At\nthe just-ended East Asian Games held in Tianjin, Willis Chu Chi Wai,\nfourth-year undergraduate from the Department of Civil and Environmental\nEngineering, won a silver medal in the Men\u2019s Jianshu\/Qiangshu Allround category.\nIt wasn\u2019t the first time Willis won a medal at an international meet. Earlier\nhe won gold medals at the World Junior Wushu Championships and the World Wushu Championships.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cMartial arts can change a\nperson from the inside out.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n\n
Willis\nwas introduced to the world of martial arts at the age of four. But he says for\nhim martial arts is an acquired taste. The boring, repetitive training in the\nbasic moves made him give up for a time. But later, when he was ten, his\nfather, who was a martial arts coach, founded a sports club. The passion and\npersistence of those club members who constantly talked about and practiced\nmartial arts eventually won him over. His passion for this sport grew stronger\nafter he began to win medals at various competitions. And that was also when\nhis career as a professional martial arts athlete took off.<\/p>\n\n
You\u2019d\nthink an experienced gold medalist like Willis would have become blas\u00e9 about\ncompeting at local events, especially when the rivals were considerably younger\nand lesser-known. But as Willis told us, the most unforgettable experience for him\nwas the Asian Junior Wushu Championships held in Macao. Considered the top hopeful\nwith home advantage and a number of medals already under his belt, Willis was keen\nto win and perhaps a part of him also thought the medal was in the bag. Performing\nunder enormous pressure, he made some serious mistakes, which cost him the\ngold. This unexpected setback jolted him back to reality. He picked himself up,\nthrew himself into the next round, this time focused on nothing else but the\ncompetition, and finally turned the tide. That experience was a watershed in\nWillis\u2019s athletic career. It taught him the danger of losing sight of what\u2019s\nreally important and the importance of not letting past successes become a\nburden. \u201cA medal is just a mark for your performance at a single event, and\nafter the event\u2019s over you start over with a clean scoreboard,\u201d says Willis.\n\u201cWinning is great, but now I don\u2019t think too much about the outcome. There are\nalways winners and losers in a competition. The only way you can keep winning\nis if you never enter a competition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Martial\narts has helped him grow up, but that\u2019s not the only benefit Willis has reaped\nfrom this sport. He used to be a quiet, introverted boy with inborn heart\ndisease, and practicing martial arts has helped his heart grow stronger and turned\nhim into a gregarious person. \u201cMartial arts really can change a person from the\ninside out,\u201d says Willis.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIn the future I\u2019ll just\nenjoy martial arts for its own sake.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n\n
In\nhis early 20s, Willis\u2019s life is just beginning, but his professional life as a\nmartial arts athlete has past its prime. \u201cBeing a world champion was my\nchildhood dream, and that dream has come true, so looking back I don\u2019t have\nregrets,\u201d says Willis. \u201cAs for the future, I\u2019m not going to tell myself how\nmany more medals I\u2019ll have to win; I think I\u2019ll just enjoy martial arts for its\nown sake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Now\na graduating student, Willis is at a crossroads in his life. \u201cI used to go to Beijing\nfor a two-month intensive training every summer holiday, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll\nbe able to keep doing that once I get a job after graduation,\u201d says Willis in a\ncalm voice, something akin to longing flashing through his gaze. He has yet to\nfigure out what he wants to do after graduation, but one thing he knows for\nsure is that wherever he wants to go, there is no shortcut in life, just like\nthere is no shortcut in mastering the martial arts.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the just-ended East Asian Games held in Tianjin, Willis Chu Chi Wai, fourth-year undergraduate from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, won a silver medal in the Men\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n