Originally Posted by
SHemmati
not quite related to your questions, but since i mentioned the word "MISUNDERSTANDS", let clear it a bit with some examples. each one of these requires an all-new thread of its own:
- misnomers:
"Stance Training" is the most notable instance of misnomer. there was some exercises people called stance training. later they deepened their misunderstanding and nowadays we see people holding still in Ding bu, and Xu bu, and others like a fool, feeling happy their doing traditional wisdom, but it's actually a misunderstanding.
- different things with similar names:
in Shaolin there's pao quan, tong bi quan, chang quan, etc., mizong quan as well. people think that this pao quan or tong bi quan is the same as the non-Shaolin pao quan and tong bi quan, etc., while these have NOTHING in common. they're just different things with the same or similar names.
- mixing modern concepts with Shaolin:
for example, some people say: in Ma bu your feet should be parallel with toes pointing forward. this is wrong. this is what people in southern China do. we in never do it that terrible way in Shaolin; in Shaolin we naturally lay our feet outwards pointing to sides.
or people say: in Ma bu your thighs should be parallel to the ground, the feet should be apart 2 shoulder widths. this is also not true in Shaolin. this STANDARDIZATION comes from modern Wushu, in Shaolin stances could be quite higher or lower, wider or narrower; there's no standard.
not only newbies, but famous instructors are also infected with misunderstandings. for example, consider a famous name like Shi Deyang. he teaches all the above misunderstandings in his videos!!! everything about mizong quan he says in his videos are plain misunderstandings.