Greetings again from Shangri-La in Yunnan.

Im here for work again and the altitude is making me lazy, so i havent translated all of the rules for you yet.

As you know, last weekend was the National Shuaijiao Referee’s Training Course. The rules have changed so it was compulsory for certification as a National Referee.

I was one of about 90 wanna-be referees attending. In reality, i was the only wanna-be ref, all the others were experienced referees coming to understand the new rules, procedures, equipment, and procedures.

I happened to be the only lao wai - non chinese -attending, and was the object of many examples and jokes i’m sure. One example that i understood was to do with Shuaijiao increasing it’s popularity globally. Having me there was a message to everyone that Shuaijiao is something that people outside of China respect and are keen to learn. It was also meant as a message for the referees to pull their socks up and make their events as fair, transparent, and entertaining as possible in order to develop Shuaijiao beyond China’s borders.

In this short post i thought i might just list some points of interest about the rule changes and then expand on them as i have more time. One thing that was interesting was Mr. Li Baoru’s comment that he is happier with these changes than he has been with all the previous rule changes he has been involved in his career.
Changes:

• Now each match is 4 minutes in length. Which 2 halfs of 2 minutes each separated by a 1 minute break
• Now no points awarded for pushing or lifting an opponent out of the circular competitive area and into the protective zone
• Competitors facial hair must be longer than 10mm, or else it must be shaven clean… bummer for me
• The Jacket has changed in design and colour. Each jacket needs to have belt loops woven into it in order to prevent the jacket from coming out. Now all jackets will be white with either a red or blue trim and belt

Plus a whole bunch of other small changes - including scoring changes - which i will translate in full as soon as possible, i promise!

Keep Smilin’

Michael