Trung Phan

Wembanyama's Shaolin Retreat Builds Gravity‑control for NBA

People will be studying Wemby’s two-week summer retreat with Shaolin monks in the Chinese mountains for decades to come. Best details from Ramona Shelburne: ▫️slept on three single-beds pushed together and woke up 4:30am each day ▫️meditated several times a day with 100 other monks and length was determined by burning incense wick (“Thirty minutes was doable. But sometimes the incense burned for 90 minutes,…[it is agonizing for someone] 7-foot-4 to sit cross-legged at all, let alone silently for up to 90 minutes, without moving.”) ▫️spent 6-8 hours a day learning Shaolin kung fu poses (“Master Yan'an said he designed Wembanyama's customized martial arts training to emphasize controlling his center of gravity, which would generate force from different positions and resist external forces, to mimic the double-teams and physical play he'd face from NBA opponents.”) ▫️ “One day he told Wembanyama to dribble a basketball up another dangerous mountain route to Sanhuangzhai, a monastery deep in the Song Mountains. The hike traversed cliffside plank paths, suspension bridges and ancient forests, and was five times as long as the one to Bodhidharma Cave. The trail forces you to climb roughly 2,500 feet in elevation across uneven ridges and stone. Master Yan'an said it would take an average person seven to eight hours to reach the end. Wembanyama did it -- while dribbling a basketball -- in four and a half.” ▫️On the 6th night, he did a pitch black hike in the Bodhidharma Cave (“There were no lights anywhere,” Master Yan'an said. “You can't see anything. The only way to go is step by step. Listen to your breath and listen to your heart. Feel each step with your foot. Use your awareness. The entire point of this training…was to free your mind from fear and trust your awareness to guide you.” ▫️”Wembanyama ate the same strict vegetarian diet as the monks while he was there, in accordance with Buddhist principles. But several times a day, his team arranged for a Sprinter van to pull into the monastery, pick up Wembanyama and drive him outside the walls of the temple, where someone would deliver a high-protein meal from a local restaurant. He would eat it inside the Sprinter van, dispose of any remaining meat, then be driven back inside the temple.” *** Full profile here: https://t.co/Hp1E8ORcAY