I spent two days on a motorbike taxi zig-zagging through Saigon's notoriously anarchic traffic trying to find schools in which I could train and whose teachers could also speak a reasonable amount of English. Eventually I was brought to a class run out of gymnasium on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street in District 3 of Saigon.
To the untrained eye, it is similar to Taekwando, but I'm sure exponents of both of martial arts would disagree. The training uniform is in blue and they bow to greet each other with their hand on heart. I found this endearing and respectful.
The gymnasium was not the cleanest gym I have ever been to, and pads they used for kicking and punching were primitive, but I did see very dedicated guys and girls training. Perhaps you might get better luck finding schools for beginners if you spoke Vietnamese, I found that trying to find the schools and finding people that would be willing to help me quite an exhausting experience.
In my travels I did come across a Wushu Kung Fu School in Saigon. They was no training for beginners - they were training for competition only.
Now this was impressive!!!
I was impressed by the overall talent but more specifically by the females training at this Kung Fu School.
Vietnam is a country known for Wushu Kung Fu and is one of the leading countries in training Wushu Kung Fu, behind China.
What to expect -
Unless you have trained Vovinam before I suspect that you have difficulty finding places that will train you up from a beginner status in a serious way. Of the classes that I did see most consisted largely of evening, after-work sessions.There would be very few foreigners looking to train Vovinam. Due to it's lack of popularity and knowledge at this point in time, I suspect it might be a while until this changes.
Webiste for Vovinam Training Centres -
http://vovinamworld.com/Vovinam_Training_Centers_Worldwide.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment