Mantis Musings

[morsla]

Some random thoughts I needed to write down...

Praying Mantis kung fu has been around for many generations, and there are plenty of branching points in its history. Each person teaching the style has incorporated some of their personal biases into it, and the style has evolved much the same way as any other chinese art. This sort of evolution is common for chinese arts, but quite rare for many others - especially most Japanese martial arts, which take pride in preserving precise movements through the ages...

Thinking back over the training I've done, there are styles on both sides of a split in the style - specifically, in using footwork. Early in the style's history, footwork from the Monkey style was incorporated - fast, lunging steps, twisting and crouching before leaping away again. This is the footwork used in taichimeihua (plum blossom) mantis - the style I learned in Beijing from Master Ma. It's very different to anything I'd done earlier, but surprisingly effective. Something "clicked" a few months after I started to practice the forms, and I finally worked out how to maintain the mobillity I need - something I've had difficulty with throughout all the years I learned wing chun.

Liu he mantis (six combinations/harmonies) is a later style, after the monkey stepping was removed in favour of straight-line efficiency. It moves like the wing chun forms (and some of the much older xingyi forms); weight on the back foot, fighting front-on. The running hands (a chain of palmstrikes and punches) are very effective for attack, but it's not a defensive style. The first form begins with a very obvious eye gouge... the aim is to provoke a defence, as the style is designed to tear through whatever is used to block. I've seen a few websites refer to it as the "softest" of the mantis styles - it's certainly more internal than the others, but it's aggressive as all hell for a "soft" art.

It's interesting learning two branches of the same style - meihua from Master Ma, the 8th generation lineage holder; and liuhe from Grandmaster Liu and his students in Beijing - he is also the lineage holder of that style. I know the theories behind the "economy of movement" in the later footwork, but for some reason I find the meihua steps more effective - probably just a result of having the build and agility to take advantage of them.

An unusual build seems to help :) I'm not very close to the Da Vinci ratios at all - 200cm armspan, long legs, and only 170cm tall - all my height is in my limbs. This tends to mean that vulnerable areas like my head & torso are kept way back, with a lot of arms and legs to get through first...

All those years spent doing lung ying and tai chi help for leaping - who'd have thought that you learn how to move your legs by standing still? The training had amusing side effects, like being the 54kg runt who could lift aslan42 at the FAS2 masquerade a few years ago ;) Liu he ba fa (which I just discovered a wealth of wiki & web information on, at last) also helps with coordination - mantis simply doesn't work unless all your muscles are cooperating.

I'm still not sure that I'm ready to get back into proper training at Richmond, but I keep catching myself analysing movements and breaking them down into drills. Shed demolition went by a bit faster once I worked out how to use my weight...

Comments

[submystical.livejournal.com]

"I'm not very close to the Da Vinci ratios at all - 200cm armspan, long legs, and only 170cm tall - all my height is in my limbs."
You're just a freak!!! :P

I'm rather envious of you for your freakiness though... I know when I do Naginata and Kendo I can't get my body to move as I wish it would. I see openings or see the opponent attacking and try to move but my body just seems to sit there until it's too late. Or worse move but not exactly how I want it too with my arms moving but the rest of my body being left behind or vice versa. I need to work on my agility, flexibility and also on my stamina.

Would be interested in doing some chinese martial arts... some of them seem a lot more fluid and suited to people of lesser degrees of strength than the Japanese styles. I think some of the Japanese fighting style are a bit too blatant and aggressive for my liking. Perhaps that's why I am doing the softest of the Japanese weapons and am interested in Aikido rather than things like Karate, Judo and Kendo. Anyway while I'm in Japan I guess I can't do anything but Japanese martial arts.

[morsla.livejournal.com]

while I'm in Japan I guess I can't do anything but Japanese martial arts

Not necessarily, if you know where to look :)

It's a matter of no small amount of shame that the traditional Chinese martial arts are waning in China - most kids either opt for modern wushu, or go for other sports.

A few other countries have good instructors and dedicated students, and will be competition for mainland China soon - they may end up preserving more styles than china itself. North America, Canada and Australia are a few of these countries - but the chinese are most embarrased about the Japanese taking up their styles ;) The Japanese schools have the long attention span needed to do well at it, and there are a few schools that are trying to preserve the traditional chinese styles.

Tai Chi is good for agility, as it helps a lot with balance and general body awareness. It doesn't have the same sort of flexibility as styles like wushu, but every inch of that flexibility is backed up by strength - it's a very solid internal style. Plus, it's one of the easiest styles to find - although finding a teacher who treats it as more than a once-a-day health exercise can take some work.

[submystical.livejournal.com]

Yeah that's true... there are a lot of those tai chi places which treat it as just a health exercise. But you really just have to watch them doing it to see that they don't have a clue. There's a really good teacher in Brisbane. Don't know of any over here...