i fail to see how shaolin is hard
bjj hard
valetudo hard
mma hard
MT hard
kyokushin hard
san da hard
chen taiji (hard to an extent)
now unless shaolin starts to look like any of the above in sparring or training methods at least
i'm afraid in my eyes most of it will remain for show and in that sense only is it external
external ceases to mean the same as hard these days
and most internal will remain for health unless they buck up their ideas aswell
it seems more and more that our "martial" arts are becoming just arts
i know that alot of you on this board can in fact fight with some proficiency with their kung fu
but u are the exception to the rule
anybody can fight but it takes a true martial artist to fight well
man am i gonna get flamed for this