years later, after also experiencing martial arts myself. And id did Shaolin, who are very strict and train very harshly. The sparring here is very much kinda bonkers. You don't go that hard with beginners and sparring isn't a real fight, but mimics a fight. You aren't supposed to get injured like blue eye and wounds. You can get bruised by accident from inexperienced learners, but one of the things we kept being told is "WARM UP! ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOUR STANCE AND POSTURES ARE CORRECT! ALWAYS STRETCH! NEVER GET INJURED! IF YOU GET INJURED, YOU WILL NEED TO STOP TRAINING AND WILL FALL BEHIND! LOOSING TIME!" etc. all the time the Shaolin warrior monk would tell us. we mainly worked on developing a body that can handle the martial art and stances and basic intelligence and muscle memory of foundational movements. Like blocking fists/kicks and reacting. Agility etc. Nobody was ever fighting with actual strength behind it. Only the teachers and experienced ones in higher levels were. Anyway. It't just a story I know, but this is the second time today I see such unrealistic depiction of how martial arts are trained so I had to say something haha.
years later, after also experiencing martial arts myself. And id did Shaolin, who are very strict and train very harshly. The sparring here is very much kinda bonkers. You don't go that hard with beginners and sparring isn't a real fight, but mimics a fight. You aren't supposed to get injured like blue eye and wounds. You can get bruised by accident from inexperienced learners, but one of the things we kept being told is "WARM UP! ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOUR STANCE AND POSTURES ARE CORRECT! ALWAYS STRETCH! NEVER GET INJURED! IF YOU GET INJURED, YOU WILL NEED TO STOP TRAINING AND WILL FALL BEHIND! LOOSING TIME!" etc. all the time the Shaolin warrior monk would tell us. we mainly worked on developing a body that can handle the martial art and stances and basic intelligence and muscle memory of foundational movements. Like blocking fists/kicks and reacting. Agility etc. Nobody was ever fighting with actual strength behind it. Only the teachers and experienced ones in higher levels were. Anyway. It't just a story I know, but this is the second time today I see such unrealistic depiction of how martial arts are trained so I had to say something haha.