Is Shaolin-Do for real?

[bodhi warrior]

I don't like the sounds of this here. it sounds like, "so what, we borrowed things from other styles, we stole others material, we say we're kung fu, and we wear karate uniforms. the public will never know the truth, so forget what they think. all that matters is what we think."

hommage to a lifestyle and way of thinking? you are glorifying the thievery at the hands of Sin The.



to be honest, it truly disgusts me to the highest level of disgustivity.

Why does it look like someone photoshopped " shaolin karate kung fu certificate" on the certificate?

[Judge Pen]

The' family kung tao.

[Judge Pen]

This guy lives close to me. What do you guys think of this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcgp6G7fALc

[Judge Pen]

I was taught the "mud stepping technique" but I was taught that my foot would need to come up to tha calf right below the knee on everystep. From a visualzation perspective, such as trying to learn how to step from reading a description in a text, this type of step makes sense: "How would I step if I were stuck in mud?" But this is different than the mud stepping that I've seen from schools that focus on BaGua. I've seen videos of Sin The and Bill Leonard doing BaGua and while the height of the step varies slightly, there is still a distinct up and down character that is different than the non-SD people I've seen do JQR's version of BaGua. It was after alot of the criticisms came up that I started hearing about "chicken steps" or lion steps." I need to go back and review my notes, but are these "stepping techinques in SD's BaGua" part of SD's notes or is it a justification added later?

[bodhi warrior]

The' family kung tao.

I'd go with that.

[bodhi warrior]

The' family kung tao.

This guy lives close to me. What do you guys think of this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcgp6G7fALc

I've been thinking about hitting one of his seminars.

[bodhi warrior]

I was taught the "mud stepping technique" but I was taught that my foot would need to come up to tha calf right below the knee on everystep. From a visualzation perspective, such as trying to learn how to step from reading a description in a text, this type of step makes sense: "How would I step if I were stuck in mud?" But this is different than the mud stepping that I've seen from schools that focus on BaGua. I've seen videos of Sin The and Bill Leonard doing BaGua and while the height of the step varies slightly, there is still a distinct up and down character that is different than the non-SD people I've seen do JQR's version of BaGua. It was after alot of the criticisms came up that I started hearing about "chicken steps" or lion steps." I need to go back and review my notes, but are these "stepping techinques in SD's BaGua" part of SD's notes or is it a justification added later?

The other stepping methods I mentioned come from Jerry Allen Johnson's book. Also the pa kua journal.

[Empty_Cup]

I was taught the "mud stepping technique" but I was taught that my foot would need to come up to tha calf right below the knee on everystep. From a visualzation perspective, such as trying to learn how to step from reading a description in a text, this type of step makes sense: "How would I step if I were stuck in mud?" But this is different than the mud stepping that I've seen from schools that focus on BaGua. I've seen videos of Sin The and Bill Leonard doing BaGua and while the height of the step varies slightly, there is still a distinct up and down character that is different than the non-SD people I've seen do JQR's version of BaGua. It was after alot of the criticisms came up that I started hearing about "chicken steps" or lion steps." I need to go back and review my notes, but are these "stepping techinques in SD's BaGua" part of SD's notes or is it a justification added later?

I always interpreted the "mud-stepping" to simply mean step with good balance - as though at any moment your other foot could become unbalanced and you need a firm root. Think of trying to step through mud and if you try to go too fast without first establishing rooting of the lead foot, you will fall over.

What I think realistically happened is that at some point GMS exaggerated the movements to emphasize one point or other and this got carved in stone as THE way to step from EML. That's only my speculation.

What I can say from personal experience is that at our school we do not focus so much on stepping high up and down. What I try to focus on personally is 1) stepping as though at any moment I could encounter resistance and need to maintain balance and 2) landing with a "hollow" foot - meaning my ball and heel land simultaneously.

[Shaolin Wookie]

This guy lives close to me. What do you guys think of this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcgp6G7fALc

It's not particularly good. He might just be ****ty at demos (and still be a good MA). But then, MA's who do way more talking that man-to-man demonstration **** me off when it's time for a seminar.

MA is not something to be done in lecture format, IMO. And the guy punching him doesn't look like he could hit a brick wall if it was standing in front of him. Red flag, as far as your money goes.

Again, he might be an excellent MA, though.

[Shaolin Wookie]

What I think realistically happened is that at some point GMS exaggerated the movements to emphasize one point or other and this got carved in stone as THE way to step from EML. That's only my speculation..

Seems to happen quite a bit---and I think that in the larger picture it's tied to the learning format with greater student participation in teaching the basics. Student-teaching isn't a bad thing, as long as people are open-minded.

