major cities without a permit. As a
native of Inner Mongolia, he’d be
living like an illegal alien in Shang-
hai with no rights and no access to
government services.
ON ONE OCCASION, we recalled,
Zhengtong brought his younger
brother Chang from Weifang to wres-
tle with us at the university. He and
Zhengtong had grown up together
in Weifang Sports School, but Chang
failed to gain admission to the sports
university. When I met him there,
he said he was doing nothing. As we
drove through the streets of Weifang,
I asked Zhengtong what Chang was
doing now. “Still nothing.”
At a traffic light, Zhengtong said,
“Chang usually hangs out on that
corner.” And sure enough, there he
was! We pulled over, and he got in.
Farther up the street, a man named
Fan joined us, as well. He was a tae-
kwondo graduate of Weifang Sports
School who, like Chang, hadn’t quali-
fied for the sports university. Being
a taekwondo graduate, however, he
was at least able to work part time
as an instructor. In the provinces,
taekwondo and san da are popular
with children, but the gyms are open
only on weekends because Monday
through Friday, the kids go to school
from morning until night. This
means that taekwondo teachers can
find employment two or three days
a week but have to do other work
the rest of the time. Unfortunately,
like Zhengtong, Fan hadn’t figured
out how else to make money, so his
income was extremely low.
I asked if it was true that one of our
wrestling teammates had become
a long-distance trucker rather than
a cop, which was his goal. Zheng-
tong explained that the man hadn’t
graduated. Apparently, he failed his
English exam, and for some reason,
he chose not to stay an extra year and
try again.
Zhengtong updated me on more
failed or former wrestlers, many of
whom now hung around Weifang
doing nothing. When I asked about
their plight, he said, “No one wants
them. They have no skills, no com-
puters and no English — what job
could they do?”
with 35 full-time athletes, everyone’s
game improves.
That meant that the young wres-
tlers at the sports academy were so
much better than I was that it made
me wonder what I was doing there.
Nevertheless, having so much time
with Zhengtong and the wrestlers
there ultimately proved a godsend
for me.
The first day, the coach had me spar
so he could ascertain my level. After
that, we worked on my fundamentals.
The reason we even had permission
to train there was Zhengtong’s former
classmate now served as wrestling
coach. I asked him if he’d graduated
from a sports university, but he said
he’d failed the admissions test.
So basically, out of the whole
group of kids who’d spent their
youth wrestling, only Zhengtong
made it into a sports university and
this one lucky guy got hired as a
coach at the school in which he grew
up even though he had no bachelor’s
degree. He lived in the same dorm
as before, but now it was in a two-
person room — a big step up from
when he was a student living in a
four- or six-man room. He still had
to shower in the group facility down
the hallway, but now he earned $600
a month. As I said, lucky.
Zhengtong said the wrestlers of
this new generation are better than
they were during his day because
of the new coach. Honestly, the bar
that had been set wasn’t all that
high. Zhengtong told me that when
he was a young wrestler there, his
coach taught him to smoke. That
coach also took the wrestlers to fight
on the street.
“One of our coaches was a great
fighter,” Zhengtong said. “He was
over 50 but would win street fights
all the time. Now he doesn’t fight
anymore because someone hit him
in the head with an iron bar. When
he was young, he would block it with
his arm and nothing would happen,
but because he is old, the bone in his
arm broke.”(To be continued.)Antonio Graceffo’s book
Warrior Odyssey is available
at blackbeltmag.com/store.WE WALKED into the Greco-Roman
training hall at Weifang Sports
School. I was immediately struck
by what seemed to be a recurring
feeling in China: It signaled to me
that everyone in the room was a
better fighter than I was. In most
U.S. gyms and schools, you’ll find
variety: beginners, intermediates,advanced people, those who train
once a week and those who train
more often. Not so in Chinese
sports schools and sports univer-
sities. Here, every single person
trains full time. And as the expres-
sion goes, iron sharpens iron. Trans-
lation: When you train in a schoolAnd as the
expression goes,
iron sharpens iron.
Translation: When
you train in a school
with 35 full-time
athletes, everyone’s
game improves.
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 § BLACKBELTMAG.COM 27