At the end of 2002, Zhang Yimou's "Hero" movie entered people's field of vision.
Jet Li, Zhen Zidan, Zhang Ziyi, Liang Chaowei, Maggie Cheung and Chen Daoming joined forces to create an epic domestic film blockbuster.
The film mainly tells the story of the swordsman assassinating the King of Qin at the end of the Warring States period, and the protagonist "Nameless" played by Jet Li has won the love of the audience with his cold image of a martial arts master.
The phrase "the fast sword practiced in the next step will never deviate within ten steps" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
When the audience lamented the nameless body and strength, they did not know that behind the nameless was another "nameless".
Recently, Mengchuan contacted Jet Li's stand-in Zhang Ai in "Hero", and we listened to his story together.
At that time, Zhang Ai was the proud son of Heaven in Chengdu Sports Academy, only 21 years old.
Zhang Ai, who has been practicing traditional martial arts since childhood, won the provincial martial arts competition at the age of 10 and won the Sichuan Provincial Sword and Stick Long Fist Championship many times.
At that time, the Sanda King Championship was all over the land of Shenzhou, and the actual combat performance of Sanda in the ring deeply shocked Zhang Ai, and he realized that this was not the effect that the martial arts routine could achieve.
Zhang Ai then went to the sanda team to train, and he won the 56KG championship at the age of 19, and won a good place when he participated in the ninth national games at the age of 20.
At the age of 21, the "Hero" crew went to Chengdu Sports Academy to choose a stand-in, and Zhang Ai conquered the crew at once with an excellent set of sword techniques. Since then, Zhang Ai's figure has appeared in the crew of "Hero".
In the days of the crew, Zhang Ai strengthened his love for martial arts, and although the kung fu on the screen was fancy and dazzling, it was not what he wanted.
He decided to seek more practical martial arts, and after playing Jet Li's stand-in, he resolutely left the crew.
The Sanda champion went abroad to coach the Swedish national boxing team
By chance, Zhang Ai saw a K-1 game, a technology he had never seen before, complex and changeable combinations, and the rhythm of the clouds, Zhang Ai was once again shocked.
Later, he learned that this was called kick boxing, but Zhang Ai did not understand the difference between sanda and kickboxing.
With a strong curiosity, he wondered who was stronger in Sanda and Kickboxing?
After giving Jet Li a substitute, Zhang Ai received a large remuneration of 165,000 yuan, almost without thinking, Zhang Ai had a bold idea - he wanted to go abroad to learn kickboxing.
In 2005, Zhang Ai left for Northern Europe and Sweden.
In the Swedish training gym, Zhang Ai magically found that as a national sanda champion, he could not even beat an amateur boxer under the kick boxing rules.
Yes, he was thrown up on the first day!
Although the start was humiliating, Zhang Ai was very happy, wasn't this exactly what he wanted?
Zhang Ai gave up the honor of the country and the pride of the Sanda champion, like a student to learn kick boxing techniques from the locals, zhang Ai at this time is like a sponge, quickly absorbing nutrients, constantly evolving.
Because of his solid sanda skills, in the past eight years in Sweden, Zhang Ai not only stood out in the Swedish Kickboxing League, but also became the coach of the Swedish Kickboxing National Team.
He has also produced many outstanding students in the Swedish national team, winning many championships in Sweden and Europe.
My students will definitely become world champions!
After returning to China in 2013, Zhang Ai was very happy to see the domestic fighting industry thriving.
However, I originally thought that kick boxing should be very popular in China, but found that there was very little real systematic kick boxing training system in China.
With a sense of mission to popularize kickboxing skills, Zhang Ai, with the efforts of his friends, established the 256 Super Evolution Fighting Team and opened a small Swan training hall in Beijing.
He thought very simply, in a limited time, to bring back the advanced kickboxing technology system he learned in Sweden to China, so that more people would take fewer detours.
To this day, the students brought out by Zhang Ai in Siwan have also begun to continuously compete in major professional competitions such as Kunlun Decisive and Emei Legend, and they carry their own hopes and Zhang Ai's sustenance.
At the beginning of this month, Zhang Ai's student Li Feilong also received an invitation from the director, and participated in the short drama "The Most Beautiful Performance" with popular stars Yi Yanqianxi and Shu Qi, and also had an "opponent play" with Yi Qianxi at the beginning of the short film.
The same age, the same experience, and this time, behind the flying dragon, there is more of Zhang Ai's sustenance and expectations.
"Life is like a labyrinth. In this maze, each of us will make countless choices, but for me, bringing out a few more outstanding students in the country and cultivating them all to become world champions is my greatest wish and my whole motivation. ”
Zhang Ai is like this, and so is the team behind him.