Iron Arahat

Honestly to be expected in sports where money is the bottom line. These guys are looking for an edge, I would be quite surprised if there was many more using steroids. Now that the UFC has taken steps to become more widely accepted I will bet thaqt there will be more stories such as this as they clean things up.

Traditionally,we (shaolin) do not have belt levels or coloured sashes. We may use a different coloured sashes ocasionally used for different uniforms(occasions). There is that saying "Rank follows the man" -not "Man runs after rank"

If your instructor is passionate about the sport he will continue to teach. It was my students that kept me going, I had very few competitive fighters at one time, but there progression kept me going, and there success and joy for the class attracted others to come. Train hard and share your passion with your friends.

Relationships in the school, typically make things complicated. If the two dating split makes it awkward for them, and other studets, depending on how mature they are about the situation. If he has invited you for a drink, just make sure you go out as a group with others, and make it less like a "date". If he cannot handle "your preference" then is he really a friend.

I have trained in Shaolin for many years, as well as instructed for some time. I agree with the you should be weary of schools refering to there schools as "dojos" or refering to anything in Japanese terms. Also Shaolin traditionally is a non-belted system. Meaning no belts or sashes for "ranking".

Link works fine...sounds like you have some spyware issues on you computer...

try http://www.tspk.com/english/video_main.htm site should work...

Some interesting information on monkey kung fu in the USA: http://www.TSPK.com/english/fake_monkey_kungfu.htm Also some good information: http://www.TSPK.com Small boy with staff demonstrating Monkey style in photos: http://www.shaolinwushu.ca/calgary.html

I haven't read the article, but this is really nothing new for schools that participate in San Shou tournaments, fights, etc... San Shou fighters are usually specialists within a style, as that is there focus the competition. Just like there are breakers, people who specialize in specific styles or forms within a system.' In my exerience as a retired fighter and trainer is that San Shou is varied, just because you get people from different styles participating. There are very few schools that are just San Shou, with a few exceptions. Most offer training as a seperate activity from classes.

Nothing can take place of the experinces, and hands on of an instructor.

Tests by Shi Di Quan, have a great deal of information on these subjects.

Yes it is Mandarin, The Lohan was originally a bandit type character who roamed the countryside making his living by device and sheer cunning. He encompassed many bad traits. Foul play was the Lohan's specialty making him a professionaly thug. In legend a notorious Lohan was befriended by a Chinese Buddhist monk, and given food and shelter. Impressed with the hospitality and generosity of the monk, the Lohan (arahat) reformed his bad ways. He vowed to study acedemics and religion, and as a show of thanks in turn protected the temple. Lohan style's purpose was to provide monks with exercises to strengthen both mind and body, and arm them with a formidable system of defense. This life change, or complete personal reform, that is why there is such religious focus on the term Lohan, Arahat, Arahant. For someone who appears to have some knowledge on the subject, why would one not just share his experince/knowledge, rather than just pose such a question.

Depends if you are looking for the Buddhist meaning of an enlightened person who has reached nirvana, or refering to traditional warriors whom guarded the temple. But with the use of Arahant I assume you are refering to enlightenment, rather than using the term Lohan.

San Shou dates back centuries, but modern style San Shou is only a recent development 1960's not incorporated with Modern Wushu until 1991. As for being catered to Cung Le, not really, he only placed 3rd at the world championships, an has only fought a handful of IKF sanctioned belts, before hosting his own events. Maybe one of the US's better San Shou fighters, but some who is more focused I think on a movie career. Cung has fought K-1 events, and is more than willing to fight Thai Rules, which means no throws for a San Shou fighter.

lol...I still train and always will, but fight again likely no.

Just curious who these monks were "The OSC was brought to the United States and (briefly) Canada beginning in 1902, as the most senior echelon of Shaolin monks fled the chaos and destruction of the Boxer Rebellion, the end of the Chinese Empire, the Warlord Period, and the purges of communism."

One could write a book on how to prepare for a fight, especially something like Sanshou. Success though comes through good conditioning, and a strong basic foundation to be built upon. San Shou is essentially rules for fighting (sport). Every school has there own "style" within Sanshou.

