Mantis Videos...

[MantisKungFu]

I was wondering if anyone here could give their opinions on Praying Mantis videos? There is a local kung fu academy that teaches a variation of Praying Mantis Kung Fu, but it's not entirely 8 step or 7 star or wah lum. I was thinking of purchasing a few videos to help compliment the training.

What are your thoughts on doing this? Do you have any personal experiences with Praying Mantis videos? What are some good ones? What are some videos to stay away from? Are the videos helpful just by themselves, or do I really need to see a teacher? Any opinion is welcome. Thanks for your time,

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"It is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"

[EARTH DRAGON]

As they say you can only learn so much from a book! and less from a video! its OK to watch videos to help you understsnd what you have learned or to see the techniques from diffrerent angles but it will never and should never take the place of a real teacher.

http://www.kungfuUSA.net

[taichi108]

Hello MantisKungfu, I agree with Earthdragon, you will never get good instruction from a tape. You can get ideas on how a Sifu executes movements or how his or her structure is etc. I don't know how long you have been at this, but I would say get a good foundation and focus on what you have on your plate now, before looking at tapes.

ps: Where in Vermount is the school? I will be in Burlington the 20-28 Dec.


Good Luck

Steve

[MantisKungFu]

Thanks for your thoughts guys. The school is called the Vermont Kung Fu Academy. It is located on Pearl Street in Essex Junction. Here is the website for exact location/info. Please give it a try and let me know what you think!
http://www.vermontkungfu.com

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"It is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"

[7kicks]

I just wanted to give you a little info that might help you out and might not you decide. The links at the vermont kung fu academy list it's sister school as Michael Mecaris kung fu academy in Billerica massachusetts. Basically what this guy has done is totally trash the wah lum system of kung fu. He mixes in jujitsu and added a colored belt system. These students think they are getting wah lum but unfortunately all they are getting is a watered down version.

[Tainan Mantis]

John Scolaro and I did 3 two man forms in a competition about 10 years ago. One kung fu brother who was forbidden from learning such material video taped the show.
Later he taught that material to his students. They did it quite well and this surprised me as we did the moves so fast. Two empty hand forms and spear vs saber.

On an unrelated note; my teacher was extremely angry when he went to a kung fu show and saw people he didn't even know doing his kung fu. It took him about half a second to put two and two together at which time he went to that student/teacher who had done the taping and demanded US $1500, which was promptly given to him.

A judo friend said , Kevin look at my Taichi. He did some Chen style, not a master but pretty good. As there are only a few people who can teach that in this city I named his teacher to which he said, no. I learned it from a book and then saw a video. He swore it up and down that he had never ever had any kung fu training.

When I was a kid, before videos were available, I studied TKD. But more than anything I wanted to learn kung fu. So I tried to learn forms from books. The only one I finished was Wah Lum 1st form. It is very well detailed in the book. I had a lot of fun trying to copy the forms from books. This was before I found out that this type of fun is against the rules.

Later my TKD teacher saw me do the form in his school. Apparently there is some unwritten rule about doing kung fu in a TKD school. He was able to squash that little hobby out of me.

Later I finally got into a Wah Lum school and learned that form for real. I think this caused me to appreciate the form more than the other students there.

Later I studied in a seminar with Lee Koon Hong of Choy Li Fut. As he was selling a spear book I bought it. On the way home as I was looking thru the pictures, my Wah Lum Sifu says, " know what I'd do if my student learned that form from the book?"
"No."
"That would be the last spear form they ever learned from me."
Later I mentioned this to my musician friends, they thought this attitude just squashes the creativity out of your mind.

Of course if my teacher said,"Okay, this form I'm going to teach you I learned from a book."
I'm sure I wouldn't like that. But once at my Taiwan Shr-fu's house he showed us a book of a form he'd learned as a kid. He'd traced all the pics and put them in a notebook. I think that is because he couldn't afford to buy the book.

In closing, learning from books and videos is fun and educational. But like other teachers have mentioned, you can't become a master on whitebread alone.