Joey // Age 16 // Wushu Gold Eagles // January 2020

Congratulations to East Cloud Kungfu’s very first Student of the Month, Joey! 

Joey is a wushu student, currently among the highest level of all kids at our school so far, the Gold Eagles. As the eldest of 3 brothers, he is an exemplary leader and anyone following him will find excellent attention to detail, as well as a persevering spirit and a kind and positive attitude. Even through some of the most difficult training, you will never hear a complaint out of him but will almost always find a smile. Despite having other commitments in his life, he still makes his kungfu training a top priority and happily takes on opportunities to expand his experience when possible. In addition to the many performances he now has under his belt, he has also entered the world of competition and is excelling. His most recent competition performance has earned him a spot on the U.S. Wushu National Team. His dedication and passion for wushu is admirable and we are continually grateful that he and his brothers are part of our Kungfu Family.  

Thank you Joey for being such a valuable part of East Cloud’s community. We look forward to seeing all the greatness you have coming in your future, near and far! 

(I)      How long have you been taking Kungfu? 

(J)      Three and a half years.

(I)      What made you want to start taking Kungfu? 

(J)      Because it looked cool

(I)      What does Kungfu mean to you? 

(J)      Kungfu means a lot of my after-school time and enjoying the experience of achieving new flips, jumps and practicing forms that I can improve my abilities, like strength and flexibility.

(I)      What is your favorite part of Kungfu class? 

(J)      My favorite part, I would say, is doing flips.

(I)      What do you like most about being a student at East Cloud? 

(J)      First thing, I am available to all these experiences, like practicing Kungfu, being part of a group, part of a team, and working hard to achieve higher levels, higher standards, and gaining the experience to be on stage, especially like performances like CAFA and TACAS, like almost a professional stage that I can be on

(I)      And competitions

(J)      Yeah

(I)      You like being on stage, huh? 

(J)      Its good experience

(I)      Yeah, I think so too. What is your favorite form that you have learned or Kungfu exercise? 

(J)      Straight sword, the one I am learning now. That one’s fun.

(I)      Yeah, it’s a nice form. How does Kungfu help you in your life outside of class? 

(J)      Learning Kungfu teaches me learning Kungfu, it teaches me so very long and perstistence, work, nothing can be achieved that quickly in a day like practicing aerials and b-twist, it all takes time and repetition and practice. 

(I)      Good lesson. What do you hope to accomplish in kungfu? Any goals that you have set for yourself?  

(J)      I want to say in Kungfu, I want to learn all 5 standard forms for competition and I am hoping that I might be abl to compete for the US team

(I)      Again, cause you already compete and you made it didn’t you? 

(J)      Yeah, like actually competing 

(I)      Oh, compete with them? Go to China

(J)      Yeah

(I)      Yeah, that would be awesome. What other style or form would you like to study one day? I know you already mentioned different forms you want to learn but if you had to choose a different style what would you like to learn? 

(J)      I would say wing chun or taichi, mainly because my little brother is doing winchun and he’s learning all these attacks and defenses and also because I learned some taichi in china. There’s this teacher over there, he taught me for a very short amount of time and he was teaching me all the applications in taichi which I think it really cool. 

(I)      What is the most difficult thing in Kungfu that you have done? 

(J)      Right now, Cork twist? Cork Screw?

(I)      What is your biggest strength? Weakness? 

(J)      I like to enjoy practicing a lot, like with repetition and focusing on that one specific task for a decent amount of time and hopefully I can achieve and that’s like what motivates me to move on.

(I)      So your strength is focus? 

(J)      Yeah and my weakness is probably my strength, I need to get stronger and probably practice a lot more stances. 

(I)      Anything else? I think just enjoying being here. 

(J)      I enjoy to have this time to practice and work on martial arts.

(I)      Okay, that’s it! Thank you Joey and thank you for your time!

~END~