How much fighting does a shaolin monk do?

[wiz cool c]

I asked my teacher this[he lived in the shaolin temple for 7 years] couldn’t get a very clear answer, but later he told me they do applications about once a month, and spar at testing’s ever 6 months, and play different types of fighting games amongst themselves in the evening. Anyone here have any other info on this topic?




For Bagwot ahead of time. "How do you kill that which has no life"

[GeneChing]

Most of the monks that teach laowai are forms specialists. The genuine ones have a solid grasp of applications, but they might not be big on free sparring. Shaolin troupes typically keep a few sanda guys too, as they used to get a lot of challenges and still do every once in a while. If I were to make a gross generalization, I'd say look to the taller monks for the fighters. A lot of the taller monks don't have as many forms. They generally don't have as many long weapons in their curriculum because they take up too much space when practicing in formation like they do at Shaolin. But the bottom line is that each monk is an individual with individual skills.

[wiz cool c]

as far as my teacher he lived in the temple about 15 years ago and teaches privately at his home these days . i am the only foreigner he has ever taught. he is not a specialist in forms but does know them and can teach them, his specialty is the hard qi gong stuff. as far as his application stuff goes, he seems to know them but to what extent i still cannot get a clear understanding. He doesn’t break down a whole form move by move like I have seen some instructional videos do, but teaches me kind of some basic principles of a form and how you can apply them to stand up hands by your face practical fighting way. Yet if I ask him an individual move from the form what does it mean he always seems to know,and explain them.


Thanks for the input Gene,clears things up a bit.

[LFJ]

The TCMA (lack of) pedagogical method is a great way for things to not get passed on properly and quickly disappear, if people aren't being trained on how to use what they practice and only get random insights on individual movement applications when they ask.

Most monks might have an answer for individual applications if you ask them, but they generally aren't trained in traditional fighting anyway. If you've been under one coach who teaches like this even after some years, you have been wasting your time. I would say forget about the monks (and "monks") and find a folk master who knows traditional Shaolin fighting and is willing to teach it. They exist. Otherwise, training time is better spent elsewhere, if even just at a boxing gym.

[wiz cool c]

I feel I have learned a lot of very valuable stuff from my teacher, some fighting other physical training and conditioning, but if I was doing it purely for fighting than yeah I think I would go elsewhere. Actually I have also been training in Thai boxing lately cause there is a great gym 5 minutes from my place. And getting most if not all of my contact training from there. I do notice some of the concepts I learned from my shaolin teacher do work well though in sparring.

[LFJ]

Yeah, as long as you have a place to do regular sparring with people. It's good that you face another style with it too. MT is one of the most common standup styles in MMA and very tough. Good style to test against.