Yo. I have a few comments to make: (full disclosure: I’m a current Shaolin-Do student in Austin, although I did previously train in TKD back in college).
I’m a big believer in judging a school with your own eyes, so take any stories that you hear with a grain of salt. Of course, if you hear someone saying they were ripped off or otherwise mistreated, that’s a different story.
I’m not sure exactly what “riff-raff” that Judge Pen was talking about, but I can tell you what you most likely will and will not find:
You WILL find:
a. Beginner level forms. Don’t expect the stuff you learn in the first 18 months to be super flashy. Like basics of all martial arts, the basics are boring.
b. Students of varying levels. All schools have “good” and “bad” senior students. Don’t expect every black belt to be able to walk on water or kick your butt.
c. An over-all inviting atmosphere. Of course there are some people in the school that I personally don’t enjoy, you’ll find that people in general are quite friendly.
You will NOT find:
a. A “small school” atmosphere…at least at the North Austin SD school. The school is big, I think last I heard was at 350+ students. It’s not “Cheers” not everyone will know your name.
b. Too much hand-holding when it comes to techniques. See (a). If you need help, of course you’re always welcome to ask around though.
c. Very many people who give a rat’s ass about wether or not it’s TCMA or whatever other acronym you want to apply
Whatever art you choose be it us or whomever, my advice first and foremost is always: “basic skills first”. Punch and kick, wash rinse repeat. Oh, and I’ve heard of some ridiculous prices at some TKD places or whatever. Don’t overpay.
Lxtruong, by “riff-raff” I was referring to the controversy around SD, it’s history, lineage, etc. I’ve worked out with some of your students and met Master Schaffer before and I have respect for the school you all have down there.
Thanks lxtruong. I would be at the South Austin school–I live and work on that side of town. From the classes I’ve been to so far, it definitely has more of a ‘small’ feel to it (only about 10 people in my class).
I am a former SD Guy (2nd degree black) dont get sucked in to thier BS Reggie, if you want some real stuff from a legitamate teacher and system,go check out Master Li Jun Feng at the austin academy of oriental medicine on Anderson Ln. he also teaches tai chi and qiqong,and was also Jet Li’s instructor for quite some time.
you have other options like Paul Huangs school (chang style tai chi and the elephant style kung fu) there is also Jeff hughes school(if he is still around, and he is a mantis guy,an honorable person) And there is also the ,“East Wind” school,they are a Shaolin Tiger school)
Originally posted by Judge Pen
[B]That’s what bugs me about Shaolin Do too.
But CPA, they were both 2nd degree blacks FWIW.
Reggie good luck on finding a good school down there. From what you’ve said I wouldn’t recommend SD to you, and I’m one of the ones that can endure the battery from most on this board. I will say that in my experience SD is wonderful to get you into shape and it can train you to fight as well as any TMA school, but there’s a lot of riff-raff to weed through in the process. [/B]
JP said: “…as well as ANY TMA school”? Uhh, a little all-encompassing if you axe me. If you want to be particular, you can say that your statement means Shaolin Do $ucks, because most MAs, traditional or otherwise (and instructors), are none-too-good=WHAAACK.
From what I’ve seen of Shaolin Do, it looks a lot like broke “Shotokan’t”, so maybe you guys should call it “Shaolin DOn’t”. Anywhat, isn’t “Shaolin” and “Do” kinda’ weird together? Shouldn’t it be “Dao/Tao”? It’s like saying “Chinese Kempo”. Oh yeah, that’s another fake style, huh?
Good luck on your search and don’t limit your training to Chinese only. Look for styles and teachers who don’t $uck.
I don’t really know how anyone can say anything about any school in particular one way or another based on a couple of websites or what someone else says. Just go in and take a look for yourself. Even then you can only really judge on the quality of the students and teachers of that particular school. There are good shaolin-do schools and bad shaolin-do schools, just like there are good TKD schools and bad TKD schools.
I’m not even going to discuss the other comments, partially because I don’t care, and partially because I know people are very ready to hate on Shaolin-Do anyway. I just say judge for yourself, and ignore what most everyone else says.
No one here wants to go round and round on the SD train. I know many ex-SDers here and I know and understand the reasons they left. Many were personal and many were for the problems in the system. I myself are critical of several things and vocal about my criticism. The key is to stay adult and objective (which we have been on this topic for a while now).
Wow, looks like there’s a lot of emotion on the board about this stuff.
Just to update, if anybody’s interested, I ended up signing up with Sifu Jeff Hughes and his 7* Mantis school. I’m going to try it out for 6 months and see what I think. They appear to be a very good school, and are very serious. They really kick your butt hard and in only 30 minutes for the basic class!
Thanks everybody for your posts, everything all of you wrote helped me decide on a school.
I would of course, suggest John Wang’s school. Be wary of your first choice, as it will affect all your future choices.
I’ve had so many students come to me with years of baggage from other groups, that was frankly, hard to get out of thier skulls. If you spend 5 years learning how to exorcise spirits, and think that will help with learning surgery, you are hopelessly deluded.
Why do something that is okay, but questionable, when good stuff is readily available?
Well, my opinions of SD are pretty well known… TWS deserves some real credit because he went through the painful process, and put his beleifs on the line. Instead of retreating into his shell, he picked himself up and moved on.
MS and CPA are also examples of folks who got a look see for themselves.
Personally, much as I like Judge Pen, I can’t reccomend SD.
In my first post in this thread I didn’t recommend SD to Reggie either. It seemed like he was looking for something else. I stand by my opinion that SD can be as good as any TCMA if you train in it properly, forget about learning anything but the core material (at least until the black ranks), drill your material into your sparring, and keep out of the politics of SD. But that’s just the path I took when I started SD.
Question: when you guys say you think shaolin-do is “questionable”, are you speaking of things such as lineage, etc or acutal content?
For instance ,suppose we took all our katas, renamed them, went back to being called “Sin The Karate”, and never spoke the words shaolin or kung fu ever again, would it still be “questionable”?
Originally posted by lxtruong suppose we took all our katas, renamed them, went back to being called “Sin The Karate”, and never spoke the words shaolin or kung fu ever again, would it still be “questionable”?
Well, that would answer all the questions…
Originally posted by lxtruong Question: when you guys say you think shaolin-do is “questionable”, are you speaking of things such as lineage, etc or acutal content?
Yes…
Originally posted by lxtruong
For instance ,suppose we took all our katas, renamed them, went back to being called “Sin The Karate”, and never spoke the words shaolin or kung fu ever again, would it still be “questionable”?
Mostly but then you’d have the Japanese & Okinawan groups on your butt. The American contingent would probably dig the hell out of it though.
Mind you… I’m ex-SD as well & from a group that some people wished would go away so ours was decidedly different than most…
