hello all. hi gene.
well let me start by giving my idea on the whole wushu vs. traditional forms from the monks of today. i am now training in texas with shi xing hao. he is about 27 years old and was at shaolin temple about 14 years. now before shi xinghao went to shaolin he had already practiced kungfu from about age 6....he became very proficient at contemporary wushu(they refer to as long fist). later at the age 14(i believe) he went to shaolin temple....his first year there he hated it. he was use to long fist, so his stances were open and his chest out...he refers to this as very beautiful and open. but the training he was recieving at shaolin had tighter stances and a concept of every part of the body coils up and then explodes then back to coiled up(this is hard to explain in words). my point in short is that there is big difference in contemp. wushu and traditional shaolin. Shi xing hao almost decided to leave shaolin, because it was so different from what he already new(contemporary long fist)and he found it very hard to adapt to in the beginning.
i have learned so much in such a short time here in houston. i was in shaolin temple for a month in '96 and i learned shao hong chuan, a staff form, and a sword form. the only form i kept was shao hong chuan but i can't say it was even close to being good. i thought i knew the form,but after a short time here shi xing hao fixed my form and basically changed the whole thing. well the form looks the same but how i do the moves is completely different and i am actually starting to be enlightened on the concept of developing the power and understanding the moves. so, my 2 cents is that yes there is wushu at shaolin, and yes there is true traditional shaolin at shaolin today. if anyone is gonna be in dallas at the jimmy wong tournament i would be happy to discuss this and give my take on my interpretation of what i've learned. i am not saying i know the true right way to do shaolin, i just wanna see and discuss what the diffence is from my view and anyone elses.
respect to all,
dieter wagner