Three Lawrence Wushu athletes have trekked halfway around the globe to pursue an education they never could have gotten in the United States.

Since last week, they’ve been practicing in China alongside some of the finest martial artists in the world. And when they come home, they plan to “spread the love” to other Lawrence martial artists.

The experience will provide incomparable training, but it will come at a price.

“I have a feeling what we’re really going to get is really sore,” Dean Royal, adviser of Kansas University’s Wushu Club, says, laughing. “It’s all going to be very painful.”

Royal, a punter on Kansas University’s football team in 1996 and 1997, left last Sunday for Beijing with KU graduate student Cody Szuwalski and KU senior John Mikel. Both practice Wushu in the KU club.

Wushu is the Chinese word for “martial art.” Wu literally translates to “martial” and shu to “art.” Although the word encompasses all types of martial arts, Wushu became a sport with its own standards and rules when athletes began practicing it competitively. After thousands of years of refinement, Wushu evolved from combative to artistic.

Even if you’ve never heard the term Wushu, chances are you’ve seen it in action.

For 30 years, Jet Li has been practicing the form. He wowed with his leaps in “Romeo Must Die” and again with his powerful punches in “Kiss of the Dragon.” Along with other Kung Fu celebrities, Li has increased the international popularity of Wushu.

Until the early ’80s, China was the only country that practiced the sport competitively. Now Wushu is making its case for a place in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Dean Royal flies over the head of fellow Kansas University Wushu Club member Cody Szuwalski during a practice session. Royal and Szuwalski are in Beijing, China, training with the country's highly skilled exponents of Wushu. Wushu is an ancient form of martial arts that, when translated, means the art of fighting.

“They don’t get much of a chance to see what’s going on in America,” Royal says of Chinese Wushu practitioners. “When they do, they will probably raise their eyebrows.”

‘Spreading the love’

Wushu is gaining popularity at KU, where Royal and Szuwalski formed the club a year ago after taking Wushu classes together in Kansas City for three years.

You don’t have to watch club members perform Wushu moves for long to realize it’s more about how high you can leap than how hard you can punch.

Dean can do a flip from a standing-still position. Of course he’s no stranger to athletic accomplishment. He holds a slew of KU punting records set during his 1997 senior season, including the record for most yards punted in a game — 535 against Nebraska.

So what is it about Wushu that satisfies this ex-college athlete?

“You take the power techniques in gymnastics — the speed, the timing — and the look and feel of ballet, and it comes into one,” he says.

Photo gallery: KU Wushu Club in China 6News video: Wushu brings Lawrence residents to China (6-4-04) Note from China: Former KU football player Dean Royal writes home See a PDF of the Journal-World Sunday Arts cover story. Pt 2.For more info, visit the Shao Li Wushu site.

Flexibility is another important aspect of the martial art. There is only one woman in the eight-member club, but she has an advantage over the men, in part because of her ability to stretch almost all the way down to the ground.

“Since I’ve only been doing it a short while, I don’t know a whole lot … but I enjoy it,” KU senior Michelle Teeters says.

Club adviser Royal, who’s also an online sales executive for the World Company, which owns the Journal-World, enjoys the sport because of its artistic appeal.

“It’s a lot of jumping and acrobatic stuff,” he says. “It’s made for the look.”

The KU trio will concentrate on becoming better Wushu athletes while in the Far East.

“Cody and I don’t consider ourselves teachers,” Royal says. “We consider ourselves students to our teacher in Kansas City. It’s a very new art, and we just feel like spreading the love.”

“(China) is the homeland, the motherland,” Szuwalski adds. “That’s where it all starts, and that’s where it all ends.”

Long, hard hours

During an afternoon practice, Dean Royal, foreground, and Cody Szuwalski strike a traditional pose with their swords, part of their Wushu routine. Szuwalski is a KU graduate student, and Royal is an online sales representative for the World Company. Both are in Beijing, China, for two weeks training with Chinese Wushu athletes.

Although Royal and Mikel will leave China next week after a two-week stay, Szuwalski will stay another two and a half months. He will study Chinese through an American college and practice Wushu in his spare time.

“The school I’m going to will only be five hours in the morning. From noon until midnight, I’ll be doing Wushu,” Szuwalski laughs, and then adds, “Probably not ’til midnight, because I’d die.”

Szuwalski says his time in China will be crucial to his growth as a martial artist.

“It seems like everyone who practices martial arts should go to China at some point,” he says.

Although he and Royal have been pursuing the sport longer than any of the other KU Wushu Club members, they emphasize that their years of practice don’t stack up against the Chinese martial artist’s experience.

“Three years isn’t a very long time, especially the way we train because in China they train eight hours a day, every day,” Szuwalski says.

In fact, Szuwalski points out that his three months in China will probably be equivalent to his three years of training in the United States.

Royal, who doesn’t speak Chinese, hopes he still can find a common ground with the Asian martial artists.

“I have a feeling, through Wushu, we’re going to be communicating just fine,” he says.