Bears and Bear kung-fu...anyone?

[Former castleva]

Does anyone know anything at all about bear style kung-fu?
I believe there are some forms in some styles,but it seems that it is pretty much forgotten or very secret,badly-known art.Similar question was once presented at www.dragonslist.com but nobody seemed to know much.
Any input appreciated,light or heavy..

[The Willow Sword]

in ba to's 5 animal frolics the bear is one of the animals. from my experience with the motions the style itself is geared more for extreme rootedness and grappling and pushing.
the native american indians have a style of wrestling called bear.
it is mainly a wrestling and grappling style but not for the same reasons as would say a bjj style would be. the stepping and the movements are very similar to pakua, but the difference is alot of "clearing of the space" type movements and lots of knocking and battering and wrestling.

Many Respects,,The Willow Sword

[Former castleva]

Thanks a lot.
That was pretty new to me.
I think I´ve heard something like it´s an offensive style but that´s it.
Thanks.

[ged]

i had a friend who studied ninjitsu, who preferred bear style - is that the same? to me, it seemed the same as a basic praying matis faceup - hands apart, reading to move in on anything approaching the centre. i never saw anything more detailed than that.

[NorthernMantis]

Well I've heard that there is a bear form in ba-ji but you need to ask the emperor of ba-ji on that one.

[dragontounge2]

I like bears. One time me and a friend were walking along a trail and we saw a black bear up in a tree so we walked right by it not to disturb it and watta you know the bear flings its self off the tree like its crazy or some shyt like that and lands right on top of my friend the bear got his shoulder blade with like 2 of its claws
I could see the pain on my friends face so I jump and grabed a tree branch broke it off and hit the bear. I wolluped that D@mn thing as hard as i could right on its nose the bear became enraged and stood up on its hind legs growling at me I told my friend to slowly walk off and hide some where. Well the bear lunged at me forcing all of its weight to the front paws trying to grab me. This went on for a while then for the bears last time to get up and try to grab me and kill me right when it stood up I got right into the belly chest area of the bear I blocked its paws by bringing them up around its head using the inner part of my arm. Then I felt a tear and slash in my leg the bear had stuck hit foot claws right into my thigh. I screamed a blood curdling scream which drove the bear crazy. It began to wiggle around and try to back off but I had it in a lock the bear was about 6 foot I then rembered I had my boot dagger on me it was about a 6 inch blade I brought my leg up pulled the dagger out stabed the bear in the neck the slashed to the right and pushed the bear over. I then opend a bottle of rum I had on me drank about half the bottle and poured the rest on my shreded leg. And wrapped my shirt around the wound. I then found my friend laying down in some shrubs I got him up and walked back to the truck and drove to the hospital. They gave us some morphine and I had to get 130 stitches in my thigh. And my friend had to wear a neck collar and got 30 stitches in his shoulder. Oh, It was hard as hell to drive to that hospital bleeding and drunk.

[ged]

sweet brother. so long as you screwed the bear's wife senseless after that, you have my respect.

[NorthernMantis]

Wow!Now that's what I call s bsttle to the death!:eek: Not many people take on bears.

[Kristoffer]

Dragon.. :D That's like the biggest bunch of BS story I've heard in a looooOOnng time. "pushed the bear over". Oh man, your not even trying to make it sound true :D

[David Jamieson]

Hsing I contains the twelve animals. One of which is bear.

I think that bear is pretty much held by the hsing i styles and perhaps a village/family style or two.

As a stand alone system? I am unsure.

But, if you want to know more about "bear" kungfu, talk to your freindly neighborhood hsing i practitioner.

The twelve animals fall into the "advanced" category of study in hsing i, so ask an advanced student or a teacher about specifics.

peace

[Former castleva]

Thanks all.
And dragontongue,quite a story;)

[dragontounge2]

Well the story isnt true. But What the hell you cant push a limp @ss bear over. Come on it only like 400 pounds and unbalanced.