Hi, Grim
Thanks for the update on your e-mail. By the way, who is teaching you 8 step green mantis, anyway? I am not familiar with any instructors in your area. As far as the form, there will always be some subtle differences according to just personal style and where your teacher got his information from. The more branches in the lineage, sometimes the more the information is changed, unfortunately. In any case, at least you know that this is actually session 4. The strange slipping-type walk in this form only occurs in session 4, so it was sort of easy for me to identify. As for the kicks, my kicks look a little different than other 8 step guys because they bleed over from my original system of Bok Fu (White Tiger). The vertical kick is special, though and is called a bow/arrow kick. It is for take down purposes mainly...of course if you could kick directly under the attacker's chin, you could certainly take his head off! I can't do that kick too well now... I feel that being in my 40's sort of holds me back physically sometimes! Anyway, good luck with your learning 8 step. I will drop you a note later. I am now going to close that link since you have seen it.
Bokfu
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin