Martial arts pro kick-starts young athletes
Print Edition
Standing in the middle of a sports gymnasium, Tang Lu leads more than 100 students in a lesson of martial art wushu.
Each precise punch and kick demonstrates her skills as a kungfu master. The students dutifully follow her moves.
Tang, 29, a former world kungfu champion, is a coach at the Shanghai Wushu Institute — a role she assumed upon retirement from professional sports. She recently returned to Minhang District, where she used to train, as part of a tour organized by Shanghai sports authorities.
During her visit, Tang also gave a talk to students in Xincheng School, sharing with them her experiences as an athlete and now coach.
Xincheng School has been teaching martial arts since 2008. It aims to cultivate a genuine interest in students rather than just being a course to fill their curriculum.
The school founded a wushu team in 2014, winning various city and district competitions ever since. In 2019, when Minhang hosted the 15th World Wushu Championships, students from Xincheng School performed martial arts at the opening ceremony.
Tang has been an inspiration to students, especially those who hope to follow in her footsteps.
She won gold medals at the World Wushu Championships in 2019, the Asian Games in 2018 and other international and national games.
Born in the southwestern city of Chongqing, Tang began on the path of martial arts at the age of six in training at a local sports school. She didn’t like it at first and pleaded with her mother to take her home. But her mother said the family didn’t have much choice, given the low tuition at the school and the need to get her daughter educated.
Tang gradually came to enjoy her studies and worked hard to please her parents. The efforts paid off. She won her first gold medal in a martial arts competition when she was only eight.
She eventually made her way to Minhang’s sports school for teenagers and was recruited by the Shanghai Wushu Team when she was 13. She won her first world championship in 2006 in Malaysia.
Then her sports career stalled and she struggled to retain her standing. A major setback was her mother’s injuries in a terrible car accident that occurred while Tang was competing in some games.
“The hospital put my mother on the critical list, but everyone kept it a secret from me,” Tang said.
“But maybe I innately knew something was wrong. During the games, I just didn’t feel like myself.”
In the end, she didn’t give up and worked all the harder. Her coach supported her during a difficult time. Tang didn’t make it back to the international arena until she was 24.
“It was a test of my determination, and it helped lift me higher,” Tang said.
Tang remained on the national team from 2016 to 2019. She won gold at the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018 among 12 competitors. She reached a pinnacle in the wushu championship in 2019, coming out on top of all contestants.
Of the many styles of wushu, Tang excelled in nanquan, or “southern fist,” which originated in the southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. It features quick, flexible movements.
Tang officially retired in June 2020, praising her coaches Liu Guangqi and Li Shuhong for all their care and encouragement during her professional career.
As a veteran of the sport, Tang always encourages younger athletes to be persistent and overcome setbacks.
“For some, victory comes earlier than for others,” she said.
Tang has been accompanying the national team on tours to promote Chinese wushu. The tours have taken her as far away as Vanuatu, a Pacific island nation where Chinese culture has a following.
“Wushu gathers together like-minded people,” Tang said.
As a coach, she continues to inspire young athletes.
“We have different roles and different responsibilities at different stages in life,” Tang said, reflecting on her 16 years as an athlete.
That includes striking a balance between training and life.
Because traditional martial arts are entwined with Chinese moral ethics, Tang said she strives to be a person with a broad mind and vision. Teaching well suits that outlook.
“For me, being a teacher means being milder and more delicate,” she said. “Due to the nature of competitive sports, coaches are usually quite fierce. I, however, want to be a softer coach. Time is a ruler that measures our persistence and efforts.”
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