Earning a Black Belt in Shaolin Kung Fu

I often get people asking me about certification requirements for the Shaolin Butterfly. Since Monster Martial Arts is one of the few totally valid schools for promoting people in such arts as Karate and Kung Fu, and this through the internet, I thought I should take a moment and answer the question totally and utterly.

First, as with any courses I offer certification in, and that is virtually all the courses offered at the monster website, one has to get the course they wish to test for, and the Master Instructor Course. They then have to do the material, including applications, and send in (upload to private channel on youtube) their test. I will grade the test, using the specific course they are testing and the master instructor course for all corrections.

Now, obviously, one needs the course they are going to test in, but the Master Instructor Course is necessary because it gives the exact data that one needs to know to have perfect form and technique. This is provable perfection, and once one has the data on this course, no matter which art they might study, they will be as perfect as they can apply the data on the Master instructor Course.

Now, that said, there are nine forms on the Shaolin Butterfly. The first five forms are shorter forms with two man applications. Thus, one can take a beginner and drill him mercilessly, and the beginner will be astounded at how fast he is picking up the material.

When I teach classes in Shaolin Butterfly I usually refer to these first five short forms as the prelude to Brown Belt. This means that once the student has finished these forms he is solid in basics, intuition is starting to rear his head, and he has built a solid base of technique.

And, I should say at this point that I know that a brown belt is a karate term, as is a black belt. The correct term would be brown sash, or black sash. I use these terms interchangeably, for they stand for about the same thing in the personal develop of a student when you compare the different arts, and especially when you compare the arts once they have been matrixed.

I use the remaining four forms, the longer ‘nine square’ forms, for the brown to black belt period. These are rich forms containing the wealth of kung fu. The difference is that the older, more traditional forms tend to be random collections of technique. They are wonderful, even phenomenal, but by categorizing techniques through use of matrixing, and by condensing them into more efficient patterns, one can learn much, much faster.

I should say that I don’t go into weapons. The reason for this is simple…once one has learned good kung fu, and I emphasize the word ‘good’ here, then one can siomply pick up a weapon and plug it in. Thus, I give students weapons once they have completed the nine forms, and ask them to do their forms (including two man forms, with the weapons. this gives an amazing depth to the art, and the student begins an education beyond education, for he must make many decisions as to what works and what doesn’t.

I hope this article has helped the reader to understand more concerning the certification requirements of the Shaolin Butterfly.