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  • Training solely with media materials

    For the gang first..

    I was a student Of Shi xxxxxxxx here in the USA. Due to money,or the lack there of, I had to stop training. I have started using Shaolin DVD's and VCD's. Is this enough for continuing following the Shaolin arts?
    I was offered to come to Houston Texas and have my forms graded by Shi De Shan. This would be once or twice a year.
    Thanks for any thoughts on this,
    xxxxxxx
    Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

    "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

    (more comments in my User Profile)
    russbo.com



  • #2
    it depends who you are. if you have good basics and you understand the skills associated with your art(in chinese arts they are all based on certain skills) then you can. really the forms arent that important, what you need is upkeep with humans so your timing and spacing and reactions etc are sharp, punching and kicking the air all the time is bad for your joints and if you dont know your system well enough your definately wasting your time.

    if i were you id just work the basic skills whatever they may be for shaolin temple gung fu, and work your foundation and your flexibility and find a new school
    "did you ask me to consider dick with you??" blooming tianshi lotus

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    • #3
      My initial question to this individual was, how much was De Shan going to charge him.

      Oh, I am jaded and cynical.
      Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

      "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

      (more comments in my User Profile)
      russbo.com


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      • #4
        that was my first thought, but i didnt wanna go there lol
        "did you ask me to consider dick with you??" blooming tianshi lotus

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        • #5
          Still in CT Maestro? Who do you train with these days?
          Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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          • #6
            im still here, getting ready for a trip to thailand/malaysia/cambodia etc in a few months, its actually long overdue trip, but this year i started practicing BJJ which was awesome, although my dad passed in the end of july so i havent been doing anything this last month.

            long time though how u been? still practicing i hope.
            "did you ask me to consider dick with you??" blooming tianshi lotus

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            • #7
              Sorry to hear about your father, I hope the rest of your family is doing ok. Hope the trip proves to be good for you.


              I'm out of shape as all hell (by my standards, according to my Dr I'm in awesome health). I've got a 20 month old daughter and between her and full time work time for training has been really sparse.

              My striking is still pretty quick and powerful but my cardio and ground game need a TON of work.

              I actually ran into Kron Gracie at my work, and spent a really brief stint at Rickson Gracie's school in west LA where Kron is teaching but I just cant make it fit into my schedule without either making it really hard on my wife and daughter or abandoning sleep.

              Mostly just doing a bit of shadow boxing and weapons play anytime I get a free moment, I can still kick a beam at my work 7' off the ground without raising my grounded heel and a couple weekends back a buddy of mine and I took a page out of BJ Penn's training book and we were running windsprints underwater at the bottom of a salt water pool while carrying a 30lb rock.

              That was fun I highly recommend it if you have a pool and a boulder handy.

              My workplace (we source, import, extract, and produce high end connoseiur grade chinese herbal formulas and single herb extracts) actually just started up an endeavor with the song shan temple to produce an herbal formula in coordination with the temple (which would in turn put part of the profit into donations back to shaolin) and my boss was hanging out with Shi Yan Lin (head of the herbal part of the clinic at song shan temple) in august to arrange it. Should be cool it'll be ready later in the fall and it's all herbs that are native to song shan and featured heavily in shaolin lore.

              Main ingredient will be Ling Zhi (commonly known by the japanese term reishi, latin = ganoderma lucidum) which is actually featured in the hands of an elder monk in the wall painting in that room in song shan temple with the pits in the floor from centuries of foot stomping.

              I'll get you guys more info as we get closer to launch on that later in the fall.
              Last edited by daodejing; 09-09-2010, 04:08 AM.
              Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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              • #8
                congrats on the kid, sounds like your having a good time. sorry to hear about your training though, id love to train with rickson, my teacher went out there to train with him and a few others on the west coast, and i know his jj is top notch.

                and i know what u mean about being fit etc, i might aswell be cut out of granite but i havent been motivated for much lately so i know my fitness is suffering.

                that chinese medicine and whatnot sounds interesting, have you gotten a chance to use any of it? from what i read here and all the crazy shit ive seen in china town and on tv, it makes me really weary of wanting to use it.
                "did you ask me to consider dick with you??" blooming tianshi lotus

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                • #9
                  Well the thing is, most of the chinese herbs that get imported into the US are the bottom of the barrel quality from china. Our (my work) stuff is definatly on the more expensive side because we literally only use the highest grade most expensive raw materials. We've had our gou qi zi (goji, small red fruit that builds blood and yin) independently tested and found it to contain less pesticide residue than multiple USDA certified organic brands of the same species for example.

