Recently in Sport Facilities Category

So Ive been a tad busy lately trying to get my visa sorted, thats about 4 months and counting. I managed to land a job, get a contract, have my health check, and now its down to getting my working permit...Then I can hopefully get my working visa. Feels like Im in a ridiculous tv soap, that just keeps draggin on.

So while Ive been trying to work out what it is I actually do in my new job, Ive got on to something Ive been wanting to do for a while. Im organisising a surfing contest in Hainan. Yeah that island at the bottom of China. There are waves, believe it or not, and not too bad from what Ive heard. Ill be teaming up with Brendan at Surfing Hainan which does board hiring, lessons and can organise transport, hotel and take you to the spots if your up for some waves. Things are still in planning, but its looking good so far, so hopefully this will give me a good excuse to take time off work

Ill post more info when its decided, and if your up for surfing check out Brendans website for more info

Its taken long enough, but ill finally review Qianshi Sanda. Actually Ive been training there for a few weeks now, but just havnt got around to posting about it.

Qianshi sanda is located just off Lujiabang road, down Fangxie rd. Ive had a few taxi drivers get confused as Lujiabang changes into Xujiahui rd at the next intersection. Its downstairs in the sport center, which I had actually played dodgeball in a few years back, but didnt realise they had a sanda club.

The club is not extremely big, but its big enough. They have about 9 or 10 heavy bags hanging, with 2 of those being extra hard. The floor is padded and suitable for throwing practice, and they have various equipment to use, and wraps, shorts can be bought there.

Qianrenbiao, the coach is a former multiple sanda champion himself(not sure if thats national or just provincial), and has coached the Shanghai team, and national team. Hes a very approachable guy, no nonsense, and keeps himself in good shape. He still likes to train a lot himself,  probably kicks harder than any of the students and seems to have a good wealth of knowledge.

One thing I liked about this school is there is a good number of student, 20ish on a good night, who train well and often come early and stay late after class to keep training. They train 4 nights a week, 1.5-2 hours a class and at 2800RMB a year, it represents probably the best value for money you'l find in Shanghai. 

This is probably the best combination of quality teaching, training, and price Ive found so far for sanda in Shanghai, apart from training at the Shanghai University of Sport. Ill do a post sometime about my experiences there for comparison.

I recently went to the Titans Kickboxing club to try out a class and see what it was like.

The club is run in the Gong Dojo, where Shihan Gong runs his Kyokushin Karate class. There are a few locations, I went to the main one in the Jingan sports center on Kangding rd.

The center itself is quite good. They have showers, a small gym with machines, a bench press and smith machine( I hate those). The training area is a decent size, but not huge.

The teacher was nice and friendly and seemed to know his stuff. He also teaches Kyokushin Karate, so was obviously well conditioned. The only qualms I had were the fact that they didnt have any heavy bags, everything was done with pads, and also class time is only an hour - thats only enough time to warm up, do a bit of conditioning and run some basics. Also there were only 2 others in the class, they say weekdays have more, but this cuts options for sparring etc with only a few students of varying levels. Overall, I'd go back based on the teachers ability. Those Kyokushin guys tend to do a lot of sparring and it showed in his knowledge.

Next up I'm going to check out Qianshi Sanda and see what their Sanda class is like.