Technique or Might

Layn snapped his fingers. He could shout, clasp his hands together. There was no specific rule as to what kind of action had to be used to release a classical spell.

'If I remember correctly, some practiced to do so with farts,' Layn smiled to his memories. In there, a specific faction of the academy took quite a lot of space. A faction that believed that classical magic was supreme and decided to give up on any other kind of magic. 

While stupid by itself, Layn discovered that their ideas for the classical magic itself weren't that idiotic, though. 

Releasing a spell with a fart surely sounds ridiculous... Unless one considers a situation where two mages are fighting with just the classic magic. In such a situation, using a fart to release a spell meant doing so without the other side noticing, as opposed to how Layn snapped his fingers to do the same.