Hello students,
Happy New Year! It will be incredibly hard to beat last year - it was one for the records. However, we can't shy from an incredible challenge of making this upcoming year, the official Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, to be even greater! Big updates this month, and January is a big month. Please pay attention to the schedule, and there will be a couple other newsletters to be released later this month:
Rate Adjustments in February
School-wide challenge
Lion dancing
Housekeeping
Monthly schedule
UPCOMING RATE ADJUSTMENTS
In order for the school to keep up with the economy, inflation, rising operation costs and annual rent increases, there will be rates increases for all classes starting on Feb. 1, 2024. These updates will be released as soon as possible as it's own newsletter.
*NEW UPDATES ON CHALLENGE (UPDATED ON 01/09/2024)*
Hello students,
Here is more information about the virtual running challenge now that we've had some interest & questions. You have until the end of January to purchase, but you should start your training now! Here is the process:
PURCHASE YOUR CHALLENGE - 10% OFFÂ HERE
READ THE EMAIL AFTER PURCHASE, DOWNLOAD THE APP
After you've finalized your purchase, you'll get an email with instructions on downloading the app, and inputing your Join Code on the Join Challenge page. This will connect your app with the challenge you bought.
START DATE & TIMEFRAME
Don't worry about having this exact, just choose the current day and the furthest date as your goal. On Feb 1st, we'll all adjust our timeframes to match our challenge.
DO NOT CONNECT THE APP TO OTHER APPS OR PUT IN MILEAGE UNTIL FEB 1
The app connects to Strava, Apple Health, etc. Don't connect these until we're ready to all start on Feb 1st.
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY Click on the lower right Menu > Settings > My Communities > Join a Community:
INVITATION CODE: SHAOLOA7F1
PASSWORD: wudang24
ASK SHIFU FOR HELP & START PREPARING THIS MONTH
Do NOT wait until February 1st to start preparing for this, especially if you're new to running. The first 1-2 weeks alone will require your body to adjust to the stress, so you need to start running on your own outside of the challenge to warm up for it. You'll be sore, figuring out a schedule, finding the right shoes, how to supplement for the training, etc. You need to do all of this BEFORE we all start on Feb 1.
PREVIOUS POST - NEW YEAR, NEW GOALS, NEW YOU
To help kickoff New Year Resolutions for many of the students, we'll be doing a school-wide virtual Conqueror Challenges that students (or parents) can enter! While we'll be focusing on lion dancing routines in January, we'll also use it to register whomever wants to participate.
Conqueror Virtual Challenges are fitness-based goals that reward you, and most importantly, motivate you to getting out there and exercising. These challenges are meant to mimic doing a challenge virtually, and in this case, running/walking/cycling China. You'll get to unlock photos/videos of China, explore the map and street views, as well as send virtual postcards along the way. You'll also do these challenges along your classmates to help with motivation. Once you've completed your challenge, you'll be rewarded with some of the best looking medals out there. We'll be tracking everyone's mileage at the studio too.
There will be 2 challenges students can enter:
The Forbidden City ($32.99 - Easy) - 50 miles total, complete it within 1 month, suitable for beginners.
The Great Wall ($37.99 - Hard) - 161 miles total, complete it within 2 months, for int./adv. students/runners.
For those who aren't active in running/walking/cycling, know this is the perfect time to start those healthy habits. The first couple of weeks take some acclimating. You'll be sore as hell, your feet will hurt, you'll raise your fist in the air and wonder why you committed to this in the first place. However, once your body realizes it needs to grow to keep up with the demands, it'll get easier & you'll thank us later for pushing you.
Be persistent, set yourself up for success, do your research this month and literally pace yourself. Break up your routine if you have to. If there was one piece of advice that is across the board, it would be don't skimp on your shoes. They don't need to be the absolute best or top of the line, they just need to be good shoes designed for exactly running/walking; Fei Yues are HORRIBLE for running, don't even try it. Trust us - if you destroy your feet from using bad shoes, forget doing walking/running/gongfu for a long time to heal. However, once you're in the groove, then you can be more picky on the type of shoes you need.
There are thousands of articles out on the internet to help you start. In the end, don't waste too much time finding the "perfect" guide, shoes, clothes, air-pods, etc. - literally just get out there and run/walk/cycle! Here are a few helpful articles:
We will be kicking off the challenges the beginning of February to ring in the Chinese New Year - Year of the Dragon.
To enter, you have the month of January to purchase your challenge, then we'll collectively start on February 1st.
OR
For more information and to see other challenges you can do on your own, check out their website HERE.
LION DANCE SEASON 2024
We're now preparing for our lion dance season for 2024! Reminder students - you need 3 lion dances to have it count for sash-ranking promotion. We need backup dancers, lion dancers and instrument players.
The final schedule will be shared by the end of January, most dances will take place the first couple of weeks in February. We're spending this month to rehearse our routines in all our classes except for Taiji classes. If you're interested in dancing with our Jung Hing team, please let Li Jie, Li Pin or Shifu Lei know!
HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS
Did you know you can rent out our studio for your own events or birthday parties? Our upstairs VIP lounge is now complete! For more information, check out our page for details: LINK
Want to ensure you're maximizing your potential? Show up on-time! This is your year - don't make excuses to not show up to class, rather make excuses to have it be a priority.
Remember Shifu/Shimu/Disciples' authority in the guÇŽn. While we'll be at times fun & joking, we're ultimately not your friends to play with - we're here to train you. You must show respect at all times, i.e. following orders, saluting/bows when seeing them, being respectful with your questions, not challenging authority, not playfully attacking us, etc. Any signs of disrespect is automatic grounds for getting expelled. We must maintain authority out of tradition and to keep discipline in check in our school.
THIS MONTH'S SCHEDULE
