Although it gets some criticism for not being so called 'traditional' I personally like what many of the private 'Shaolin' schools, and other such private clubs in China, are doing. Once you get past the monk thing and all that, I think they have become pretty progressiveng while still retaining that certain Kung Fu CMA flavour. Many of these clubs will still employ a traditional syllabus of some sort and then have their people train extensively in other things such as Sanshou, Wrestling, Modern Wushu, acrobatics, etc... and I believe as result a superior athlete. And a better athlete is a better martial artist.
Some schools here in the West are now employing similar approaches and I think it is a good thing because that means they are producing a better martial artists as opposed to simply trying carry forward some sort of antiquated tradition.
I was at a CLF dinner function recently and several different clubs, that all originated from GM Wong Ha, performed. Each know were distinctly different in their approach but one in particular drew some criticism from some of the old guard for having what some felt was a 'wushu' flavour. And while it was true that club had many of it's CLF students cross training in wushu what they presented was purely CLF. I countered to a few of the critics that it wasn't so much the wushu tainting but just these martial artist were better athletes. Truth be known the majority of the other clubs looked liked their people had their feet stuck in mud and moved at about the pace of middle aged Tai Chi practitioner.
If it improves the martial artist then add it in!
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