That the Shaolin Monks have their own method for fighting is pretty obvious. The problem is that nobody knows what it is. The good news is that it is pretty easy to figure out this secret.
There is a film in which a camera crew goes to the Shaolin Temple. This is a documentary, with the usual things to see and do type of script, but with one very interesting, little occurrence. The happening is that a mixed martial arts fellow is seen climbing steps to one of the temples.
There is a hard smile on his face, and he claims that he is on his way to find out if the monks of shaolin know how to fight for real. Some time later, he is seen returning...and it is obvious that he has just been kicked on his mixed martial beautocks.
If one searches through youtube for any length of time, they will come across a boxing contest between a fighter (taekwondo or karate or some other art) and a monk of the shaolin temple. During the contest, the monk negligently slaps aside the boxer's strikes aside, then begins his own gorgeous onslaught. What is interesting is that it is obvious that the monk doesn't really want to hurt his opponent; he is just freestyling for the heck of it, there is no real desire to harm manifested.
If one examines the history of early karate in Okinawa, there is much mention of training with temple monks in the fuchien province of China. The specific training method resulted in the art of Uechi Ryu Karate (called Pan Gai Noon), and there is some evidence that the art was grown from Bak Mei Kung Fu. This is a direct connection between two important fighting arts.
If one examines the art of Uechi, and that of Bak Mei (White Eyebrow Kung Fu), there are a lot of simple slaps. The specific method is either slaps with the palm or beaks with the backs of the wrist, and in both up and down and sideways directions. If one analyzes these slaps, an entire fighting method can be figured out pretty easily.
Indeed, if one looks at fighting in general, the basic parry is nothing more than a slap. This is a method which could easily be trained in. Simply set up two bags a couple of feet apart and practice striking them with wrist and palm; this actually closely resembles basic iron palm training from the ancient methods of kung fu.
In conclusion, there is much conjecture offered in this article, but there is also a hard core line of reasoning. Could true temple methods of fighting rely on something as simple as the palm and beak? This writer would suggest that any interested reader could simply raise the question, by raising his fists in challenge, to any Shaolin Monk he might come across in his travels.
