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Who is the Shaolin Academy!

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You will find out about the softer aspects of the club. An overview of what the club represents, which direction is is going and what is has to offer for it's students and instructors.

Introduction Although the Shaolin Academy is all about Shaolin 5 Animal Kung Fu, is though all about people. Any and every person and style have something to contribute, masters and students. There are only two types of people, martial artists and others. Background & Founding The Shaolin Kung Fu Academy, originally names Liang-I Lifestyle Kung Fu, was founded in 1992 not as a martial-art style but as a Lifestyle-art. The founders Sijo & Dagmar (pictured to the left) did not want to add to the already prolific amount of violence training centers but rather focus on the Quality of Life Aspect. It was reasoned that the Shaolin Way of life, based on the principles of Buddhism and Daoism which developed over a period of 2500 years may be a superior principle to follow than all those developed over the past century or two.

The Difference

Currently most martial art styles teach the individual how to succeed; immediate, individual and personal success. This has the consequence that students focus on the here and now and the immediate future without consideration for the longer term or the wider community! In other words, brainless success at almost any cost. Following is a real example of this attitude;
In a local 'non-contact' sparring competitions the teacher of a 'tough' martial art style had a winning strategy against the better opponents. At the word 'start' they would jump forward and plant a full contact technique to the chest of their opponents, disregarding the illegality of such a move. They reasoned that by intimidating their opponents in this painful and sudden way, they helped their students be successful. The instructor reasoned that the cost of a warning (one such warning was allowed per round) he helped his students be powerful and successful.

Shaolin teaches it's students to win honorably, within the rules and spirit of the competition. To win in a way that they would be proud telling their children about; proud remembering that they won honorably leaving behind a person who did not feel cheated or slighted. Although winning is important to the developing mind, a way of confirming the path, it is important that these wins do not turn sour with time. This happened to a 3rd Degree Practitioner of Kung Fu, who being of a small and wiry stature, decided to compete in the pre-black sash division. Well he won the first prize and thus cheated someone who really was a pre-black sash, of their honorable win. The 3rd Degree never ever again referred to his win, never showed anyone their trophy and never again competed in that tournament again. Was it worth it? It can't be repaired. And we see this type of attitude many places even at the Olympics with competitors using drugs to cheat and win!

The Shaolin Way

If you think winning with cunning and misrepresentation is OK, than you are not ready for the Shaolin Path. If you think that their may be times where you would need to use everything at your disposal to win and most other times you wish to win by skill tempered with honour, than you are on the path of Shaolin without needing to train it. if you wish to be better at winning with Skill, Honour and Compassion, both in Martial Art and Life than the Shaolin Academy may be right for you!

Time to Try

If you are reading this still than you are interested! If you would like to take it a step further, come in and try out for three free lessons at any of our three venues in Mordialloc, Caulfield or Camberwell. Just print out the Free Training Voucher which also has the details of the location, and bring it with you. We look forward to meeting and training with you.

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