I spent 4 weeks in Qufu Shaolin Kung Fu School. The location of the school is ideal, a peaceful village next to mountains. The school provides good facilities for training and living. The training hall is big and spacious, the outside training area very well taken care of and basic training gear is for everyone to use. Students live in the main building. The rooms are nice and clean. I was especially happy about the clean bathrooms and hot shower that was always working!  The school serves three meals a day. The food was tasty and there was plenty of it in every meal. Translators were in the school to help students all the time which made communication easy and smooth with everyone. It was easy to focus on training for the environment at the school supported it completely.

One month is a very short time. As we all know to master any kind of martial art takes years and years of practice. In four weeks I got a little taste of it. I have to say it is always a big honor to meet people like Wei Shifu and the rest of the Masters in the school who have achieved such an amazing skills and knowledge. I feel grateful that I was one of their students learning from what they want to share. I practice martial arts mainly to understand more about movement, about body, about mind. Even though my stay in the school felt very short, in personal level I learned and understood a lot. What I took with me and what I will carry with me from the training is definitely the forms I got to learn. The quality and effectiveness of the movement in Shaolin forms fascinates me a lot. It is a big inspiration to see people moving with such an ease, speed, power and grace. Training in Qufu Shaolin Kung Fu School was an experience that I hope as many people as possible could have! It is an experience you will never forget!

Riina Kalmi