White crane kung fu?

[BuddhaFist]

Can someone give me some information on White Crane Kung Fu? I recently moved to a new city, and want to study kung fu. I was looking for a style such as Hung Gar or Choy Li Fut, but the only thing I found here is a school teaching White Crane and a few Wing Chun schools.

The White Crane school is taught or owned by Master Ruhu Zhu, but I don't know a lot about White Crane and in fact, did not realize Crane had its' own system outside of 5 animals (what can I say...I'm very new to kung fu obviously).

Is White Crane a northern, or southern style? Is it based more on hand techniques or does it use an equal amount of kicks and foot maneuvers?

Any info. (especially if any you have studied it directly) would be very helpful.

[Kymus]

My Grandmaster used to teach White Crane and Invinsible Crane. I asked him one day what the difference was, and he said that White Crane is more like Tai Chi, and Invinsible Crane was more like Long Fist. Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming teaches White Crane, you could go to his website at http://www.ymaa.com and see if that will help any. Or, you can try to back order the oct/nov/dec (forget which) issue of Inside Kung Fu. My Grandmaster did an article on Crane. There is another system called Fukian Crane also. I believe that Crane is a northern style emphasising kicks and long arm techniques (someone correct me if I got my facts screwed up). Hope that helps

[Judge Pen]

The white crane that I have seen is Northern with emphasis on kicks and footwork, but I've not seen Fukien White Crane. I would assume that this is a Southern style given its origins.

[Kymus]

Originally posted by Judge Pen
The white crane that I have seen is Northern with emphasis on kicks and footwork, but I've not seen Fukien White Crane. I would assume that this is a Southern style given its origins.

Yea, I know really nothing about it either, but I'd agree with what you said on it's southern emphasis

[GLW]

Tibetan Crane is the one usually referred to as a long arm style.

Fukien Crane (which happens also to be the root of the one for YMAA listed earlier) is a southern short fist style. In fact, if you go with Wing Chun being a snake Crane combination, this is the variant of Crane that was a root of that style.

If you are looking at Fukien Crane, be aware that a lot of the training has to do with whipping power. You will need to prepare for some grueling times to get the appropriate Fajing. It also can be bad for anyone with spinal or neck problems (all of the jerking of the spine and waist) so choose wisely.

[Judge Pen]

Is there an E-Mei crane style as well? I thought I've seen it referenced here from time to time.

[BuddhaFist]

Wow, thanks for the replies! I called the school and got a recorded message referring me to their website for more information. Well, I checked it out and judging from your posts, I assume they are teaching Fukien White Crane, because they mention it being a Southern style? Anyway, here is what is listed on their site:

"White Crane School of Kung Fu is one of China's more varied and unusual styles. Some of its characteristics is the ability to combine strength and flexibility. Hard and Soft. This Southern style of Kung Fu has Five main forms:

* Leaping Crane- stretching and leaping with speed and prowess

* Flying Crane - coordination of strength and flexibilityy with swift movements and body awareness

* Calling Crane - strong and powerful voice with energy and concentration; when combined, power is released

* Resting Crane - rest to conserve strength and to intercept forthcoming attacks

* Feeding Crane - highly combative style; aggressiveness and vigor to initiate combat"

['MegaPoint]

Fukien White Crane is the style of Chuan Fa which influenced Okinawan karate the most. Many of the principles are seen in Shorin Ryu and Okinawan Goju Ryu. For example, the most advanced kata in Matsumura Orthodox Shorin Ryu (the original methods of Bushi Sokon Matsumura founder of Shuri Te) is called "Hakutsuru", or "White Crane Form".

It is a good style to learn especially for hand techniques, close in fighting and Chin Na. The kicks are generally to the lower body, and high kicks are nonexistent for the most part. It is a good combo of external and internal theory. Very solid style.

Feeding Crane was the art that Hohan Soken, founder of Matsumura Orthodox Shorin Ryu and familial successor to Bushi Matsumura's style, trained in Taiwan in the middle of the 20th century. This helped him to understand his style's Shaolin and Crane roots.

Anyway, if the shifu is proficient, it would be a good style to get a solid foundation in.

Good luck

[HopGar]

That's Fujian (Fukien) if I'm right. Tibetan White Crane doesn't have different crane sub-styles from what I remember. Here's a site that has a lot of information. It has alot of tibetan martial art terms so it might be a bit confusing. http://www.tibetankungfu.com/tibetan_kung-fu.htm

[Ren Blade]

I study with Dr. Yang in Boston. Our White Crane is southern and in southern Crane, hands is the emphasis. Kicks are there but not as great in variety as our Long Fist. In our crane, the power is mostly generated in the waist, spine and chest and whips out power through the arms and past the hands. Emphasis is in close fighting for trapping/sticking, chin na/locks, and take downs/throws. Kicks are mainly used for kicking at the opponent's legs either to damage them or trip them. All the stances have the knees turned inward and can be harsh and damaging to a beginner's knees. It's not an exciting and fancy style and the subtle details in body mechanics makes this style of Crane very complex and difficult to grasp. It's a very practical fighting system once you can grasp the body mechanics and principles. But yet with the movements you can spend a lifetime trying to get deeper into this art as it has no end to it's depth.

[Buddha_Fist]

Darn! There are now 2 Buddha Fists here!

[Ren Blade]

Will the real Buddha Fist please stand up?

[red5angel]

also, as an aside, you mentioned wingchun in the area, it's rumored wingchun has some crane in it, snake too. I'd go ask the wingchun guyts about it if your interested

[Ren Blade]

Someone mentioned to me that Wing Chun is a combination of Snake and Crane. I can see the similarities of some of the Wing Chun movements in our White Crane. Wing Chun movements seem stiffer though. But that's just from an observation and talking with other Wing Chun practitioners I met. Wing Chun's a good art to fight right away with.

[BuddhaFist]

I didn't know there already was a Buddha Fist here. So let me humbly acknowledge that he is the ORIGINAL BuddhaFist and I am but a clone. Lol

I'm going to watch a class at the White Crane school tomorrow evening, so I'll see if it looks like a good fit for me. I'm also going to watch a Wing Chun class, because I've heard that style is a bit easier on beginners. Not that I'm looking for an easy workout, because I plan to bust my hump training as much as possible, but at 6'3" and 230 pounds I'm not exactly light as a feather to be doing jumping kicks, etc.