top of page
Frequently asked questions
Gongfu Frequently Asked Questions
Lion Dancing FAQ
All information about our school is listed very in-depth on our website. The public can't just enroll; we're a private school & only train those who get accepted.
Due to our schedules & demands to join our school, we only schedule meetups in our Try-Outs. You must submit an Admissions Form. If you're invited to Try-Out with us, then during your Try-Out you can see our school, ask questions, etc.
We run a very tight ship at our studio, for many reasons, and it's what makes our school different than any other school in Utah.
Any other martial art school in Utah will accept anybody, as long as they're paying. At our academy, we're very adamant that every person follows our process of submitting an Admissions Form for us to review, scheduling a Try-Out (Audition) date, and getting approval to join our school.
If you're accepted, you can rest assured that everyone you train with will have been hand-picked by us from the multitudes of candidates. You'll be surrounded by passionate people willing to go through our process to join our school, and you'll need this environment to become the best you can be in Chinese Martial Arts. It's not so much an elitest move for us to screen candidates, rather we need to choose who we train to keep the quality of training high, keep classes small and only invest our time into students who will stay. We know it's not for everybody, and we can gladly suggest other schools to attend otherwise.
We take away the entitlement often attributed to those who think they can pay their way in. Candidates with this mentality often aren't our ideal student, and they would treat our school as just an entitled service. There is also no reason for us to meet with someone if we also don't get to formally review them at the same time. It doesn't matter how much someone wants to join if we're not going to accept them.
With that said, all drop-ins without submitting an Admissions Form and schedule a Try-Out (Audition) will be asked politely to leave the premises. If a candidate isn't willing to review everything about our school and respect our process, they have proven they won't be easy to train or accept how we run things at our school.
The youngest we can take is 8-years-old. However, please be mindful that it does not guarantee acceptance. We've noticed students who've barely turned 8 might still have a hard time adjusting to the rigorous and demanding training. As much as we'd love to train as many students we can, we have to retain small classes to keep the quality of teaching high. Lei Shao Long also still retains the right to let go of students if he feels they can't keep up with the training, respectfully.
We do not offer drop-in classes. We prefer investing our time into training serious students. Every student in our school has been selected to be a part of it by going through our full process of onboarding, from applying, to doing their Try-Out, to continuously being reviewed. This part of our process is what makes our school unique as we're not looking for quantity of students but the quality of our students. Many of our first-time White sash students have already achieved their first 1st place wins at tournaments simply because our training works, but only works for those who we feel will adapt to the curriculum well enough, regardless of physicality.
While we completely understand students/parents still want to see the guǎn (studio) and see if it's something they'd enjoy, we only allow those that sign-up via Try-Out and audition to come inside our school.
Please don't be intimidated. Our Try-Outs allow Lei Shao Long and Shimu Shin to get to know you, what you want to focus on, your strengths/weaknesses, and if your personality will blend with the already-strong school community we have. Some candidates that have not been accepted would grow & blend much better in another environment. Lei Shao Long has trained hundreds of students in the military and traditional gongfu schools and can quickly tell who will work well for the school and represent our gongfu family style. We look very carefully for the many characteristics that we feel will blend with our school, such as patience, respect, consistency, timeliness and attentiveness. We're more concerned on a candidate's personality than their skills. Skills will come with training at our school.
Be aware, we absolutely reject pretentious, competitive attitudes and individuality. Those who come in the pretense that they 'deserve' to be accepted will also be rejected. The heart of our school is respect, discipline & humility - we work as a team to keep that heartbeat going. Many of our students have left their previous schools that enforce arrogant behavior, typically found in highly competitive sports. We absolutely do not tolerate it. It's because of how we carefully select our students that our community is safe & strong, while still winning tournaments and state awards for martial arts schools. We owe it to our current and dedicated students to be very careful of who we bring into the school to join.
While we love to work with students with previous martial art experience, we would absolutely prefer accepting a complete beginner who has never done martial arts before, compared to a talented candidate who flaunts their skills & accolades and demands their right to join. Absolutely no one is entitled to our services.
With that said, more than half of our students have never learned martial arts before, much less have never been in a fight before, and we're proud to say every single one of them is still dedicated to their training at our school, have participated in tournaments, actively spar/fight and learn the correct & traditional way.
