Is Shaolin-Do for real?

i have been looking for shaolin kung-fu in the cincinnati area for some time. i have found a place in the area that teaches "shaolin-do". I saw a few pictures of them, and they seem to wear karate uniforms and have belts instead of sashes. i do not know if this means anything, but it does not appear to be traditional. any input on this would help greatly. thanks!

Don't waste your time or your money.
Do a search on KFO search engine for Shaolin Do or Sin The, you'll find out all you need to know.

"Gong Sao Mo Gong Ching Sao"
- When you talk with the hands,
best not to speak of polite hands.

Simply put it should not be SHAOLIN DO it should be SHAOLIN DOnt

To frosh2786:

You will find disagreements about the various Shaolin-do schools. Here's my view:

I've studied Tae Kwon Do in the past (earned a black belt), and loved it.

Now I'm studying T'ai Chi and Shaolin kung-fu from a master who is ranked in that system, and I've been very satisfied with the training. (He's an awesome martial artist and a fine person as well.)

It's too bad I can't help you in your search in Cincinnati. Every person is different, and not all instructors may be as good as mine.

Ultimately we can only learn from our own experiences. I wish you good ones!

I suggest you visit a variety of the schools in your area and witness the classes themselves. My own eclectic approach to martial arts has been rewarding for me. Other styles whether Korean or Japanese can find Shaolin roots in their history.
Many of the foundation techniques: kicks, punches, blocks, etc. have minor variations but remain quite similar. No matter what you study, you might consider a system that reinforces your own natural strengths, body type, and personal tastes.

Good luck and happy training.

s

I have actually heard somewhere that there is a group of martial artists in Japan that have tried to keep the essence of Shaolin alive in their style. They practice some Shaolin style (I think it is Northern) but have added a Japanese flavour to it.

Dunno if these are the same people or not.

Firstly, I am NOT a Shaolin-do practioner.

Secondly, in Japan, Shorinji Kempo is a style of fighting (mostly for sport) that is alleged to be a Japanese interpretation of Shaolin boxing that managed to make its way to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Thirdly, what uniform is worn is immaterial (get the pun? Im-material? HAHAHAHA) to the "traditionalism" of the training. In my school, we have recently adopted wearing Japanese style uniforms and belts, simply because they are cheaper and more practical that the Chinese style uniforms we have worn for 20 years.

Chinese uniforms, with the exception of the shuai chiao getups offered by some supply houses, are horribly inadequate for repeated grappling training - they are too thin and not designed for that kind of abuse. The sleeves are binding and restrictive to some folks with larger builds; the frog buttons are nearly impossible to replace when they get ripped off; and sashes are notoriously difficult to keep tied during rough training.

We have always made our own sashes out of stretchy material to help keep them tied and tight, but you can't beat the utilitarian toughness and durability of a Japanese obi. A judogi was specifically designed for grappling, and once you get used to the different design and fit, they are much more comfy than the Chinese uniforms.

In short, what uniforms are worn by a group (Fu Jow Pai in New York, to my limited knowledge, has worn karate style uniforms for years, and nobody says they are wrong for it...) are not as important as what is taught by it - and in the case of Shaolin-do, its alleged 500+ forms and other improbable claims are enough to make a person look elsewhere for quality instruction.

Just my humble 2 yen...

Matt Stone

Here are some videos of shaolin-do forms:
shaolin-do vids This guy is supposed to be a 6th or 7th degree blackbelt.

A question that i have is- If they are supposed to be authentic shaolin and Sin The learned everything from his master, how in the hell did pure communist forms make it into the "authentic" system?

I began training at a shaolin-do school three years ago. My story.

To begin, my sifu is an amzingly talented martial artist and teacher. And his teacher, Masters David and Sharon Soard, are even better. The seminars I have attended by them, for Buddha Fist, 7 star Paying Mantis, and 2 Roads of Shaolin Double Daggers were excellent, and the level of skill demonstrated was what I would expect of a Master.
My sifu trains very traditionally, with chi kung and internal forms in the morning, iron body training ect. Watching him you have no doubt of his skill.
My problem began when I met Grandmaster The'. While amazed at his physique for his age, and the fact that, the year before, he made a statement to the fact that he was interested in learning spanish, and now arrived speaking fluent spanish to our spanish speaking students. I was a little amazed at his rambling, sometimes bizarre religious philosophies, and the fact that he talked so long the class ran over two hours longer than it should. I felt very strongly that something was not right. My subsequent meeting with him accelerated that. Comments on the web fed my doubts. A minor crisis ensued. At my brown belt test, I was about fed up. I had been practicing my full set of some 9 forms, chin na, weapons and tai chi, and Lohan Tan Tuy short forms twice a day, and sparring with a ranked kickboxer to sharpen my sparring skills for that part of the test. The day of the test ( and I understand people are nervous on ranking test days) people who perhaps studied less than I did were sticking spears into the ceiling, smacking each other with short sticks ect. Now these things happen on test days, when people suddenly realize they haven't fully prepared themselves, but they should learn thier lesson by failing the test. I was horrified when these people passed with me into Brown. It devalued all the work I had done. I felt sick.
I began studying Jeet Kun Do with an instructor with a direct lineage to Lee. The training has improved my skills incredibly, and has been an excellent complement to traditional training. But I had worked a great deal to get to Brown Belt, where you start to see more advanced forms and combat theory. So I went back.
So heres the short of it. Regardless of the Grandmasters shadiness, I have recieved an excellent elementary training in basic Kung Fu forms and theory that will help me immeasurably when I move to a larger city with a school with a more reputable lineage. I plan to study until I finish the Tiger Claw forms in the system, and then study them hard to form a basis for extended study at a school elsewhere, at a later date. With all my suspicions about The', I still respect and admire my teacher and his teachers. The's inflating his lineage and training in no way puts dishonor on his students, who have trained in good faith. So, if like me, you live in a city with no traditional school except a shaolin-Do school, it does no harm to study there, the basictraining is comparable to eclectic Kung Fu schools everywhere, and you will at least have an understanding of different Kung Fu styles and combat concepts that will help you immeasurably when you find another Kung Fu school.
With all respect to my Sifu,
Johan

If the "master" in those vids is representative of high level Shaolin-Do I would say stay very far away from any Shaolin-Do school if you want to learn Kungfu. It is absolutly not kungfu that he is doing. Just a really bad imitation.

with only 7 yr exp with yang tai chi chuan and shaolin i would no recomend thes master for these styles. his expertiese may be in other areas. :confused:

man the guy in that video is worse than me..

I have studied with a Sin the lineaged system of "kung fu", and even earned a black sash ranking within approxiately two to three months. Now keep in mind that I previously had - oh about 18 years experience in other gung fu systems and what not, so the only thing I had to learn was a different sequence of movements.

I thought that the training was very non-gung fu...it looked more like shotokan karate with a few gung fu movements thrown in. They even had japanese names for some of the drills!!! The only good thing that came out of it was that it wasnt "shaolin do" but rather a break away and thus, I had some real exposure to more actual gung fu through "seminars" by friends of the teachers, which were of real gung fu lineages such as tang lang and Pow chuan.

I have left them since then (even though that was the only "gung fu" in the area) and begun to simply study the gung fu systems that I already knew, but had not mastered. I figured that training in pre-learned things even though my original sifus werent around was better than learning crap that would end up hurting me in the long run with sifus that werent as good as me.

And that is being humble about it. One of the most important things in learning gung fu is respect for the master and faith in the system, without those two things, you will not progress to your desired levels.

Train hard and always question the "unquestionable"

those videos were embarrassing to think that he was a "kung fu brother"

Hi ya!!!!