Why is it that Praying Mantis is so effective for fighting?

[BeiTangLang]

"theoretical kung fu"?? Everything is a theory untill its tested & used by a serious practitioner; Including your book.
The information therein is taught by traditional schools, its just that sometimes it is overlooked or under-practiced by the practitioners of the arts.
Fact is, they are all very awsome & which one is best is very hard to distuguish. This is a fact that I am quite proud of. The art that I chose was not of which one Was the "end-all-be all" system, Its the art that fits my personality, is traditional, and Works.
~BTL

[Hua Lin Laoshi]

I'm with you on that BeiTangLang! The best one is the one that's right for you.

[Art D]

The creative person is aways more important than the style.
we talk about pm like it is something out there on it's own, it is the expression of people. Frist wong long, then & then & then all people. the more creative the more devlopment the less creative = the herd, what makes it is the persons expression of it. Any new and interesting mantis out there? I hope so

[mantiskilla]

What other arts do you study besides mantis? Just wondering what your thoughts are on "learning", not just dabbling, in different arts. As some people believe in learning many different arts, and some believe in staying with one. I personally like to read about as many differnent arts as I can, but prefer to study only one. Dont think Im smart enough to start combining different styles into effective fighting techniques.

[Pong Lai]

I agree with my Sifu (ArtD) and his imput.

To be proficient in your style you must have it all.

Form (Sun Fa=Body movement)
Stamina/Power/Strength (Gong Li)
Skill/Tech (Ji Shu)

It is not just about skill alone, otherwise as it has been said, all PM practioners would be on top!

Also the skill aspect is often lacking being preacticed at a more agressive level. Every (99%) of two person drills/applications/sparring require your forearms to be invovled. As a beginner, if you are not exiting class with bruised forearms you interaction is lacking agressiveness. If you lack agressiveness that is when you pick up bad habits and true understanding of body movement/form, etc. These examples are just a portion of an explanation.

Outcome, if you posess on one or two of the above attributes and you fight someone whom has all three, you more than likely will be defeated. If you just have skill and lack conditioning/stamina, you will have a hard time applying all those good tech and counters. Not saying it would be impossible if drilled regularly, but much more difficult.

Enough said for the moment, I think most can grasp what little I have wrote.

Message for Sifu seunggafaat:
My business is taking me to the DC more and more. I traveled there recently but failed to locate many school names in the yellow pages. I will be in DC July 23-26 and would like to hook up with you. Could you let me know your schedule at that time and contact numbers? You may email me at john@americantowel.com
Thanks.

[Art D]

Mantiskilla
I foucs on Mantis & Chen Taiji & wrestling
I do beleive that mantis is very well rounded and complete in it's aprouch, when looking a different arts you will find that mantis has within it all the elements need to be well rounded.& has exceptionaly good traping and close range fighting (ecept gound fighting from the clintch, athough it may be out there I have not crossed it in my study) I do taiji for its smoothness and wrestling abilities, & bjj & western wrestling for ground elements.
As for the learning the part of your ? you need extented time w/ good teachers and I would sugest that you don't jump around too much if you have a good one. although no one has it all .To develope you need a mentor,. that guides you and dose not wish to own you.
We all are MA ist, only from different times & expereancesThe idea of shareing and openness need to be apparent in your learning.

[Dachengdao]

As a grandmaster of the Hao style Mei Hua Northern Mantis Taijee form, I should be happy to endorse your comments. However, in truth, there is no one form that is superior over all the forms in fighting. Regardless of the form studied, you need three ingrediants for fighting success: a good teacher, a dedicated student, and the internalization of the art form. I would be happy to elaborate further if anyone is interested, then EMail me.
Happy 4th of July to All!
Master Wang

[Art D]

Yea sounds right.
we have been talking alot about it being the person that makes the differenc in a fighter,but to the point of the thred. What do you think mantis as a style brings to the fight?

[flem]

what it brings to the fight...


i think the main thing is the allusive nature of the style as a whole- by that i mean the use of angles in defense and attack. i see this as the advancement(new styles) i spoke of earlier. it seems to me that with the exception of the forms, the tao of jeet kune do that i mentioned earlier works hand in hand with mantis- covering the center line, opening the opponent's, relying heavily on good footwork, creating openings with false attacks, right down to jkd's stance.

[Art D]

Flem

I think so too. the JKd approch is a new mix that mantis got 400 years ago . I like to keep the freshness of the jdd approach and use the more developed mantis technique. w/ the time and development mantis is much more intergrated and seemless.

[flem]

artd,

seamless is a good word, i tink mantis in itself does for the practioner in one style what lee did- it allows one to subtract what doesn't work for them- as it covers so much.
the only things i would improve on today are as you said good ground work and boxing's bob and weave- not just the skill, but using it as a science as a good boxer does. oh, and since we added full contact sparring, i realize now that it is absolutely necessary, of course most schools don't because of legality, but they'll just get it handed to them when they go against those that do- whether they are on the pm pedestal or not!

by the way, i don't have your email address

[yu shan]

In Mantis, there is ground work/take downs. As for so called "bob and weave" you just have not been taught, sorry for you...

[mantiskilla]

Never done Bjj, but out of the arts that you mentioned I believe, from what Ive observed, that western wrestling is the quickest way to learn how to move explosively. Bjj is probably the same way, but Ive never really seen too much. What do you think about how to train explosiveness? Do you think western wrestling/bjj adds explosivenee to your ather arts? Or viceversa? Thanks.

[Art D]

YS

Of cource pm has take downs . What I'm talking about is wrestling,clinched up on the ground.

Yes mantis has many ways of dealing w/ it so that dose not happen. yes this is not where you want to go in a fight ,wrestling leaves you open to a 2nd attack, thus many ways to avoid it .

when it dose happen I have not come across a pm training method for it .
the beutie is that once you have some basics of how to work on your back, how to pass a gard and mount then there's lots of use of your mantis from the groung.

[Art D]

mantiskilla

I find mantis to be the more explosive of the ones that i do. the foot work, fa jin trainning, the whole nature of PM is fast and explosive.
the ground work for me just brodens my options from very specific possions in a fight.
to work on your expolsiveness try practiceing one road of a set and blast it