An insight to the mantis fighting art
Chow Gar Praying Mantis kung fu is a close in fighting system,from Dong Gwong area china, it's a close in range fighting style its famous for the phoenix eye fist and hammer hand, iron shirt & conditioning training and Dim Mak (pressure points), kicks are usually no higher then waist hight. But in training we practices to kick head hight. Unlike the nothern style praying mantis kung fu the southern don't mimic the insect in looks but in theory instead. And the aim is to develop the gen (shock) power like the mantis would use the sharp and lightning quick moves that allow the insect to stun its prey.Throughout the student concentrates on making the mind & body stronger. By conducting hard and soft chi (hay) gung exercises and two person drills, when the student is learning the system they must remember that in a fight the body can only take so much punishment before it would give way. So the later forms help to develop dodging to avoid getting hit, also the technique for attacking from the sides. The mantis system has many strength building exercises to help develop short sharpe energy power (gen) for close in fighting. Chow gar southern praying mantis kung fu is a complete fighting system that covers forms, sparring, and weapons plus much more.
Forms
Chow Gar Southern praying Mantis Kung Fu has many forms they all serve a purpose in one way or another. Three Step Arrow Punch (Sarm Bo Jin) is found in most southern mantis styles and is usually the first from that is taught in this system, It helps to develop the body, muscles, bones, and tendons and makes them stronger when doing this form. It's done at a slower pace then most other forms in other martial arts systems the reason for this is to make the body, legs and fingers stronger through tension and correct breathing. Buddhist Hands (fut Sau) this form is one of the intermediate forms, it concentrate on the fast hand movements and using power from the wrist, forearms, and waist (yue gung) unlike sarm bo jin this form is done at a fast pace. The form is very good if a student wrist & forearms become very stiff as it release the dead energy (tension) the yin & yang principle you must also remember that all the forms contain applications as well. Advanced forms like Four gates (say mun sau) the purpose of this form is you're attacking at the pressure points of the four gates of the body. Flying dragon legs (phoon loong keok) is a form design for ground floor fighting the form form stars with kicking techniques then goes to the ground.
