Opinions please

[Arhat of Fury]

Hey people, can you please check out this school and give me your honest opinion. It kind of scares me that they call themselves traditional shaolin teachers and they wear karate gi's(sp) anyway. please advise, i am curious if anyone has gone to talk to them.


Thank you,

AOF

[IronFist]

It scares you? I think I scared it away because I can't even find it!

IronFist

[HuangKaiVun]

The shape of one's gi doesn't make one's kung fu.

The shape of the practitioner inside the gi makes kung fu.

Besides, there are many lineages that stake a claim to "traditional Shaolin". Most of those are not formally recognized by the modern day Shaolin temple to be "Shaolin kung fu".

I'm in the process of meeting all the local school owners in Phoenix, and I haven't gotten around to this one yet.

Where's the link?

[Arhat of Fury]

DUUHHHH!
My bad,
Heres the link
www.cscbay.org

Awaiting your responses,

Thanks

AOF

[KC Elbows]

It's Shaolin Do.

[MightyB]

It's the path of invincibility!!! How can it not be since it was founded by a Wookie?

Oh no, he's using the Chewbacca defense!

[Arhat of Fury]

KC, please elaborate. include any opinions

AOF

[Hai_To]

I don't know anything about Shaolin-Do, nor do I have an opinion. However I do know that it has been the subject of some intense arguments on KFO. Just do a search and you'll find a lot.

[Chang Style Novice]

No, it's true. As soon as you don a gi, you're not doing kungfu anymore.

Clothes make the man, after all!

Not to defend SD (although I really don't know much about them, so not to insult them either), but try to get a grip, you know? Gis are easy to find, inexpensive and often durable. Why the heck NOT use them?

[KC Elbows]

I've seen some form, down at a school in Lexington. The people seemed OK, the training...well, I've seen a lot better, and some of the advanced class was in that one. I haven't seen the sparring, so I won't judge their sparring ability.

In addition, the book by their GM, Sin The, is largely drivel, but that's just my opinion. There's a pic of a plaque at shaolin the book claims is in honor of him, but I find it more likely that it was purchased by/for him, again just my opinion. I've also spoken with a number of shaolin do guys who insist theirs is the only true shaolin, but I've spoken with others who are not so elitist, so it could be a school thing.

Basically, the martial arts I saw was okay, seen better, seen worse, and by my understanding, they do spar, so I'd imagine you can learn to defend yourself ok there.

That's as pc as I'm going. I've been to worse schools by a long shot, and I've been to better by a long shot, but I only saw that one school, and I never saw their sparring, so take that into account. For all I know, they're phenomenal fighters, and form just wasn't that school's forte.

[KC Elbows]

Chang Style Novice is just sensitive because he does his kung fu in a leotard.

[Leonidas]

He means avoid it like the plague. Shaolin Do isn't kung fu.

[Chang Style Novice]

Leotards are for wimps!

I practice taiji in the park in a thong and tasselled pasties, plus spike heels, Freddy Kruger gloves and football helmet festooned with a goat's skull and heart-shaped deelyboppers.

I wish I could figure out why the cops keep harassing me.

[KC Elbows]

"I wish I could figure out why the cops keep harassing me."

If by "the cops" you mean a cop, an american indian, a construction worker, and some other guys, I think the answer is clear.:D

[norther practitioner]

Err, lineage from The`.......
Well, I've seen some of there stuff, never been too impressed with a lot of it. If you want "real" Shaolin, I would recommend somewhere else. I am not a SD hater necessarily, however, I've had discussions with some of their students, it seems some can be very arogant about all things kung fu. I'll not discus my lineage, however it had been questioned by one of their students I talked to, didn't make me happy, my friend actually made the wookie comment, then that was pretty much the end of the conversation. The Shao-Lin centers tend to annoy me, however, I don't know the full story of it, but I do know a bunch. There have been several threads about this in the past. As far as my "real" Shaolin comment, I'd just have to say I'm speaking of Northern Shaolin, Bak Sil lum, or the southern animals, etc..... A friend of mine often refers people to a southern school instead of the shao lin center for that type of style if they don't like our long fist.
I agree about the book KC
You can make a "contribution" to get one of those stones.

[Leto]

I thought you were talking about the chinese shaolin center. I know lots of people on here deride them for being frauds. I don't think it is that bad. The system has a little taste of many styles, including internal styles. It isn't 'the one true shaolin', as some people claim. But it's not 'fraudulent', either. One of the most affordable schools around, at least in colorado, with lots to offer. The Soards, who are the senior masters over several schools in the west, do things a bit differently than in the east (where it is called 'shaolin do') It might be a place to start, if there is nothing else to your taste around, and you want to get an introduction to the feel of several chinese styles. Later on, you might decide that you want to explore one of them more in-depth, and seek out someone who teaches that style exclusively. (like praying mantis, white crane, black tiger, tai chi chuan, pa ku chang, hsing i chuan, etc) But anyway, depends on what else is available to you.

[Souljah]

man , i wish you had that kind of professionalism in the UK.

Were about 15- 20 years behind when it comes to MA (especially KF). Alot of MA in the UK consist of back alley clubs and overly expensive imitations (not ALL though, for any UKers that wanna nit-pick)

As far as giving an opinion, I cant say much..... it 'looks' quite decent, but I dont know about the authenticity and quality of the teaching, have you sampled it?
Surely you can go along and see for yourself in a sort of 'taster' lesson, if not just watch.....

The curriculum looks quite interesting, but then, again, actions speak louder than words and you cant tell whether they do all they claim without seeing it..... JUST GO TRY IT ..... hehe