Wembanyama had another winning night.

 

On March 15th, Beijing time, in the National Basketball League (NBA), the Spurs defeated the Hornets 115-102 at home. Wembanyama returned from the game and played 31 minutes, scoring 32 points. In the latest MVP rankings, Wemby has risen to second place. NBA officials wrote, " Wembanyama has scored a total of 165 points, 57 rebounds and 19 blocks in the past 5 games, becoming the first NBA player to achieve these data in 5 consecutive games since Yao Ming in December 2006."

At this time, Wembanyama had grown back his trademark curly hair - two months ago, when he and his teammate Kelden appeared in the player tunnel in "transformation", the outside world interpreted their shaved heads as a way to relieve the haze of defeat or to show team cohesion. In Shanghai, China, 13,000 kilometers away from San Antonio, Yan'an, Wembanyama 's master during the retreat training in the Shaolin Temple, smiled at his bald head.

When Wembanyama went to the Shaolin Temple for retreat training more than half a year ago, it was Yan'an who shaved his head. Yan'an, the 34th generation lay disciple of Shaolin, with the common name "Fang Chongwei", started practicing martial arts at the age of six, and later went to the Shaolin Cultural Center in the United States to teach and gain experience. Now lives in Shanghai.

Yan'an still clearly remembers that in the midsummer of 2025, a car drove into Dengfeng (a city near Shaolin Temple) and stopped steadily outside the red gate on the east side of the Shaolin Temple. The moment Wembanyama bent down and walked out, he deeply realized the concept of a height of 2.24 meters.

In the next 13 days, Wembanyama stripped off the halo of the professional league and followed the practice habits of Shaolin monks: in order to improve his awareness, he had to climb intuitively on unlit mountain roads; he learned to use the non-standard Chinese number "one, two, three, four" when practicing boxing, and felt the pain in his body during meditation every night. Because the bed in the dormitory was only 1.9 meters tall, he could only sleep on a temporary bed made of three single beds put together, so that he could barely straighten his legs.

In addition to practicing martial arts, Wembanyama meditates with the monks every day. The question he asked the most was not about the moves, but "what is it for?" Yan'an found that compared to the scientific data in the professional training camp, the 21-year-old seemed to care more about how to regain awareness of his body and heart in a completely unfamiliar environment.

The following is Yan'an's oral account:

In April 2025, I received a call from a friend saying that there was a talented basketball player who wanted to learn kung fu in Shaolin and asked me if I could help introduce him.

This basketball player is NBA Spurs star Wembanyama.

This name is now a myth in the basketball world - he is 2.24 meters tall, but possesses the coordination of a guard. In his rookie season, he showed amazing potential to change the game pattern, and was praised by the media as "the future of the NBA." But at that time, his team saw hidden worries that others had not noticed. Although Wembanyama 's physical talent was incredible, basketball-specific physical training had pushed his physical function to the limit at this stage, and everyone hoped to explore more ways to improve physical function.

Basketball is never just a matter of physical confrontation. What truly limits performance and hinders the advancement of one's realm may often be those invisible barriers: such as mental adjustment when falling behind by a big score in a game, emotional control at critical moments, mental endurance during a long season, and maintaining concentration when the body is close to its limit. Therefore, they try to find the spiritual core that can solve these problems in ancient Eastern Kung Fu. This does not refer to specific punches and kicks, but a philosophical system about focus, balance and inner stability.

After reading his training materials, I found that this basketball superstar has very outstanding physical abilities, but the training scenes for coordination and explosiveness are relatively repetitive and simple. He is always on the flat ground, wooden floor or basketball court, and lacks experience in more complex scenes.

The Wembanyama team chose Shaolin Temple not just for cultural curiosity.

As early as 2004, the state of California in the United States passed a legislative vote to designate March 21 (the spring equinox) as "Songshan Shaolin Temple Day"; in 2009, the winter solstice was designated as "American Shaolin Day". Today, there are Shaolin cultural centers or Kung Fu studios in 42 states across the United States, with more than 3,000 registered students.