If you're looking to pass, stay humble, behave yourself, be respectful of the guǎn and shīfu/shīmu, answer all questions and most importantly, show up on time. Over-praising and flattery will not get you far at all in Try-Outs, nor will bragging or showing off - just be yourself and trust our process. If you're not accepted, it's for the best for both the candidate and the school.
We follow the classical tradition that a gongfu teacher MUST accept the student. Our school is a private school, and no one outside of the school is entitled to our services. While we absolutely don't discriminate against age, sex, religion, disabilities and many other protected rights, we do retain the right to refuse service to anyone. Due to the number of applications we receive, many times candidates might not get a response back to Try-Out, or we may be taking a break from accepting new students and will check on applications once we're ready to accept new students again.
Because we're able to carefully pick our students, without the urgency to just accept anyone to make ends meet, we're able to holistically grow our studio at a slow but high-quality pace and keep our classes small. All profits of the school go back towards the studio, equipment, events and gifts to the students.
We have a responsibility to ensure we only dedicate our time to train those who will be serious and stick to the training. We have full confidence that our model generates the highest quality students, as opposed to packing as many students as possible into one class. Classes are no more than 12 -16 people per class, so we're able to retain high-quality training between Lei Shao Long and his Disciples to the students of the school. All classes are taught by Lei Shao Long or his 3 current Disciples. Our staff of 4 instructors manage all the student's training, as opposed to larger schools with a wide bench of instructors.
We run this school as a passion & tradition - not out of necessity or profit. It's because of our tight restrictions that we have won Best of State 2023 for martial art schools in Utah, our students live in a strong community, have the highest retention rates, have small & focused classes, win national & international tournaments, and learn everything they can from Lei Shao Long, his wife Shimu Shin and their Disciples.
We don't actively look to recruit or like to be considered an option to shop-around - rather, students search for us because we offer training not found elsewhere in Utah. If our strict process just doesn't work or seem appealing for those looking to try our school, we completely understand & can gladly recommend other gongfu schools we've worked with that would be happy to accept them without the tight restrictions.
Honestly, our school hates this question, and rightfully so. If you see any school promoting a focus on a black belt/sash, you should look elsewhere.
We believe that it's not about the speed of getting a black belt - it's the journey. Western culture has some fascination with black belts as being the end-all, be-all, idea of being a martial arts master. It's not. We do not offer get-quick black belt programs, accelerated black belt programs, or anything of that kind. A sash should represent your dedication and level of skills, which take time to develop. A Black Sash does NOT mean complete mastery or that you're invincible. We do not have a set timeline for achieving a black sash as everyone's progress is different and unique. Understand that many talented and well-known martial artists, even Shaolin monks, don't have a 'black belt/sash', so it should never be used as clout or a means to justify your training; rather, it's the byproduct of hard-work at our school.
Originally, traditional Chinese martial arts does not use sashes or belts to show a rank - students were just recognized as a Student, Disciple or Master. The belt system is more so a Japanese martial arts concept. Our sash system was designed for western audiences who typically expect a ranking system, as well as create a structure for students as western students don't live on-site at the school and train full-time like schools in China. A sash system helps them understand where they stand in their training, as well as make best use of their time, and they're generally more receptive to having sashes as goals.
Our sash program is proprietary and made-in-house, with a focus on 6 core foundations found in all Chinese martial arts: dexterity (gongfu skills), agility (flexibility/acrobatics), experience (time training/chinese culture), fighting (sparring), health (physical fitness tests) and forms (traditional routines). Our system rewards students for what they do best, whether they're an amazing fighter, highly performative in forms or overall well-rounded in all foundations.
Each sash has 3 requirements before a student can test for it:
Points: This calculation is based on number of forms learned, skills learned, sparring matches, experience with Chinese culture and physical fitness score.
Mandatory Skill: For each sash there is a core skill a student must have that is demonstrative of someone at that level. For example, a student with a Blue Sash can do Full Splits, a common requirement to perform gongfu correctly. For Black Sash, a student needs to have all minimum skills, points and experience necessary, which can't be bought or rushed.
Mandatory Time: This is the amount of minimum time needed between rankings to allow the student to build points, work on skills and learn new forms.
By design, not every single student who trains at our school will reach a black sash, which requires extensive experience, dedication and mastery in all basic foundations of Chinese martial arts. However, remember a black sash is a formal ranking and shouldn't define a martial artist, despite how distinguished having a black sash sounds. Many famous Chinese martial artists don't have that formal ranking, rather their experience and skills speak for themselves.
