There are always excellent junior members nurtured in the field of Macao martial arts. Wong Sum In, 15-year-old, is one of them. Specializing in southern-style boxing competitions, she won two gold medals in the southern-style boxing and southern-style cudgel, and a silver medal in the southern-style broadsword. She competed in Women's Group B of the 6th World Junior Wushu Championships, which took place in Bulgaria. Then she also won three gold medals in the southern-style boxing, southern-style broadsword, and southern-style cudgel in Women's Group B of the 23rd Macau Junior Wushu Championships. Her achievements were brilliant.
Having practiced martial arts for nearly seven years, Sum In became specialized in the southern-style boxing category, including southern-style boxing, broadsword and cudgel. She was engaged in martial arts for the first time when she was a third grader, as there were martial arts performances among the new year celebration activities held by her school. As a sports lover, she was fascinated by the routines and movements showcased smoothly by the performers on the stage. As a result she decided to learn martial arts. At that time it was the summer holiday period, Sum In's mother made arrangements for her and her sister to learn martial arts in a junior Wushu school. As such, her Wushu career began.
At the beginning, she learned martial arts two days per week, and then she did it five days per week. After she had really gained some experiences in martial arts, she learned that this type of sports was not as simple as she had imagined. It was never easy to become skilled in performing any single routine and movement. In order to perform routines well, she needed to have solid basic skills, but the practice of basic skills was often tedious. She needed to practice them repeatedly. She even needed to think hard in order to come up with the routines of her own style.
To perform every difficult movement well, apart from sweat and tears, Sum In thought that having persistent will is the most important thing. When faced with the more difficult movements, she often failed to succeed in spite of repeated practices. Thus she also suffered from emotional frustration. However, she never thought of giving up but tried her best to come up with ways to overcome challenges. She watched videos showing how her seniors performed the routines, and asked for advice from her coaches and seniors.
The reason why martial arts is so fascinating for her was that there are always some stories behind each skills set, routine and movement. They seem very traditional but in fact very personalized and pragmatic. If each movement in a routine can be performed accurately and carefully to the extent that a personal style is built up, the sense of satisfaction as derived from the process is huge.
Martial arts does not only make us healthy physically, but it can also cultivate stronger will. It helps nurture endurance and persistence. Martial arts can be practiced by an individual or collectively. All these reasons make martial arts fascinating.
