Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Dengfeng City, central China's Henan Province, is known as "the first Martial Arts club". Students are called as the "Shaolin kids" for practicing Kung Fu. As the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games is approaching, some of these "Shaolin kids" also start a journey of ice hockey. There's a rink with a standard size, no an ice one, but a floor, due to the climatic conditions. "Shaolin kids" take the usual training lessons here. Practicing Martial Arts has strengthened not only their physiques, but also their will and determination to participate in rough games of ice hockey.
In 2019, according to the overall deployment of the General Administration of Sport of China's cultivation work of reserve talents of ice hockey, as one of the pilot schools, Shaolin Tagou started the training on selected students aging from 6 to 15, and professional coaches from Beijing Sport University conducted systematic training here.
Hope one day, these "Shaolin kids" can step onto a real ice hockey rink, to run for a match.
Produced by Xinhua Global Service