It's important to focus on improving your skills and knowledge, and not solely on the sash level. Our instructors will work with you to set achievable goals and provide the guidance and support needed to reach them.
We teach traditional northern-shaolin style Gongfu (long-fist style) - 30+ forms. For Taijiquan, we teach Old-Yang 108 Form (from Master Lu's Health Center) and Wudang Sanfeng Pai styles - Taiji 13, Taiji 28, Baghuazhang, Baduin Jin Qigong, WuXin Qigong and Dong Jing Qigong. For Sparring, we practice under Sanda sparring rules.
No - we do not offer free trials or discounts classes. While our rates might be higher than typical martial art schools, we are not a chain business. By design, we only have one studio that we focus on. We can assure you that all of our students will agree that you will get what you pay for, and you'll be surrounded by like-minded martial artists that will help you excel. Our students are with us because of the quality, not because we're a bargain.
One of the key traits we look for in students is patience. We do receive enough applications that it takes time to look through them, and there are times when we take breaks from accepting new students. We refer to already sent-in applications first when deciding to accept students again. Regardless, please know that not all candidates will get an invite to schedule a Try-Out. If you are pressured to start immediately and can't afford to wait, we politely request you look into another school and wish you the best in your training.
-Onsite access to your own personal locker, welcoming swag-bag gift
-Full access to all training equipment
-8 classes per month (unless specified otherwise), "Use it or lose it" policy.
-Gongfu students get monthly performance report cards detailing their progress
-Access to the online video library for reference of gongfu and taiji forms
-Monthly newsletter
Interestingly enough, we had this question brought up several times. Gongfu/Kungfu is a Chinese martial art, so in our studio, we speak basic Mandarin for many commands, not Japanese. Our studio isn't a 'dojo' (which is related to Karate, a Japanese martial art), but a 館, which is pronounced as guǎn (like saying 'gwen'). Written in romanized characters, you might have seen it labeled as 'kwoon', which is close, but not the proper pronunciation. Very much how 'kungfu' has been normalized in our country, but the proper pronunciation is 'gongfu'. We also don't wear 'gi' as uniforms, which is also a Japanese term, whereas in Mandarin it's called a 'yī-fu'.
For what we call our head-instructor, the term isn't 'sensei' but 'shifu', not to be confused with 'sifu' (which is Cantonese, not Mandarin). We speak Mandarin at the guǎn. The Shifu's wife also has a formal designation as "Shimu".
All of our uniforms are custom-ordered per students' measurements from our personal tailor in China. She's managed all of our orders for our school since our inception. We assure our students our uniforms are 100% authentic and representative of Chinese martial arts and the regions from where our styles are from. We use the same traditional cut, style and fabric used for Shaolin monks & Wudang priests and their respective schools.
Our school design and colors are a combination and representation of what we teach in our school. Because we teach both Northern Shaolin and Wudang-pai styles, from two different distinct regions in China, we had to blend the styles of both uniforms into one. You won't find our style and color of uniforms at any other school.
Because we teach both styles, we had to choose distinct colors, as opposed to the usual gray/orange/yellow colors for Shaolin and usual white/black colors for Wudang students. Our school decided to stand-out with red tops and typical black baggy gongfu pants. Shaolin monks wear basic sashes (not ranked sashes, which is a Japanese/westernization style) on top of their uniform, Wudang students don't wear a sash at all for a more free-form uniform (some Disciples are given a sash as part of their discipleship), so our compromise is a sash underneath the long top. Our sash system was designed specifically for our western audience that prefer a sash/belt ranking system at the school (traditional Chinese martial arts doesn't use a sash/belt ranking system).
Both styles have the sword sashes on the right side of the uniform, along with frog buttons, and both styles utilize the martial art white socks. We use Fei Yue's as our shoes to remain consistent with local & international gongfu tournaments, as well as their recognition as the most popular style of shoes for traditional Chinese martial artists. Our Taiji students are allowed to wear the black/white Cloud shoes often worn in Wudangshan.
We do not teach Wushu, which is a highly regulated and modern style of Chinese martial arts. Wushu is the national martial art sport of China, meant to unify Chinese martial arts. Wushu is often characterized by it's bright, silky uniforms and performative, flashy/acrobatic martial art movements. We highly respect wushu, but we prefer & teach the much older styles of gongfu.
