Opening movements

There are a lot of combos that just look infinitely better if you pause half a second and open up. The problem we have is rushing through these moves and making them look stunted or sloppy. For all of these combos, there should be a "tall" moment where you open your body. This helps create the illusion of acceleration! And it also gives you a breather.

Combos:

• Front slap kick to wheel arm slam
• front slap kick, circle into C-jump
• front slap kick to side kick
• front slap kick circle from 3rd CQ beginning
• outside kick to wheel arm (drop stance or standing)
• outside kick combo from my beginning
• outside kick to end pose (1st CQ)
• pounding fist
• jump front slap kick

Running Combos

Wushu running is one of the most awkward things you can do and it looks terrible if you don't do it right. Some key points I've picked up from coaches and self-experience along the way:

• Keep the knees bent, your head should stay mostly level as you run. 
• Point your toes, hips, and knees in the direction you want to go!
• Don't lose your "angry/serious" face or you have a good chance of showing how awkward you feel on your face. 
• Flavor points: make the first step a bit slow with exaggeration!

Combos:

• Running inside kick to bowstance
• Running jump inside kick (from 2nd compulsory CQ)
• Running inside kick (from 2nd compuslory JS)
• Running inside kick to sitting
• Running lotus setup

Intro

So because I'm benched due to my knee surgery, I've started coaching at TerpWushu. As opposed to just going through the motions, I'm trying to be more organized about practices since we lost our head coaches. For now, I'm just going to think of themes or goals for each practice and try to come up with combos that help the kids practice them!