OK, if youre reading my articles regularly, you know that I like learning new martial arts styles. Mostly Ive focused on the Northern Chinese styles, the ones based around Wudang Mountain. I learned the classical Snake Style Kung Fu as a change up from jiu jutsu, and then learned a bit about the Southern (or modern) Snake Style that was created by Master Leung Tin Chu at the turn of the 20th century. Master Leung blended a lot of Shao Lin Kung Fu stances strikes with Wing Chun style fluid motions to create his Snake Style, and when I learned more about it, it got my curiosity piqued about Shao Lin style Kung Fu.
Like the northern styles, Shao Lin Kung Fu is a blend of philosophical techniques, and spiritualism with hard exercise meant to focus the mind and tone the body. Unlike the northern styles, Shao Lin practices focus a lot more on the physical nature of it. Not to the same extent that Tae Kwon Do or Karate do, mind, but much more so than the Wudang internal schools do.
Anyway, after learning about the Shao Lin influences, I had to go find a more rigorous source to see what was up. I found a dojo that I could visit as a student, and watched for a while,...