Styles of Mantis

[Mega_Fist]

My mate told me about the different styles of mantis-

7* - hard, forceful, external, small range
8 step - hard, extended, long range
6 harmony - soft, internal, small range
Plum Blossom - hard/soft, internal, small range

Please talk about this and add more if you want. Just thought you might want to hear about what my mate said.

hardcore mega_fist

[onyomi]

I wouldn't use "external" and "internal" so much as "soft outside-hard insided" and "hard outside-soft inside." 7* belongs to the former and 6 Harmony to the latter. You could say Plum Flower lies somewhere between. All the other styles are like subdivisions or extrapolations on these three major styles. 7* could also be described as more "direct" and Plum Flower more "deceptive."

All Mantis styles are basically mid to short-range styles. I would guess maybe Longfist Mantis might be the most longe-range oriented, and I've never studied Babu, so I can't really comment, but versus Longfist, Praying Mantis has a greater emphasis on getting in to medium or close range. These are the best ranges to make full use of the Praying Mantis hand techniques, which focus a lot on trapping, hooking, qinna, and make use of the fingers more than most styles.

[Sifu Darkfist]

Your freind is correct about the ranges. In fact there is one style thats even closer than seven star, Mimen or closed door praying mantis very rare indeed.
Ony, is also right about deception although Mimen is more likely to practice this.

Plum flower is based on the petals of a flower and coordinates attacks of 5 and 7 respectively depending on the skill level of the fighter.
Also it must be understood that there are several flavors of plum blossom each have wonderfull characteristics. Im sure others that post here will have important comments to help you understand as well.

[JaguarWarrior]

7* could also be described as more "direct" and Plum Flower more "deceptive."

What do you mean by this?

[ChaoticMantis]

Here is my 2 cents. Should we start discussingon what all northern praying mantis styles have in common? Then we move on discuss various sister styles’ specialties?

[JaguarWarrior]

Here is my 2 cents. Should we start discussingon what all northern praying mantis styles have in common? Then we move on discuss various sister styles’ specialties?

Sounds good to me.

[ninjaboy]

i disagree with the idea of putting everything in neat little packages so that people can say "this is this" and "that is that". it's a narrow vision of what we all study. i think over-compartmentalization takes us away from the concept that, at a high level, all of these ranges and skills should be available to the mantis practitioner, regardless of branch. understanding hard, soft, internal, external, direct movement, deceptive movement etc is a part of every branch, eventually. this is the only way you will ever see the "big picture" that mantis really is. just step a w a y from the box and stop putting stuff in it.

sincerely,

neil

[Oso]

i disagree with the idea of putting everything in neat little packages so that people can say "this is this" and "that is that". it's a narrow vision of what we all study. i think over-compartmentalization takes us away from the concept that, at a high level, all of these ranges and skills should be available to the mantis practitioner, regardless of branch. understanding hard, soft, internal, external, direct movement, deceptive movement etc is a part of every branch, eventually. this is the only way you will ever see the "big picture" that mantis really is. just step a w a y from the box and stop putting stuff in it.

sincerely,

neil

neil has seized the correct and chopped it into little pieces so we can all understand it.



fwiw, I feel that this is sorta what Shiye Shi Zheng Zhong is getting at with his integration of the different branches...but I've only been doing PL a bit over 2 years and only trained under him once, so I may be mistaken.

[EarthDragon]

Neil agreed,
however we must also keep in mind the flavor of the different stlyes to differentiate them.

This may be confused with characterisitcs but each of the branches brings something different to the table. But I agree with your comments being able to use every aspect of the style.-

[onyomi]

With the exception of Eight Step, which is a new style created in Taiwan, the idea that 7*, Meihua and Liuhe are different "styles" of Mantis is incorrect. They are all part of the complete martial art that is Northern Mantis. With the exception of 8 Step, which takes several traditional forms and adds a different flavor and emphasis, the other "styles" of Mantis are really more like "aspects" or "areas of emphasis" than they are "styles." They are definitely not equivalent to say, the different styles of Taiji (well, Eight Step might be compared to Sun Taiji as they are both newer styles incorporating new elements). The old masters differentiated themselves into these groupings according to their specializations. One who was really good at the Meihua hands started a school and called his "Meihua Mantis." Another who was especially good at the 7* footwork started a school and called it "7* Mantis" to differentiate between his school and the other.

Wang Song Ting is known as a 7* master because his lineage was especially good at the 7* forms, footwork, etc. He also knew Six Harmony footwork, Meihua hands, Guangban palm techniques, etc. He also knew and taught Canghua, Shuangfeng, etc. By the same token, do you think Ding-zi Cheng or Zhang Xiang San never practiced Beng-bu or Lan-jie just because their lineage is known as "Six-Harmony"? The idea that you would study ONLY Six Harmony Mantis or ONLY 7* Mantis is a modern and, imo, incorrect one.