Firstly, what I find with a lot of western martial arts schools in particular what I’ve noticed in Australia and from attending myself, is that it’s all about marketing and self-promotion. When I say that, they’ve watered down the traditional ethics of martial arts.
They promote fast grading or moving up through the system. I’ve seen children as young as 10 years old walking around with a black belt, and in all honesty, I find that it’s an insult to traditional martial artists just like myself who spent a lifetime practising.
I think the main reason our school is different from those is that we’re very traditionally-focused martial art. You can’t expect to grade every couple of months and move up the ranks of our system. Only the very best will ever actually attain a level of the black sash which is the black belt equivalent in other martial arts, let alone move higher than that.
What also makes us different is we focus on internal energy practices which aren’t widely known outside of the traditional Chinese internal martial arts, so there’s a lot of focus on the spiritual aspects of Kung Fu as well as the physical aspect. So we train mind, body, and spirit together.