THE ANCIENT FREESTYLERS - CUJU

lucasjaknight
Aug 17, 2020
1 min read

CUJU

The earliest form of football is understood to of been the Chinese game ‘Cuju’, a competitive team game founded during the Han Dynasty (206 BC- AD 220).

Cu- Kick

Ju- Leather ball

The game developed from a military training regime, extremely violent and played by battle hardened warriors- this no holds barred sport could be likened closer to a no-hands Ozzy rules than modern day football…In its infancy the sport was followed mostly bythe aristocrats in the higher echelons of society, gaining huge popularity during the Song dynasty (960-1279) and gradually becoming more accessible to the lower classes.

There were 2 ways to play Cuju:

“Bai Da”- No goals- the objective of this game was to keep the ball in the air in a group, points were deductive for rubbish passes and general mistakes. The player with the highest points at the end of the game was the winner.

“ZhuQhi”- This game was played by 2 teams, with the objective of keeping the ball in the air and shooting into an elevated goal. The use of hands was prohibited and if the ball hit the floor the round was over, there were many kick up skills to be learnt that can still be recognised in modern day football, examples of these are:

Shooting star turning- Knee controlling

Harvesting the peach- Juggling (kick ups)

Shouldering the moon- Back/Neck stall

Pick fish from dry ground- Instep kick

Goo Qui was arguably the most famous CuJu player, the Ronaldo/Messi of the ancient times. Could you be Chamber Nine’s Goo Qui?!