Your first three months of wushu

Wushu training starts with stances, kicks, and flexibility — not the acrobatic flips you saw on YouTube. Here's what the first three months actually look like, from your first horse stance to your first empty-hand form.

By Colin B. · Published August 9, 2026

The YouTube version of wushu is all butterfly kicks, aerial cartwheels, and sword forms that look like choreographed combat. The reality of your first three months is more like this: stances that burn your legs, kicks that won’t go above your waist, and a lot of stretching. It’s not glamorous, and it is exactly what your body needs before any of the flashy stuff becomes possible.

Here’s how it actually goes.

Month 1: Stances and basic kicks

The first thing your instructor will teach you is ma bu — the horse stance. Feet shoulder-width apart (or wider), knees bent to 90 degrees, thighs parallel to the floor, back straight. You hold this position. And hold it. And hold it.

Horse stance is the foundation of everything in Chinese martial arts. It builds the leg strength for deep stances, the core stability for kicks, and the mental endurance for long training sessions. Your quads will scream. Your instructor will say “lower.” This is normal.

The other fundamental stances you’ll learn in month one:

• Gong bu (bow stance) — front knee bent, back leg straight. The basic fighting stance and the position you’ll spend most of your forms in.
• Pu bu (crouching stance) — one leg fully bent, the other extended straight to the side. This is where your flexibility journey begins.
• Xu bu (empty stance) — weight on the back leg, front foot touching the ground lightly. Teaches weight distribution and balance.
• Xie bu (resting stance) — legs crossed, sitting on the back calf. Surprisingly difficult and common in southern styles.

Your instructor will drill these stances in combination — walk across the floor in gong bu, switch to ma bu, drop into pu bu, stand into xu bu. The transitions between stances are as important as the stances themselves. Wushu isn’t about holding positions; it’s about moving between them with precision and power.

Basic kicks start this month too. Front kick (zheng ti tui), side kick (ce ti tui), and the straight-leg swing kick that’s unique to Chinese martial arts. The kicks will be low. Your instructor will tell you to keep your leg straight and your toes pointed, and you’ll discover muscles in your hips that you didn’t know existed.

Month 1-2: The flexibility grind

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: wushu requires a level of flexibility that most adults don’t have. Front splits, side splits, and the ability to kick above your own head are eventual requirements — not immediately, but they’re where you’re heading.

Your school will build stretching into every class. Active stretching (kicking drills), passive stretching (holding splits positions), and dynamic stretching (swing kicks that gradually increase in height). The minimum is 15-20 minutes of stretching per class. Most serious wushu schools spend 30-40 minutes.

Stretch at home. This is the single most impactful thing you can do outside of class. Even 15 minutes of daily stretching — hip flexors, hamstrings, adductors, and shoulders — will accelerate your progress dramatically. The students who advance fastest are almost always the ones stretching daily at home.

A realistic flexibility timeline for an adult beginner:

• Month 1: You can touch your toes. Front kicks reach hip height. Pu bu (crouching stance) requires support.
• Month 3: Kicks reach chest height. Front split is within 6-8 inches of the floor. Pu bu is unsupported.
• Month 6: Kicks reach head height. Front split is close to flat. Side split is within a foot of the floor.
• Year 1: Full or near-full front splits. Side split approaching flat. Kicks at or above head height.

This timeline assumes daily stretching. Without it, roughly double these estimates.

Month 2: Combinations and basic jumps

Once your stances and kicks are presentable, your instructor will start combining them into sequences. A typical combination might be: gong bu punch → ma bu block → front kick → gong bu punch. These combinations are building blocks for forms.

Basic jumps enter the picture this month:

• Teng kong fei jiao (flying front kick) — a straight jump with a slap kick at the peak. Your first aerial technique. It feels terrible the first time and acceptable by the tenth.
• Ce kong fan (aerial cartwheel) — not yet. Your instructor may introduce the ground-based cartwheel and roundoff that lead to the aerial version later.
• Carp kick-up (li yu da ting) — lying flat on your back and kicking up to standing. This is partly a strength move and partly a technique move, and wushu students drill it obsessively.

The jump training is where wushu separates from traditional kung fu. Contemporary wushu treats jumps as scored elements (like gymnastics), so your instructor will be specific about height, body position, and landing stance.

Month 3: Your first form

Forms (tao lu) are choreographed sequences of techniques — the “routines” of wushu. Your first form will be a simplified version of changquan (long fist), the foundational contemporary wushu style. It’ll be 20-30 movements long and take about 45-60 seconds to perform.

Learning a form happens in stages:

1. Learn the movements individually. Your instructor demonstrates each technique, you copy it, they correct your position. This takes several classes.
2. String movements together. Once you know the individual techniques, you connect them in sequence. The transitions between movements are where most beginners struggle — the form should flow, not stop-start.
3. Add power and speed. A form performed at learning speed looks nothing like a form performed at competition speed. Once you know the sequence, you gradually increase speed and intensity. The explosive power that makes wushu forms look impressive comes from proper stance transitions and hip rotation, not from arm strength.
4. Polish. Every hand position, every head turn, every foot angle matters. This is where wushu becomes art — the difference between a beginner form and an advanced form isn’t what movements they contain, it’s how precisely each movement is executed.

Your first form will take 2-4 weeks to learn and months to polish. That’s expected. Professional wushu athletes spend years refining forms they learned in their first year of training.

Common beginner mistakes

Not going low enough. In wushu, lower is almost always better. Deeper stances, lower sweeps, more compression in the legs. If your instructor keeps saying “lower,” they’re not being cruel — they’re being accurate. The visual impact of wushu comes from the contrast between explosive height (jumps, kicks) and grounded depth (stances, sweeps).

Soft hands. Wushu has specific hand shapes — fist, palm, hook, sword fingers — and beginners default to vague, floppy versions. Tighten your fist, extend your palm fully, make your hook sharp. Your hands are performing too.

Looking at the floor. Your eyes should follow your lead hand or face your imaginary opponent, never stare at the ground. Eye direction is a scored element in competition and a coached element from day one.

Skipping flexibility work. It’s boring. It hurts. It’s the single biggest factor in how fast you progress. Every wushu technique is easier with better flexibility: kicks go higher, stances go deeper, jumps get more air because your takeoff position is more efficient. Do the stretching.

Comparing yourself to the kids. Many wushu schools have children who started at age 5 and can do things that seem superhuman. They have years of training and the flexibility of youth. Your trajectory is different, and that’s fine. Adult beginners who train consistently for 2-3 years reach a level that impresses everyone who isn’t a competitive athlete — and that’s a remarkable achievement.

What to practice at home

• Stances: Walk through gong bu, ma bu, pu bu, xu bu, and xie bu transitions for 10 minutes. Focus on depth and precise foot placement.
• Kicks: 20 front kicks per leg, 20 side kicks per leg. Focus on height (within your current range) and keeping the supporting leg straight.
• Stretching: 15-20 minutes of focused flexibility work — front splits, side splits, pike stretch, shoulder stretches.
• Form review: Walk through your form at half speed, focusing on hand positions and transitions. Don’t practice at full speed until your instructor says the movements are correct — you’ll ingrain bad habits.

Wushu rewards daily practice more than most martial arts because so much of it is physical conditioning and flexibility. A 30-minute home session three times a week will noticeably accelerate your progress in class.

Check out our wushu gear guide for specific product recommendations and current prices.