Gravity, and why my knees quiver when I hear it's mighty name...

The popular saying, "What goes up, must come down", was essentially pioneered by one particular Issac Newton, sitting under a tree one day, no doubt recovering from a particularly hard Wushu session. Why he didn't recognise the effects of gravity earlier, especially being a renowned Wushu practitioner, I don't know.

Gravity is very obviously prevalent when a Wushu practitioner jumps, whether that be in the seeming lack of it, when performed by an accomplished performer, or the smack-in-the-face obviousness of it when performed by an idiot (for example, yours truly).

No more was I aware of it than a few days ago, when my beloved yet thoughtfully merciless Wushu coach, Chang, decided that the focus of this months training was, amongst other things, jumping.
My classmate and I haven't practiced jumping for some time now, so I, at least, was incredibly excited.

Now, the difference between the Western, and the Eastern approach when it comes to jumping, is...well...slight. It's all a simple matter of quality versus quantity.

Until my time in China, any kind of jump training in any kind of class environment consisted of repetition of a particular jump or jumps until I managed to get the jump(s) in question, or collapse in a muscle quivering heap on the floor.
Any kind of coaching was covered with the mantra "HIGHER! JUMP HIGHER!"

My previous assumptions that the West was the more modern, more thought through, more scientific hemisphere has been challenged. Jump training in China, is smart. Smump training, if you will.
Smump training happens to be my arch nemisis.

Wushu is a particularly draining sport, and any kind of energy is savoured, but at the same time devoured as it slips silkily through your fingers before the coach has even looked your way. Smump training, it seems to me, sets out to quell any hint of energy, by stopping just as a great surge comes my way.
I love jumping. The feeling of floating, of using a great amount of effort and throwing your body up in the air is addictive, especially when you reach such a level so as you do not need to use much energy at all, so you are left with a feeling of weightlessness and elegance unparalleled by any pathetic mortal.
So just as I am akin to a rabid Hyena on heat, running about, falling over on purpose, making loud noises etc, Chang decides that we take a 1 minute break. "WHAT!" I incredulously cry every-single-time he suggests such an absurd statement. He never gives us even a smell of a rest when we are doing ANY OTHER kind of training. I have known torture since I have met Chang, but this is ridiculous!

He drives a steak through my heart for good reason though. This is where jump training becomes Smump training. During the rest, we are not sitting, but standing or walking, so as to keep warm. The rest is also only for a short time. No lactic acid for me 'bucko', not this time...
Another factor worth mentioning is the pace of the jump. I'm not talking about quickness, which rest assured is breakneck at the slowest, but of speed of progression. In the West for example, you may be shown a jump, then told, "Right, now you do it".
China, on the other hand, shows you a jump, then shows you the jump broken down into tiny, minuscule little chunks. You may think this is mind-numbing and boring, but that is where you are mistaken. Every little phase of a jump requires extreme concentration and power throughout the body, especially the waist, and is easier said than done.

By the end of the jump, by that I mean, by the time you are doing the jump in it's entirety, your head is positively swimming with little tid-bits of information which swarm around and violently assault the voice in my head saying "All you have to do is just jump higher!", so that I don't hear it at all.

As a result, my progress had been amazing. To top off an already mentally draining session, if it wasn't enough already, we end with some gruelling power training for the legs which manages, somehow, to demotivate you even more than you were after the jumps.
Let it NEVER be said that Wushu DOES NOT build Character.

Normally in the West, I would have covered all the jumps in a small amount of time, then moved onto something else.
In a single 2-hour class, we covered 1 and a half jumps. I felt that was a little too much too. So much to think about. I know this will not last as, once I get the jumps, it will be a matter of muscle memory.

Jumping is a popular pastime of many sports people, there are not many sports where a good, hearty jump, would not come in handy, especially in aesthetic sports where jumps must be technically correct as well as beautiful AND high.
My advice to anyone wanting great jumps, especially for Wushu...pace yourself, I know it's hard when you get excited, adrenaline rushes and the feeling of wanting to fly takes over, I know, I experience it all the time, but trust me...you'll see.