For how many years do you plan to practice your martial art if this is all that it is about? Brutal as this looks- it is a sport and not real fighting. Preferring to get hit harder and hitting your training partners harder because it is "more realistic" actually amounts to you kidding yourself. There are a lot of people out there with absolutely no formal training that can do the same thing. What do you really expect to learn from your school? The poise alone already tells you that these monks learnt more than just fighting. Knowledge of techniques like the Golden Bell Cover as demonstrated above is disappearing. So also with the more mundane Iron Shirt technique. We can't allow this knowledge, and the abilities it brings, to disappear in history. Sparring with a Pushing Hands expert is a worthwhile experience. I really hope that the next generation of martial artists will also have the opportunity to do so. No. It is not real