Originally Posted by
bodhi warrior
Back in the day the 3 brownbelt shaolin bird katas were called "original" shaolin bird katas. My instructor told me that they were created by GMS to add some material to the brown belt level. My question is why would he need to create 3 new forms instead of using one of the 900 he already knows?
Something you have to keep in mind with the whole 900 forms claim, is that they include the more recent forms that GMS has made in order to instruct newer students here in the States. GM Su Kong never had these bird forms in his cirriculum, but then again the methodology of teaching new students back then was way different. Back in the day, a new student's class would focus mostly on stance training circuit drills with kicks, punches and blocks and strength training, and for the first few years of training you would only have a couple of forms under your belt. This type of training isn't very profitable here in the United States, however, and in order to keep students training, GMS would have to make accomedations to satifsy our American desire for instant gratification, and make up and teach out these very short and simplistic forms to keep our intrest.
I won't say Fei Hu Chu Tung, is a useless form, but it's way too short to be a proper Shaolin form from the late 19th century - early 20th century. But it's still a mountain tiger form, where simplistic elements were mixed and matched and created to make a simple form that would intrigue us and keep us motivated, while still imbibing the spirit of the mountain tiger style.
I remember Master Schaefer telling me this a few years back when I earned my 1st degree Black Belt, that GMS doesn't even consider you one of his students until you get your 1st degree BB. Not because he's trying to be snotty, but simply because the forms, styles and techniques get more complex, harder and deadlier once you learn all the basics, which encompass your entire training regime from white belt to 1st degree brown. So think of all those colored belt levels you've trained for and see them for what they are: basic training.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
- Aristotle
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
- Arthur C. Clarke