocked and bathed in tears,” Lan said. “I was very disappointed because I’d expected the judges at an international competition to be scrupulously fair.

“Later on, when I’d calmed down, I thought perhaps the judges might have been biased against Vietnamese wushu martial artists as a matter of course.

“That’s when I decided it was up to me to improve the image and standing of Vietnamese wushu, and make my country a wushu power on the international stage.”

With a burning desire to change the face of Vietnamese wushu, Lan began to practice hard day and night.

In 1994, she was sent to China to train. Her wushu skills improved greatly thanks to the superior Chinese nan quan (southern fist) experts.

Lan was at her peak but there was no wushu competition in the SEA Games for several years.

In the end it didn’t matter as she won the world championship in 1999. “It was an unforgettable experience,” she said.

Lan retired from the international arena in 2003 to become a coach.

“It was much more difficult than I’d expected,” Lan said. “Working as a coach, I couldn’t share my feelings with the trainees or think of them as teammates. So I thought a lot and tried to learn from experienced coaches.

“I like to speak frankly to the students. I just want my squad to win lots of medals. That is what I call success.”

Lan is thrilled that her daughter Vu Thuy Linh has taken up wushu.

“I didn’t force her, just helped her,” Lan said. “She’s a natural. I let her practice wushu when she was five and she loved it from the start.” Now aged 18, Linh also has a large collection of medals, just like her mother, and was the runner-up in the 2007 world championship.

“Unlike me, Linh started at a young age and has achieved much already,” Lan said. “I’m always urging her to keep trying and told her that playing a sport professionally is totally different from playing it for fun or exercise.”

Her daughter will finish high school this year, so Lan plans to send her to China to study physical training and sports.

“We have to give it our all if we want to be successful at something, no matter what it is,” Lan said.

Reported by Hong Minh