Praying Mantis style.

[zmaj]

I'v just been to a tournament for chinese martial arts, specificly Wu Hsing Chuan 25th aniversary held in St. Louis and making it a first ever CMA tournament in STL.

There were different ways of competition, everything really, empty hand forms, weapon forms, two mans sets armed and unarmed, tai chi forms, push hands, wu shu and off course the main event for me...sparring.

There were people from lots of diferent major styles, including students of a Southern Praying Mantis, Citong Shaolin, Lohan Shaolin, Hung Gar, Wing Chun, and several other style that I couldnt make out the logos on the shirts.

One of those was a Praying Mantis school that came to compete and in sparring dominated their fights, there were few students that lost too but i assumed they were beginers because they kept loosing they'r stance and would just get beaten as they try to back off looking very confused and unstable.

Anyway, the fighters that stuck to the game plan stayed in a what to me looks a little bit like a longer cat stance with both their hands out, one closer in to the body with both wrist bent down, i guess as to resemble a mantis, they used very little kicks if any and simply would let their opponents move close enough and just level them to the ground with what looked like a ridge hand. I was very impresed with the power of what looked like weak strikes and simplicity of their defence that looked like it should never work and the guys that tryed to brake it found them selves in trouble fast.

School had black t-shirts with a small logo on the front left side and on the back had a big logo, a circle and a mantis pictures on the left of the circle and what looked like a tai chi man on the right of the circle, through the middle were characters that came out the bottom of the circle.

I know that lot of people say, its not the style, its the person or its finding the right instructor, or its the better man that win the fight, but something is definetly right with this style or their school because they won flawlesly while others had a hard time winning fights and lotts of them actually even advancing on their opponents earning too many fouls.

What was also neat was that they stayed in that stance the entire time, while some other styles came out and took a stance and as the fight would start would just start looking like kickboxers, nothing to do with art or technique over strenght. There was another school that stayed in the same fighting stance, something that looked like a horse stance and they'r hands would be stomach level, palms up and motioned like they'r rolling a ball. But that just didnt make sence to me because i think it would be fairly easy to work around that.

So, hopefully someone can help me with what mantis style this was or perhaps even what school?

I looked everywhere online and i cant even find a gallery that has praying mantis practitoners in the same fighting stance.

[Three Harmonies]

Sorry dude that is rather vague :o . You should have just asked. Are they from St Louis?
Cheers
Jake :D

[Willow Palm]

Wow! First I'll say I'm glad to hear other schools that fight like they practice. I get tired of seeing CMA people performing forms one way, but sparring another. The fighting style sounds similar to ours but that's not saying much-who knows...

Best of Luck,
Warren

[EarthDragon]

zmaj
As three harmonies has said your asking is a little vague. It could be 1 of many mantis styles that cant be judged simply by the logo silk screened on a shirt.

Our system is 8 step mantis and our shirts have this same circle on the back and chinese characters on he front but one would not know this simply by observation.

Also the actual mantis stance is a posture you end up in after a fighting application, not used to fight from. This might be the intent of the instructor to show his style's flavor in a controlled type of environment like a tournement.

However in a real fighting situation the flavor of the stlye would show through in the techniques not in the stance. So this to me seems a little confusing. Was this judged as point sparring?

[zmaj]

Well, unfortunetly i had to leave early because i had to get to work, and the competitors were still inside of the competition area....to clear that up, an indoor soccer field was used and spectators were seperated by a net and a small wall from the practitioners, so i couldnt exactly get up and start screaming for information. Masters demonstration from all the competing schools were gonna be held right after sparring, only 30 min after i had to leave, i was really dissapointed i didnt get to stay for that.

I'm hopeing this style has a branch somewhere near by because if they'r from a different city it wont do me much good.

As willow palm said, its really good to have seen artists fight the way they practice, its really bad going to tkd classes and learning cool kicks only to figure out you cant use them in self defence situations because they'r high risk, or taking karate classes in a style thats based on flowing with the attack and countering and then when learning sparring beind told to take the hits head on, so many styles out there contradict them selves and I'm hopeing i finally found one thats worth the effort. Thats if I do find them... :)

[Oso]

have you tried contacting the promoter of the event?

[mufty]

Compitition sucks just study hard practice hard and learn. Its easy to win a tournement, just play the rules and get a plastic trophy. Its hard to actually perform your martial art and not win a trophy. :o

[zmaj]

guys tnx for all the help but i tracked down a different mantis school, equally impresive to me

[BeiTangLang]

but if the students arms that were fighting looked like a praying mantises front arms extended (arms not forward but in a "V" shape) Chances are it was a Southern Mantis school.
If it was on of Mr.Henry Poo Yee's off-shoot schools, you can bet your b#tt they were fighting pure to form (as it should be).
They are "kindred spirits". I enjoy their company.
~BTL

[zmaj]

i did get to talk to few people that were there and i finally figured out some things, the school that i saw was a northern mantis out of town school

[Sifu Darkfist]

Well where to begin? I don’t want to be presumptuous, however the elongated “cat stance is most likely a sixty forty or what we call in Wutang the fighting stance also known as the monkey stance.

The hands were in what we call a closed-door position that allows nothing to pass into vital areas such as what Wing Chungers might call the centerline, i.e. the eyes throat groin heart etc.

Now as to the hand position, it sounds as if either someone knows the ”touch and go” or they saw it and decided to use it. In ordinary terms, the arm position forms a wedge that can penetrate the opponent’s defense on initial contact if the attack is relentlessly fast without forethought. It is from Northern styles adapted for many others over time. Great Grand Master Li Shu Wen was notorious for this start in his Ba Ji. However, the origin is too far back to pin point.

Those that know of Grandmaster Liu will attest to this method of entry. I am pleased that it has taken hold in competition most of those prolific with it are not competitors.