25-year-old Li Yinggang is a coach at Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Songshan, central China's Henan province. He started martial arts practise at the age of 9 and shifted to free combat 3 years later.

Since he was 16 years old, Li has been taking part in the professional free combat competitions, ever winning the titles of domestic and international events several times, including two golden belts of Chinese National Free Combat League. As Li Yinggang said, practicing traditional martial arts helps a lot for improving his free combat skills.

Nowadays, Li aims to impart his understandings and experience of traditional martial arts to students during his classes, hoping they can master the essence of martial arts, and inherit and develop Chinese martial arts.

Photos by Wu Gang, Liu Jinghui

Video by Wu Gang, Liu Jinhui