
What do we teach?
We teach a comprehensive system called the 'Li Family Southern Shaolin Fist' (李家少林拳). Many of you are familiar with the Northern Shaolin styles - those with Buddhist monks wearing orange robes. Those are entirely unrelated to what we practice. The Li Family System has neither religious affinities, nor orange robes, and mostly developed in Southern China, and not in the North.
The Li System contains several martial arts. It is the system of '5 Shapes and 10 Birds'. The Five Animal Shapes are: Tiger, White Crane, Snake, Panther and Dragon. The Ten Birds are the Raven, Hawk, Sparrow, Black Crane, Swallow Red Heron, Kun Peng, Phoenix and the Golden Pheasant. Each of those Five Animal Shapes and Ten Birds is a martial art unto itself. This means that in total, the Li Family System of Southern Shaolin Fist includes 15 different martial arts.
Yet it would not be entirely accurate, to call all of those martial arts 'different'. They are more akin to very similar dialects of the same language. Each is based on the same concepts, body mechanics and combative principles. They simply explore the core of the system from 15 different perspectives.
Does a person need to learn all 15 arts within the Li System? Absolutely not! Even a single system is more comprehensive and encompassing than many other styles out there. The majority of people choose to learn as much as they feel comfortable with. Every art is 'complete' unto itself, with punches, kicks, locks, takedowns, throws and sometimes even ground-grappling. In addition to that, the Li System includes forms of body conditioning, partner exercises, weapons, hard qigong and soft qigong.
