Over the last 32 years, as the society has become more litigious and softer, I believe there has been a decline in the way true martial arts has been taught. I personally have experienced it and in all three schools I have trained in and ranked, people being taught today look for far less than what we were taught. One of the major complaints against kung fu today is the enormous length of time it takes to become somewhat decent at it if one wants to learn the old way. With my Shaolin master, I endured so much brutal training, that even today if someone hits me in the chest to groin area, I just look at them and smile, and I am a small man. The problem today is the lack of attention span and willingness to achieve the highest common denominator. Back 30 years ago, our parents and teachers did not care if we liked them, we were to learn, strive, and achieve to the best of our abilities. Today, I am sad to say, there is no personal responsibility or motivation, which should come from within. In a society where schools suspend someone if they are attacked by 3 people and defend themselves, or the parents fined if their child actually stands up for themselves, what is one to expect in the martial arts? If I put any one of my students through today what I went through, I would be sued, shot, ostracized, or committed to a mental institution!!
When I formally open a school next year, I will have to divide it into two distinct formats: the commercial version to teach those who want to train to be seen and the real version, with a waiver, for true training. As far as fighting, in all three schools, we were required to fight our style without padding. In our Shaolin school, it was full contact Snake style vs. full contact Mantis style, and all was legal except for organs, senses like eyes, and dim mak strikes, though you could go to the point. In Ying Jow in NYC, it was full grab and lock back in the day but today is generally watered down, except for specific schools like my brother's Ying Jow school in Atlanta. In Houston, my teacher started out being this way but over the years left it up to the seniors on how hard to do the white crane and long fist. I do know our push hands, both moving and stationary, were very controlled but still incorporated alot of fa jing, rooting, and sinking.
Frankly, it is partly society but the true ONUS of this failure to relay the true fighting arts that our teachers gave us over the last 30-40 years, is on OUR generation! We let it slip, we did not teach what we truly knew. That is why today MMA and UFC are so popular and why great art like Krav Magda are prevalent. They are quick to learn, quick to fight, and quick to see where one is! My art takes time, and done properly the old way, will produce a pretty decent fighter in 3-5 years....but no one is willing to put in the time and take event that relatively short time. When I showed a eagle claw student of a classmate's of mine recently how to use fa jing and waist to really pull with a yin/yang eagle lock to the floor while jarring the shoulder severely, both my classmate and his student professed surprise, while my master sat at the other side of the room and grinned. Brothers and sisters, the true martial arts lie with those of us in it for the last 25-40 years....it is up to us to find a way to pass on, through true app of technique, etc. to keep it alive. It is, after all, a survival and war art!! As two of my masters once told me,separately, " I can show you all the techniques and all the footwork, but the only true way to learn how to fight is to fight!! Only way to make technique natural, reactive, and effective. One must get beat first, to learn how to protect oneself and handle the pressure of survival!" I still agree with this premise.
