Someone should come up with a class on this. Lately I've been watching a lot of UFC reruns on Spike TV. I always wonder what moves, footwork, etc. from mantis could be incorporated in sport fighting, either sanshou or mma. The gloves worn in mma fighting may be more conducive to mantis, I'm not sure what they use in sanshou.
Sanshou uses a boxing glove...12-16 oz.
I think a big misconception about mantis is that it's all 'mantis hooking'
this is not true, imo, and there are plenty of pressing/sealing techniques that could be effective w/o the use of the fingers.
Do any of you watch UFC or other sport fighting and try to analyze technique? It seems that the punches are more muscle and arm generated instead of from the waist or core. Also, the kicks never come back faster than they go out, making it easy to steal someones balance. What about bouncing vs gliding, angle, or circular stepping vs. straight in? Of course you would have to scrutinize the rules to see what is allowed.
beyond attacks to the eyes, throat and groin there is nothing in any mma ruleset that would disallow any 'mantis' technique.
i don't know that I'd say that it would be so easy to steal someones balance just because they follow through with the kick. generally they are immediately following through with arm attacks and you are not only having to deal with the considerable power these guys are generating (power is power no matter if it's muscularly generated or 'waist generated'...and I'm not sure that is a real distinction anyway.) you also have to worry about the head shots coming at you as you try to steal their balance.
Also, while I'm on a rant, what about mantis techniques for point sparring. Even though I have won trophies in it, I really hate karate point sparring; but that is all we have around here. It's like there are two paradigms. One for when you go to tournaments to spar and one when you are actually learning your style. It blows my mind that I am reduced to about three basic techniques when I spar. Why can't we spar using techniques and concepts we supposedly learn through forms? Granted, there is some overlap but....
anything you do should be usable in any venue...you have to understand and train the rules so that you can be effective within them. If you have won trophies then you were effective...why worry?
And finally, would I use any of my Mantis/Shaolin concepts in a street fight? Or does self defense boil down to a few generic concepts and the style doesn't really matter.
'fighting' boils down to some basic concepts that should be found in any style.
It does seem that I receive conflicting messages in my training....anyone else feel this way