@kristcaldwell
Training under Wing Lam was an honor and a privilege. I wouldn't be where I am today without his tutelage and I'm embarrassed that I could only maintain a small fraction of his teachings. However, as you say, this is rather OT here. Perhaps we can take up this discussion on some WL thread in the Shaolin forum.

Back OT, I've always been a huge advocate of cross-training, however that should begin on the intermediate level, not the beginning level. I know a lot of students that never got anywhere because they never spent enough time under one system to get a good foundation. On the flip side, I've known plenty of students who started in the wrong style - and by that I mean a style that didn't fit their character - and they didn't progress as martial artists until they moved on to something else.

With TCMA, there's another issue and that's one of Confucian loyalty. To some degree, that's antiquated, especially with beginners here in the West. However, on a deeper level, it's all about loyalty. If you aren't grateful to your teachers, you don't really understand the tradition.