I commend Mr. Ross on what he is doing with teaching fighting and Sanda. I want to know why aren't more doing this, and why isn't Mr. Ross taking some of his top fighters and now teaching them the forms, so they have a better understanding of the forms and techniques?
I could very well be wrong, and Mr. Ross might already be doing this...
I really feel most schools don't do this because the skills and techniques have already been lost. If you learn from someone that has never fought and they learned from someone who never fought...How could they teach you to fight?
Who knows, maybe my sifu has it all wrong and is breaking the trend... He always teaches to evolve and keep testing the art and make changes where needed. According to him this is traditional and the exact way his sifu taught him. In creating Hak Fu Mun So Hak Fu took the knowledge of 17 different styles of kung fu and created the 5 original forms. Later At his school in Canton he taught well over 50 forms. When Grandmaster Wong Cheung died in 1989 Hak Fu Mun had over 100 forms.
I think when the fighting stopped and people tried to keep things secret they misunderstood what keeping secret meant. It didn't mean to not test or share.... since most styles where created from the blending of different styles and meeting of masters.
Again, I could be completely wrong too....
jeff