Why Mantis?

[naja]

Thought it might be interesting to see why you all have chosen to study a Northern Mantis system opposed to another system. Is there a particular aspect of it that you enjoy more than others, do you feel it's a more effective system, etc.....

[Oso]

trained with a guy for 12 years...thought it was mantis...it was not...became obsessed with learning real mantis so I looked for it after leaving the other guy.

[monkeyfoot]

Mantis was my first ever MA. I started out wanting to do high aerial kicks and stuff that looked amazing. I went to a casual wing chun class, no uniform etc, and thought 'urgghhh'.

So I went to watch a mantis class somewhere else. I remember seeing the 3rd road of bung bo (chest kick eye strike) and was jaw dropped. I thought it was so intricate linking hands with feet. Someone then whipped out the broadsword and someone else a staff......I was hooked.


So yea....definately was the wow factor for me.....I'm just glad 3 years down the line that I'm at a school that is more than just 'wow'.

craig

[naja]

Oso and Monkeyfoot, thanks for the info guys! I was starting to worry I wouldn't get any takers on this!

Anybody else want to share how they got interested in mantis? C'mon guys, I'm dyin to know!

[monkeyfoot]

I am surprised Mr Wong hasn't replied yet....I remember him saying something about being inspired by watching a mantis fighting a cicarda

[Paul T England]

Hi all,

I went to my mantis teacher having done various martial arts and aiming to do lion dancing and weapons with him. Later I discovered he was teaching Seven Star Mantis had Lee Kam Wing coming to do seminars at his school so I thought I would try it out. Loved the first form I learnt, Moi Fa Sau with my Sifu and Tow Fa San Doy Da with Sigung and have never looked back.

Interesting point (For me anyhow) but the only thing I knew about LKW before hand was from the Leung Ting book which a wing chun friend had given me many years pervious.

Paul
www.moifa.co.uk

[Codeboy]

Well, my reasons aren't all that exciting but here goes...

I was always interested in martial arts when I was growing up but my parents wouldn't allow me or my brother to take any classes. While in high school I really got hooked on Bruce Lee and was amazed by him, so kung fu became more interesting to me. Finally a co-worker of mine was attending at the Praying Mantis school where I lived and invited me to come to class one day. After being introduced to everyone and seeing it first hand, I was hooked. It probably helped that it is the only kung fu school in the central Michigan area too

I'm just sad it took me so long before I was able start training. I was 34 when I started and I can only look back and think where I could have been now if I had started when I was in High School!!

[naja]

I'm just sad it took me so long before I was able start training. I was 34 when I started and I can only look back and think where I could have been now if I had started when I was in High School!!

I'm in the same boat. Just started at 33, but we have the rest of our lives to train, so....

[yu shan]

My first introduction to tanglang was not that I was looking for it, I was just looking for kung fu and a good teacher. This was 1990 and in the Tampa Bay area back then it was slim to none. But I did stumble on a school over near Busch Gardens. So happen to be a Wah Lum school, the teacher was Shifu Art D`Agostino. I came in probably mid day sometime and Shifu met with me and was very nice. He had made his school sort of like a small training temple and it was pleasing. It was hot though, screened in training space with outside cement slab surrounded by banana trees. Two things that attracted me to his group, the Shifu was great and his students were very good. He had a hard core goup that trained intense, this was very attractive. So the relationship began and I still to this day benefit by meeting Shifu Art. It is how I became to know my teacher now Shifu Kevin Brazier. Because I started training tanglang, it opened many doors for me. Note: pretty much all kung fu training up to starting mantis was chop suei.

[EarthDragon]

I was a full contact black belt fighter in Okinawan Go Jyu Ryu for 6 years when I met a praying mantis master from Taiwan,

I threw a hard punch he touched me twice and threw me on the ground with minimal effort.

I tried again harder punch trying to take his head off........... he touched me twice on the other side of my body and threw me again and laughed at my defense.
I bowed and asked him to teach me............. that took 5 years before I was accepted... that was 17 years ago................ I have never seen such a complete system. ie internal, herbology, tai chi qi gong, etc etc its not just a style of kung fu .......... It is kung fu

[jigahus]

I was a full contact black belt fighter in Okinawan Go Jyu Ryu for 6 years when I met a praying mantis master from Taiwan,

I threw a hard punch he touched me twice and threw me on the ground with minimal effort.

I tried again harder punch trying to take his head off........... he touched me twice on the other side of my body and threw me again and laughed at my defense.
I bowed and asked him to teach me............. that took 5 years before I was accepted... that was 17 years ago................ I have never seen such a complete system. ie internal, herbology, tai chi qi gong, etc etc its not just a style of kung fu .......... It is kung fu

That's a good story.

[Oso]

I was a full contact black belt fighter in Okinawan Go Jyu Ryu for 6 years when I met a praying mantis master from Taiwan,

I threw a hard punch he touched me twice and threw me on the ground with minimal effort.

I tried again harder punch trying to take his head off........... he touched me twice on the other side of my body and threw me again and laughed at my defense.
I bowed and asked him to teach me............. that took 5 years before I was accepted... that was 17 years ago................ I have never seen such a complete system. ie internal, herbology, tai chi qi gong, etc etc its not just a style of kung fu .......... It is kung fu

lol...maybe this was because goju guys only know how to move in a straight line

[Qixing Tanglang]

Met a great QXTL teacher / student in Shanghai!

Rgds,
N