But then there's the closed-minded ones. The ones who learn a formula and swear by what someone else says, rather than testing it and tweaking the formula until it becomes fight-ready. (Graduate schools are guilty of the same weaknesses). I've been guilty of this every once-in-awhile, but I try to overcome it.

I've seen student-teachers teach chin-na escapes who cannot even lock a person in the proper chin-na attack for which the defense is engineered. LOL. And there are some people who pretend to teach defenses against a punch who cannot punch worth a **** (internal arts most guilty here--and not just SD). It's easy to block a punch when the guy punching doesn't know what he's doing. He'll leave his arm out there hanging, and he'll punch off target because he has no control.

About two weeks ago a very talented local master (non-SD) asked me to throw a punch at him during a class he was teaching (also non-SD) when I was prepping to close up the school for him after his seminar-class thingy that I wasn't a part of. He was trying to show his class something, and he called me onto the floor, and then he said: "Show me how you stand." I was like, WTF? Nobody strikes a stance--you play off your opponent. So I just shrugged, slightly crouched (jade ring-ish), and put up my dukes like I would if I were on the attack. And then I stood there. He then stepped forward and pushed my back hand forward, tapping my cheek. He kind of laughed and then stepped back, like "stop hitting yourself." And I thought---and if I threw my right hand the way I would if I was on the attack, do you think I'd give a **** if you tapped my cheek with my back hand. Or, if I decide to throw that back hand before you tap it, you're ****ed. He'd have left himself wide open for a killer punch. I was being polite, and I just quitely walked off the floor, but it's easy to play with a stationary target. That's the kind of BS that passes for wisdom sometimes, and it's easy for someone to then say: you should never stand like that.

LOL. No ****. You shouldn't just "stand" anywhere during a fight.

Sometimes I'll try to fix a student's basics and they'll say---that's not how I was taught it. I always reply the same: "Then tell me why it isn't working when I don't let you do it."

[Snipsky]

I always interpreted the "mud-stepping" to simply mean step with good balance - as though at any moment your other foot could become unbalanced and you need a firm root. Think of trying to step through mud and if you try to go too fast without first establishing rooting of the lead foot, you will fall over.

What I think realistically happened is that at some point GMS exaggerated the movements to emphasize one point or other and this got carved in stone as THE way to step from EML. That's only my speculation.

What I can say from personal experience is that at our school we do not focus so much on stepping high up and down. What I try to focus on personally is 1) stepping as though at any moment I could encounter resistance and need to maintain balance and 2) landing with a "hollow" foot - meaning my ball and heel land simultaneously.
Reply With Quote

that is where the problems lay. more interpretation than real training. signs of not really learning something correctly, most likely learned from books or video. i can see that clearly.

[Empty_Cup]

that is where the problems lay. more interpretation than real training. signs of not really learning something correctly, most likely learned from books or video. i can see that clearly.

Based on your posts, Snipsky, you see very little clearly. If you think I came to my interpretation of the form/stepping without guidance from my sifu then you're mistaken.

Try to understand what people are talking about before you snip a response. Or maybe you learned that skill from hsk...

[Shaolin Wookie]

that is where the problems lay. more interpretation than real training. signs of not really learning something correctly, most likely learned from books or video. i can see that clearly.

Footwork for pakua is tied to application. You can generally tell when you've done it right and wrong. I generally do it wrong. I've seen it done right.

[Snipsky]

Based on your posts, Snipsky, you see very little clearly. If you think I came to my interpretation of the form/stepping without guidance from my sifu then you're mistaken.

Try to understand what people are talking about before you snip a response. Or maybe you learned that skill from hsk...

its clear you don't know real kung fu unless you saw it in a book.

[RJ797]

I originally saw JRQ Ba Gua at a SD school. The stepping was not up and down. The foot lifted only a couple of inches off the ground. The explanation from the 64 Rules was the one about “Rise the Foot Rub the Muscle” if I remember correctly.

The important explanation for why to avoid lifting your foot way up was; each inch you pick the foot up requires an inch of travel back down. If the transfer of energy was about putting force into the ground then lifting the foot up several inches might make sense. However, the transfer of energy is about propelling your body through space to travel from one point on earth to another.

In other words if the foot goes up 12 inches then forward 24 inches then down 12 inches you have 48 inches of foot travel (it’s probably closer to 36 inches of travel because the directional changes are not 90 degree angles) If the foot goes up 2 out 24 and down 2 it’s only 28 inches of travel. (probably actually 26 inches) The extra 10 inches of movement do nothing except slow you down.