shaolin does fight

i eat my words ,i am wrong they spar and spar pretty hard and start at a young age too.got to watch some today

Ok so they spar every Saturday, the rest of the time they do basics, gymnastics, forms, weapons forms. Applications seems they learn when they are learning a new form, they are told what they mean.

Because each school has a different curriculum. And within those schools, different classes have different emphasis. Some are strictly sparring, particularly at Tagou.

we weere staying outside the main gates and noticed all the schools were sparring saturday morning. we observed many classes throughout different times of the day for over a week. seemed pretty much the same from school to school,basics forms gymnastics.our teacher who lived within the walls of the main gates said,its not much different inside other than not eating meat and doing religion. but my teacher in shenzhen taught me lots of hard qi gong stuff that he learned in shaolin,so,must be some desciples learn special skills

Well it's good to be vindicated then

When I am there, inside the gates, I see the schools, particularly the Monks schools in Wang Zi Gou, practice San Da, including sparring every day. Also the monks from the Temple often do it in the training areas around the mountains. At 5:00 am you can hear them kicking pads, etc.

I dont know, I couldn’t get into that vibe of inside the shaolin gate, like tourist Mecca. To me I liked the vibe of the surrounding schools much better, even they eat meat and do little religion they feel more pure and untouched by all the greed and tourism. And I think you will learn pretty much the same thing.

Everything changes when the tourists aren't there. At least that has been my experience of it. Of course, it's almost a Schrodinger's cat problem, as anything you observed was from a tourist perspective. You have to spend a few months there before you aren't considered a tourist.

Read Shaolin Sanda by Chris Friedman