After unlocking the most cinematic offseason workout, Victor Wembanyama has set his sights on his next adventure. With the exceptional season he’s had, there probably would be more players flocking to Shaolin Temples in the summer to get some of the same training. But the most physically unique player in the league right now isn’t satisfied with the standard basketball drills.

Ahead of his postseason debut, the San Antonio Spurs star sat down with Malika Andrews to talk about where he was a year ago after a season cut short by blood clots. Wembanyama opened up about his transformative summer at a Shaolin Temple in China and revealed his next unconventional goal: training with a professional rugby team.

The 7’4″ phenom who is making a strong case for MVP and DPOY explained that these off-court summer adventures are central to his philosophy of physical evolution, seeking to master movement patterns that standard NBA training cannot replicate. “I was just thinking I’m not able to do these things physically right now. So my body still has some areas to fill and some areas to develop.”

He further told Andrews, “It’s been very important for me to develop my body into what it can be and like fulfill the potential as much as possible.”

Before anyone thinks he’s going to inspire the next sports blockbuster training montage, he’s applying this same philosophy to potentially pick up another sport. “One thing I wanted to do but I didn’t do this summer is practice with a rugby team because it’s same, you know, patterns of movement my body’s not used to do and that can translate to what I do basketball,” Wembanyama explained.

While the Kung Fu training focused on flexibility and explosive core strength, Wembanyama is already looking toward the pitch for his next challenge. He revealed to Andrews that he nearly practiced with a rugby team this past summer and intends to make it a reality soon.

Victor Wembanyama reveals the difficulty of his offseason training

Despite the “incredible scenery” of the millennium-old temple nestled in a forest at the foot of a mountain, Wemby was initially skeptical of the monks’ skills. That was until he saw their skills on display.

“They go to show us a demonstration, a show of what they do of kung fu. 30 seconds in, we were convinced. All the doubts we might have had before, long gone. I get extremely jealous and I’m like this, I want to be able to do it.”

That didn’t come easy. While the Internet laughed about Wemby towering over the monks, adapting their movements to his massive wingspan initially caused trouble but were beneficial. “Some things I did over there overloaded certain muscles in my body that were not used to this kind of efforts and I think it made it stronger. I think it made it more resilient.”

Across those 10 days, Wemby was throwing a hundred kicks a day he claims. “I’ve never thrown any kick in my life before and all of a sudden I’m throwing hundreds a day. So it has an impact on the body and there were some days where I was extremely sore but I think it was beneficial.”

Despite the pain, he believes it gave him the functional foundation to lead the Spurs into the playoffs against all odds.