This is problems with many Chinese arts, is that people take small pieces and open a school. Depending on the school, it is possible that they did a seminar, and brought back their "groundwork," and really how much can you retain and learn in a day, without the proper ongoing instruction? It shouldn't be a number of years before being introduced; however, it does come down to a quality issue that many martial arts have, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, and even MMA. To see this look within the MMA community, are there schools that "teach everything," but don't, or have a poor standard in aspects. It is all relative. This is my only point here, is that we can't lump everyone into a pigeon hole. I look at many Chinese styles, or even schools that claim to teach "Shaolin", and shake my head. To train multiple styles is fine, but it will still take time and experience to combine seperate arts, and fill in the gaps between. Some people do this well, others it may not be the case.

You are hard pressed to find such images on the net. I have yet to see a picture of Kou Ch'uan on the net, let alone several "styles". You have to remember that many "styles" is a small section of a larger discipline, and the problem in many cases is that they take a small section and make it a complete "system". In these cases you are going to have a lack of well rounded skils. Kou Ch'uan is a small part of Shaoiln, a piece of the system, but again unless you dedicate the time you are not likely to be that well rounded.

I assume that you are a master in the Qin Na section to make such a claim. Again misconceptions...

To say that it is not a misconception that Chinese arts do not address groundwork is quite frankly that. Qin Na is part of many Chinese Schools teaching, but if you tell me that isn't true I guess I'm wrong. "Weapons are not a seperate range", this is likely a philosophy difference, but they are in our system. There are also ranges within types of weaponry, there is a big difference between a knife and a staff. "If landing a fist to a face is difficult, what makes you think a finger to a eye will be easier?" Quite simple, experience, techniques work.

True positioning matters. MMA may cover all ranges, but in what detail? Obviously this depends on the instructor, and to a degree his preferences. Believeing that traditional schools do not cover all aspects and ranges, is a misconception in many cases. Many traditional schools will also cover weaponry ranges, in addition to fighting. "Dirty Tricks" as you call them work, are almost always a surprise, and the only reason one may refer to them as such is because it's against the rules in their "sport". They can change an outcome of a fight, and the midset of an opponent quickly.

See that is interesting, so in extent he was a MMA at the time of UFC. Trained by Royce in BJJ. UFC labeled him a "kung fu" expert. Again let a fighter use anything at his disposal, results would be very different.

Delucia won his first and second fights in the UFC, then lost to Royce. That was his stint in the UFC. I have no respect in that he is an example of what makes money in martial arts, like his line of Combat Akido videos. Jack of all video trades. I'm interested in what errors of thinking you are refering to.

I don't give credit to those who wear a kung-fu flag like Jason DeLucia, and turn around and claim to be "Hybrid Wrestling instructor." A ship jumper either way. My original statement was, "I am positive that a kung fu stylist trained for such an event they would do well, using the tools that they have." To be quite honest most people don't know the true depth of a of some Chinese martial arts... Not sure what you mean here, but yes Chinese schools compete in San Shou. To reiterate, the truth of the matter is UFC also has confines and rules that effect the outcomes. Some promotions ban kicks to downed opponents, elbow strikes from certain angles, strikes to the back of the head, eyegouging, fish hooks, finger breaking, and small joint manipulation. Also they have rounds and refees, and so on. Plain and simple a sport. Yes to a point some of these skills may transfer over, but so does boxing skills for a boxer. The truth is though there are rules and confines, and safety with a referee. Truth is rules are confines, and these confines can change a fight if it were real. This becomes especially so in close-quarters, ie. grappling. Eye gouges, fish hooks, small joint manipulation, finger breaking, can all change the outlook of a fight. Next time you wrestle, look at how many of these things you could do, but don't (why cause we can't really hurt everyone we train with, as that would be bad in so many ways). Truth is it is easer sometime t do those things than get a choke or armlock or so on, but maybe because people are conditioned to the confines of rules they think that this is just 'ungentlemanly' or 'unsportmanlike' or just unfair.