How hard is it to move up in sashes in Kung Fu?

Answer 1

Kung Fu, due to the history of frauds and fakes claiming lineages they do not have, has modernized, and legitimacy has become a matter belt grading and what school you train at. In olden times in China, who trained in Kung Fu and from what teacher was known largely by word of mouth, largely because most Chinese do not travel around that much, there are people in China nearly 100 years old who have NEVER left their province, or town for that matter. In other words, because both small towns and neighborhoods in larger cities were closed communities, legitimacy regarding skill in Kung Fu was not an issue, however in modern times, as more and more Chinese than ever are traveling around from one city to the next throughout China, with more and more families "moving" than ever before, legitimacy has become a concern, so most schools of Kung Fu follow a model similar to that used in Judo and Karate. That is, certification, grading, the whole nine.

As to how difficult it is, in Kung Fu, it is indeed more difficult to advance, because whereas the Japanese may not always follow tradition, Chinese people in general are rigidly traditional, sometimes to the point of inflexibility. By that I mean, they have a very "this is the way I was trained, so this is the way YOU will train" mentality. Chinese Kung Fu training, at least in reputable schools, involves an arduous amount of time spent just on stances, the horse stance for example, you must be able to hold for at least 2 hours running, no breaks, before a traditional Chinese instructor will teach you any Martial Arts. Once martial arts training actually begins, you spend long, boring hours, just on the basics, and more infuriating still for people who are not patient types, is that the instructor will constantly hover over you, correcting your smallest mistake, the smallest mistep, the smalles error in form. It may sound "easy," but when someone actually does it to you, for some people it gets on their nerves.

Near constant correction of form, is by far the most difficult aspect of the training, not so much the conditioning. Most people who take up Kung Fu, may already BE in shape, in fact before seriously wanting to learn Kung Fu, a lot of "Kung Fu nerds" will take time to prepare. They may lift weights, stretch a lot, purchase Shi Yang Mings "Shaolin fitness" and do that stuff until they're in shape and THEN go train at his school people prepare, that's the point I'm trying to make they prepare, and work hard to meet the fitness requirements, and most often do. However that is not the most difficult aspect; what most students find difficult, I've been told, is the instructor constantly correcting them, very few people have the patience to be corrected in their form, and because of that they just can't handle the training and they quit.

You could have a monster, as flexible as an olympic gymnast, with as much stamina as a marathoner, and with as much muscle endurance as a Navy SEAL, and they will STILL quit, because the instructor correcting their form gets on their nerves. It can prove difficult because, it may be ten years, before you earn the highest sash. Usually, most students will have learned all the forms and all the techniques within the first 2 years of the training, but the highest sash, will not actually be earned until at least 10 years have passed and the instructor is sure the student has good work habits, and good form.

A Kung Fu instructor's job, is not just to teach and correct form, but to make sure they can let their students go and have the peace of mind that they will never stop training. See in the past in China, with instructors who did not meet the 10 year requirement, they would spend all that time with a student, correcting their form and what not, and when 3 years where over and the students were let go, they developed a reputation for lazyness, not training the way they should have. Pretty soon you had some turd challenging them to a fight, obviously Mr. Lazy gets beat up and that looks bad on the style, AND the school. In this era of guns, personal chemical weapons (mace and its variants), and tazers, most instructors don't care about reputation any more, however before the era of modern weaponry, in China in the past, because of the lawlessness, because of the government corruption in the country, people were very much dependent on Kung Fu for personal protection.

As in all places of the world most victims of crime in China were the very poor; they did not take up Kung Fu, to learn acrobatic dancing, to do all kinds of fancy techniques or kicks or prove themselves in tournaments, they did it to protect themselves from brigands, murderers and thieves. Even today, China is one of the most crime infested countries in the world most westerners don't realize just how dangerous it is there. If you travel to China you BETTER know martial arts. Part of the reason Chinese families are so tightly knit is all the crime; in China no one travels alone, its too dangerous in certain places. Part of the reason the PRC government is tolerated, is because Mao's government, corrupt as it was, produced results when it came to crime control, prior to Mao Zedong China was much worse. "Chairman Mao" promised less crime, and he delivered. However, his methods were brutal, nevertheless it is only fear of the PRC's army, which also serves as a police force I believe and are given considerable freedom, that keeps criminal scumbags under control. The origins of the Chinese Triad gangs, can be traced back to the Qing dynasty, China's "first emperor." Because he ruled China like a dictator, as is the rule in all places of the world the more tightly and corruptly a government holds the people, the better and better criminals become. Even crooks, have their skills you know, their knowledge on how to avoid the law, what a Dictatorship does, is create more skillful criminals, and part of the reason why the Chinese Triads are so dangerous, is because they have been refining their criminal know-how for 2,000 years.

The world of Chinese Kung Fu, has been at war with the Triads, almost from the birth of the Shaolin temple, striving to protect the common people, mostly the poor, from crooks because cops can not always be everywhere. Because of this, because for the traditional instructors Kung Fu is a very serious business, they have very little tolerance for changes in tradition. China, is neither "mystical" nor "magical," like other places of the world it is not without its problems.