                  Most of the stuff you'll find in china towns is of poor quality, or worse is a knockoff of one sort or another. Buying raw whole herbs yourself is not a good idea if you dont know what you're looking for and can't not only identify the proper species visually but also identify the grade and whether or not the herb has been dyed or suflured.

                  These quality control issues are a big deal with cheap and mid grade herbs. They are not much of an issue with the highest quality herbs because the high quality herbs coming from traditional high quality sources actually have alot of government and cultural protection. It's just like any other natural product like cheese or wine. When you're working with a small family owned well reputed dairy / winery set deep in rural france who's been in business for more than 500 years and knows exactly how to do things properly the old way, you dont see anywhere near as many quality control issues as you do with a massive factory style dairy farm or vinyard run by a large multinational corporation only interested in maximizing profit for the quarter.

                  Cultivated ganoderma lucidum mushrooms for example, in the region where the best quality is grown they are protected and regulated as much pharmaceutical production would be (with good cause, this mushroom strongly strengthens the immune system and is used heavily in china and japan with people undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy to maintain immune and digestive function helping the patient to better tolerate the therapy and it actually significantly increases survival rates in chinese oncology wards). For example, for a farmer growing these mushrooms for sale as an herb it is an arrestable offense to spray the fungus with sulfides (a commonly used preservative in cheap herbs).


                  In terms of potential toxicity issues if you go back to the classics you'll see herbs differentiated in several ways, one of the most important being superior, intermediate, and inferior herbs.

                  Superior herbs are herbs that have no toxicity issues, can be taken daily for years, even at higher dosages, and tend to promote health and longevity in the long term. The more preventative, strengthening sorts of things. My workplace, and most daoists, focus heavily on this category. The shaolin formula we'll be producing will be of this category.

                  Intermediate herbs are herbs that are very useful for a wide variety of medical issues but are generally regulatory and not strengthening in nature. They generally have cautions and contraindications to use and good in some situations but problematic in others. They are generally not used long term except in formulations where they are balanced by superior herbs and when the patient continues to exhibit a long term pattern that warrants their use.

                  Inferior herbs are herbs that are generally toxic in nature and are very very good at working with very specific disorders but can cause significant problems if prepared improperly, overdosed, or given to a person who did not have that specific problem. These are generally short term use only and can be effective at working with pathology but do not in any way promote health other than addressing the short term ailment.


                  When you hear about someone getting sick off chinese herbs it's primarily due to misuse of inferior herbs. Just for your knowledge, in mainland china where all 3 classes of herbs are used extensively (but in hospital settings you see primarily intermediate and inferior herbs because people in hospitals are not healthy people trying to get even stronger) for every one person who dies from improper herbal therapy there are ten people who died as a direct result of improper prescription drug therapy.

                  China has problems sure, but so does the US. I kind of like China's system of using harsh and brutal corporal punishment against the most horrific of corporate crimes. If the BP spill went down in chinese waters there would be BP execs sentenced to life in prison and possibly some executions. Bernie Madoff may have been executed. Actually several people responsible for the melamine tainted baby formula scandal that killed several infants and hospitalized several thousand were full on executed. And they're not on death row, they're already executed.

                  I think the US could stand to punish corporate crime more harshly especially knowingly violating safety regulations and having that negligence then lead to the death of another person, that should be punished as full blown manslaughter or murder as appropriate. The BP spill could definately be construed as negligence which resulted in multiple counts of manslaughter (the crew of the deep water horizon killed in the explosion which was a result of gross negligence of safety protocols which was done to save money and time).
                  Last edited by daodejing; 09-09-2010, 04:22 PM.
                  Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by daodejing View Post
                    Should be cool it'll be ready later in the fall and it's all herbs that are native to song shan and featured heavily in shaolin lore.
                    Talking about herbs that are native to Shaolin.... You used to be able to find a lot of marijuana plants in the hills surrounding the temple.

                    Happy monks they be.
                    Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

                    "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

                    (more comments in my User Profile)
                    russbo.com


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                    • #11
                      and work your foundation and your flexibility and find a new school

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                      • #12
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                        My site: Stefanos Tsitsipas Third Seed

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