What does traditional kung fu training mean to you? I ask this because it seems that so many people have different ideas of what traditional kung fu training is. You hear people that talk of the oldschool stance training for a yr and the strict sifu that didn't teach you anything until you proved yourself worthy.
But is that traditional training?
I can relate to the basics and the stance training because my sifu does it, but to wait until you prove yourself worthy? I thought oldschool kung fu was all about fighting prowess? That's all my sifu cares about, how well you can defend yourself with your kung fu. If anyone was to attend one of our training classes it would look a lot like a MMA class than it does a TCMA class. That's because it about fighting we don't have any of the lion dance or other cultural trappings.
Kung fu training of today is too drawn out and watered down. It is no wonder most CMA stylist don't learn to fight with their art these days. With al the different things going on within a class. You have lion dance, weapons training, forms practice, two man drills, sparring (not All schools) warm up's, cool downs etc.... With all these things going on, when do you really have time to work on actual fighting in a 1-2 hr class a few days a week?
It is this that leads me to believe that most CMA schools that claim to teach traditional oldschool kung fu are actually a myth. With everything they teach these days how could they have time for real fight training?
jeff