Ok, well I just sat in to watch :P I haven't signed up yet, but I wanted some opinions on what went on.
I went to Cheng's Shaolin Kung Fu in Buena Park, CA. The students arrived pretty promptly and class began with some exercising in the form of different kicks, 25 per left and right, about 4 or 5 sets.
The studio is kinda small, and when they got into forms, lots of times they had to stop, move back as a group, then continue the form, cause the real estate just wasn't happening.
They practiced forms for about 30-40 minutes, then some people practiced weapon forms... fan (is this a weapon?), sword, and one chick did dual swords. That was interesting but I could tell that the size of the studio was a problem, one dude wacked the wall with a sword by accident
They then went to sparring and by the end of class everyone had gotten alot of participation in.
Then I got to talk to a guy named Jim, one of the instructors. He'd been at that school for about 15 years he said, and the Sifu had been there for about 20-25 years. He told me if I started up, I would start up in that class, and as they were doing with a few other students in the back of the class they would take time to teach me the basics and forms one on one. Then when I was ready I would join the class in doing forms practice. Once I'd gotten some experience in that, I could participate in the sparring.
Jim described forms as sort of a vehicle for learning everything there is about Kung Fu, as you learn forms and participate in sparring, you begin to implement the things you've learned into technique against your opponent. As you learn more techniques your ability to spar and defend yourself grows. This of course takes time.
They do rank there by colored belts or sashes, which I thought was only reserved for karate. Students start at white belt, and continue on until blackbelt. I asked how long some of the students had been there. The ones that had 5+ years were all blackbelts, though one student kind of stood out. He frequently broke from forms practice to study other students, as though he'd made a mistake and was trying to re-learn the form. So it made me wonder, just what does a blackbelt mean? Maybe its a misconception as I'm no expert but I thought it was indicative of a great degree of skill.. shouldn't one with a blackbelt have no problems, executing forms at all? I don't mean to dog the guy or anything but I am just concerned cause I have heard alot about the McDojo theory and how schools will hand out belts that are not yet earned, and I wanna make sure I understand what rank means what before diving into a place that is doling out rewards not yet accomplished.
Anyway, I asked him about competitions, he said that they went to one, and were not invited back. I guess their style was a bit to aggressive for the other combatants. Jim told me Sifu says no face and no groin in sparring, but that's about it.
Anyway, anyone got any comments? Anything stand out as odd? I'd appreciate any input, thanks