[QUOTE=taai gihk yahn;1023372]this is it in a nutshell - the problem is that even with good quality control, kungfu “skill” is something that is easy to fake to the general public, because of the ethos surrounding it; as such, you can make it look “good” on the outside, between dancing forms that look flowery and “kung-fuey” (all you realy need to do is a bunch of odd-looking movements that you call kung-fu - to wit, Shaolin Do), or a do some “qigong”, which is nothing more than physics and practiced “tricks” (meaning that there may be some skill to puling them off, but not the one you are claiming, in terms of “qi” development); or you can toss your hypmotized students across the room because you’ve trained them subliminaly to do that;
that, and all the fortune cookie BS that puts the average person into a state of uncertainty: old saws like, “a true fighter doesn’t have to fight / prove anything”, “I can only demonstrate “x” deadly technique on long-term students who are able to handle it”, “our technique is too deadly to be practised against resisting opponents”, “the advanced stuff is secret”, “I can’t reveal my lineage because of ‘x’”, “it takes 10/20/30/100 yrs. to become an effective fighter w/this, but once you do, you can defeat anyone”, “our power doesn’t come from muscle but from internal power”, and so on, in a way cannot be judged adequately by most people in the US, because they have no context beyond what they see in movies / on TV, and since it’s the same silliness there, they kinda think that’s how it should be; or it’s how they WANT it to be, because they are looking for something super-secret and special, and so they are easy prey for sifus who spew that sort of nonsense (and many take it very seriously, so it’s blind leading bind)[/QUOTE]
Precisely. And, given that such people don’t want combat skills and the torture that builds them, they seek out what they’re really after, be it a workout, or a feeling of superiority, or a feeling of spirituality, or something more like Amway.
For the most part, the fakes aren’t stealing students from legitimate guys. The few die hard ma lovers who make the mistake of joining will someday find better. To focus on the fakes is a waste of time because it doesn’t provide those die hards a place to practice what they are really wanting to do. Providing more quality kung fu schools does, and quality training methods make the odds of there being more quality stuff out there much higher.