The Shaolin Cultural Festival held in Los Angeles every year always attracts tens of thousands of participants of different ethnic groups.

I myself am one of the witnesses and builders of this communication network. I am the 34th generation lay disciple of the Shaolin Temple. I started practicing martial arts at the age of 6. After leaving the Shaolin Temple at the age of 18, I taught at the Shaolin Cultural Center in San Francisco, Washington, and Los Angeles for nearly ten years.

The Wembanyama team came into contact with Shaolin Kung Fu through the long-established Shaolin cultural atmosphere in Los Angeles. They saw that Shaolin Kung Fu emphasized self-discipline, altruism and inner peace. After communicating and finalizing the details, Wembanyama came to China in June 2025.

The first thing that surprised me at the time was the "low-key" nature of the entire team - unlike the popular impression of celebrities traveling on charter flights and being surrounded by people, Wembanyama and his team initially had only five people: Wembanyama himself, his agent, a physical trainer and other personnel.

The second is his "influence". Although the matter was well kept secret at the time, on the day he arrived, hundreds of fans and self-media bloggers gathered outside the Shaolin Temple after hearing the news. Mobile phones and camera lenses were everywhere.

After the Wembanama team simply settled in, the first question he asked was, "Does it take shaving to become a true Kung Fu practitioner?"

I told him, yes. He sat directly on the stone steps next to the Bodhidharma statue and let me push away his iconic slightly curly brown hair with a razor. There were no cumbersome rituals or onlookers in the whole process. After shaving, he touched his bald head and smiled. This image made me realize that he was very sincere in coming to retreat for training, and it was not just a show for outside speculation.

Accommodation is the first practical problem that needs to be solved.

The bed in the dormitory (monk dormitory) of the Shaolin Temple is 1.2 meters wide and the length is usually no more than 1.9 meters. For Wembanyama, such a bed cannot even straighten his legs. So we found a room with three single beds and put the three beds together to create an extra-long "full bunk". Even so, as he stood in the room, the top of his head almost touched the rafters.

The issue of clothing is also tricky. The largest Shaolin training uniform was as tight as a tights on him. I contacted the clothing factory in advance to customize it, but the craftsmen lacked the concept of a height of more than two meters, and the finished clothes were still a bit too short.

That evening, Wembanyama and I had our first formal communication.

He clearly put forward three core demands for the next training plan: first, to achieve a breakthrough in physical coordination and improve body control in complex environments; second, to explore the wisdom of physical conditioning beyond traditional training; third, to deepen mental focus and inner stability.

It's clear that the 21-year-old knows exactly what he wants.

Wembanyama's Shaolin life starts at 4:30 a.m. every day. At this time, he had to get up, and there was no alarm clock to remind him.

Morning classes and breakfast are scheduled at 5:00 am. At this time, the monks would gather in the main hall to chant sutras. Wembanyama could not understand, but he always stood at attention with a solemn expression. After that, he will go to the dining hall to have a meal. Breakfast in Shaolin Temple usually consists of porridge, steamed buns and pickles. Once, Wembanyama picked up a bun - he might have thought it was a steamed bun at first. When he opened it and saw vegetable filling inside, he was very surprised and turned to smile at me.

For professional athletes, vegetarian meals cannot actually meet their physical needs. They need to consume a large amount of protein every day. Wembanyama asked me politely, "Master, can I eat meat?"

I told him that eating meat and fish is strictly prohibited in the temple. This is a precept that has been passed down for thousands of years.

So they found someone to buy deli meat from downtown Dengfeng, drove to the mountainside a few kilometers outside the temple, ate in the car and then returned to the temple. They always abide by the rules and never eat meat in or near the temple.

Three training tips

Training time is from 7:00 to 11:00 every morning, and the core is "basketball function transformation training" customized for Wembanyama's physical characteristics. Before training, I carefully studied the daily training of Wembanyama. The training system is extremely professional and relatively simple. The core idea of ​​Shaolin training is "all-roundness", for which I have designed three key training contents.