No, we do not do Point Sparring at our school, but rather we practice Sanda Sparring, which is the typical sparring found in Chinese martial art tournaments, unlike Karate/Taekwondo tournaments. Sanda Sparring is Chinese kickboxing, combining elements of fighting found in our forms with throwing techniques. Sanda matches run 2 min per match, 1 min breaks in between, best of 3 matches. More information can be found HERE.
We do not offer this as a public service. We currently already work with organizations and schools that have earned our trust. We've worked hard and have taken all the liability and debt of building a school from the ground-up, so we're not keen on letting others build their school on top of the environment we've had to carefully create.
We do not believe in long-term contracts, hidden fees or nickle & diming our students. We're very transparent with our process. All memberships are month-to-month, "Use it or Lose it" policy for all 8 classes in the month. Students are allowed to put their account on-hold or terminate their membership as long as they do it a week before the end of the month.
Students pay for:
Initial Admin Fees (this covers your onboarding & supplies)
Monthly membership dues (due on the 1st of every month via auto-payment)
Uniforms & shoes
Testing Fees for sashes
We do not. While many Americanized schools will teach a combo of Karate/Taekwondo/Kungfu, our school specializes strictly in Chinese Martial Arts, specifically Northern Shaolin & Wudang-pai Gongfu/Kungfu.
We try to preserve Chinese culture involved with gongfu, such as speaking in Mandarin, following Chinese traditions & history, having the inside of our school simulate the interior of a training temple in China, having strong ties with the Chinese community in Utah, etc.
It would be impossible for us to give that experience to students if we blended Karate (a Japanese martial art) and Taekwondo (a Korean martial art) into our system. We highly recommend students specialize in a style rather than learn from a school that doesn't give a full experience of any type of culture.
This is also part of our responsibility of passing on our lineage given us to by our masters in gongfu, and rather than give a hybrid mix, it allows us to teach our students the same way as if they traveled to train in China.
In regards to legitimacy, there is no national regulatory body for martial arts school, unfortunately. However, our school's owner, Lei Shao Long, has been certified by the China Wudang Kungfu Academy, located in Wudangshan, Hubei, China, under the Taiji Instructor Program, as well as given an Honorary Coaching Certificate, and is Master Cheng Tsang Lu's Disciple of Master Lu's Health Center, Salt Lake City, UT. He's also a former MCMAP Instructor in the United States Marine Corps.
The term "McDojo" is often a term given to fake martial art studios, studios without a proper lineage, no active sparring taking place and/or wild claims, such as death techniques, forbidden techniques or energy/chi projecting techniques.
We take a very pragmatic, realistic approach to our training. We try to stick with the same type of training found at the China Wudang Kungfu Academy in China, which involves strength training, conditioning, acrobatics, a lot of forms and Taijiquan. However, we also incorporate Sanda sparring into our training - the Chinese version of sparring, which combines throws with kickboxing and fighting skills found in gongfu. All legitimate martial art schools should have some sort of combative-element to it; you should shy away from any school that specializes in just forms or situation-based self defense techniques. We don't make bold claims that we will make you a deadly, invincible fighter or learn crazy techniques you'll see in movies, such as throwing chi/qi/energy as a weapon. However, we will give you the groundwork to holding your own in self-defense. Nothing we teach is a secret.
To our school, gongfu is a way of life - not just a sport. We incorporate as much history, culture & tradition as we can into our school. Our aim is to give you all the foundations typically found and expected in gongfu, the Shaolin temple and Wudangshan, giving you a strong foundation of ethics, discipline, forms, acrobatics, speaking Mandarin, conditioning & strength, Chinese lion dancing, culture and fighting skills from sparring. If you were to go train overseas at a school in China, you'd be completely comfortable.
If your goal was only learning how to fight or fighting professionally, we won't discourage you from looking into contact-only sports such as boxing, muay thai or MMA. Our school has a focus on traditional training, and while it certainly has it's limitations, our purpose teaching Chinese gongfu is much more broad in approach.
Ultimately, it's up to the student on how they want to continue their martial arts journey after training with us, whether it'd be specializing in professional Sanda sparring, competing in forms in national/international tournaments, or learning a new martial art altogether. We highly respect all types of martial arts.
bottom of page