The karate in the middle is by Hiroshi Adachi.

Just a few split kick and inside kicks at the end of an exhausting practice.

The 14th Annual Collegiate Wushu Tournament will be tomorrow at the University of Oregon!  Speaking of collegiate wushu, if your school doesn’t have a wushu club, why not start one!  Here’s a a brief look at how to start a wushu club at your college or university.  No wushu experience is needed, just your desire and motivation to bring wushu to your school!

1) Find people who are interested in helping to start the club

• Ask around, make announcements at student union meetings
• Make a website and put on there what wushu is, your proposal for starting a club, and links to wushu videos videos.  Be sure to put your email address there so people can contact you.
• Make flyers stating that you are looking for people interested in starting the club.  Put a link to the website and your contact information on there.  Post the flyers on campus bulletin boards and pass them out to people.

2) Hold an interest meeting

• Invite everyone who responded to your flyer to an interest meeting
• Also post flyers with the date, time, and place of the meeting before hand to spread the word
• Here, meet and greet people who are interested in starting the club.  See who is willing to help you organize and lead the club.
• Explain what wushu is, why it’s cool, and why you want to start a club
• Figure out if who will lead the practices and what the format will be like

3) Have your first interest meeting/first practice

• Organize a time and place to meet up with people for a first practice.
• This can also be another interest meeting so that people can see what wushu is like and how it is practiced.
• Keep this practice light and fun.
• If anyone has experience, maybe they can do a quick demo.

4) Register your club as an official registered student organization and sports club

• See what the requirements are to start a club at your school, fulfill the requirements, and turn in any necessary paperwork
• This will make your club official so that you can access possible funding and practice space reservations

5) Reserve practice space and schedule regular practices

• Organize what the practice will be like, who will lead it, and what will be taught
• Keep everybody updated on information by creating a mailing list and sending them regular updates

Remember that organization and leadership is key in getting your club up and running.  Make things fun for everybody and make them feel welcome.  This way, your members will feel more involved and are more likely to continue coming to your practices and even help you run the club.

If anyone ends up starting a club, let us know your success stories!  Or if you have questions or problems starting a wushu club at your school, share your experience and we’ll try to help you out!  Good luck!

I compared some of my old Feiyue shoes to some of the newer ones I just ordered.   The quality of the newer ones is pretty poor.

The Tiger Claw batch…

The sole of the shoe looks and feels quite plastic-like.   The trim between the sole and the bottom of the shoe is not uniformed either. That is, the yellowish part of the shoe spills over to the white bottom lining of the shoe.  The size of the shoe is also larger than my older shoes. Ordering the same size as before, the width of the shoe is wider, causing my heel to slip out even when laced tightly.  From what I ordered, the Tiger Claw batch that I purchased from martialartsmart is not that great.

The wushupropshop Top One batch…

I did manage to find some TopOne branded ones from wushuproshop.  The quality of the wushuproshop batch that I got mine from were a bit better, however still not as good as my older Feiyues.  The width of these were a bit more narrow than the Tiger Claw batch, so the fit is a little more closer to my older shoes.  I also got some red Feiyue knock-offs that are branded for USA Wushu.  I haven’t tried them out, but it looks pretty low-quality.  Nevertheless, red is cool!

Do you know where to get some good quality Feiyues for cheap?   Let me know!