Originally Posted by
peace&love
I found that SD had a super heavy concentration on forms and even upper level sashes did not do well during sparring. Their sparring style seemed very TKD to me with a lot of side kicks and roundhouses.
I left SD almost 4 years ago, and looking back, I also noticed the focus on forms, but considering the amount being taught that's to be expected. I will say that 900 (or however many), is too many, at least for me. I still practice about 10 of the thirty some odd forms I was taught, and only those that are particularly appealing to me and practical. A lot of the forms are uber simple and not really worth learning because the lessons hidden are also in other forms taught later. I would often get frustrated doing a form over and over again at the kwoon and just think to myself "Hell I could be drilling these forms at home, why did I come here?" The sparring is a lot like TKD, and I think the easiest way to remedy that is if SD adopted San Shou. Teach the students some chinese boxing which will help them link the theory of the form with the practical application of sparring. As it is, 4 or 5 different techniques defined in forms translate to the one same thing on the matt: sidekick.
Also, there is the lineage issue that comes up repeatedly. This was not a huge issue for me. Over time, and especially with the cultural revolution, accurate Chinese history in regards to the martial arts is a lot of legend even with historic figures like Wong Fei Hung. There is a lot of hearsay out there on a number of lineages. I have found that many SD practitioners take the lineage as absolute truth. Most of these folks, including one of the teachers I had, fell into this category. I have noticed that all the ones I have been aware of had direct contact with Sin The at some point in their training so he must be a very charasmatic individual I assume. On the other hand, there seems to be an equal number of SD practitioners who think that it is total bunk or only has a grain of truth and are okay with that. They seem to keep a low profile though.
I never really was all that concerned about the lineage, I treated SD the same way I treated Texas State: a place to learn. It's history is irrelevant to me.
Overall, the positives of my SD training was the internal arts and the I Chings as well as the conditioning. Also, the weapons forms were rewarding and challeging. On the negative side, I found the open had forms were not that challenging and the sparring skills of most SD practitioners I saw and sparred against to be lacking.
SD definetly gave me an appreciation for the internal arts and Chi Kung, I still practice all the Tai Chi and Pakua that I learned before I moved, and I get a lot of fulfillment and satisfaction from keeping them fresh.
The kwoons I attended in North Austin and in San Marcos, TX were very professional, and the instructors were top notch that really gave a d@mn about the development of their students as well as the preservation of their art. There are elements that I have issues with, but no kwoon is perfect and you have to be able to adapt yourself, in order to learn. Personally, I always hated putting on the gi, and the drills were too karate like. Overall, I enjoyed my time with SD, but yeah you gotta take certain things with a grain of salt like most kwoons here in the U.S. Just my opinion.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
- Aristotle
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
- Arthur C. Clarke