Today I will again be casting my eye to the arts of China. Whether it swims, crawls or flies the Chinese have made a fighting style mimicking the motions of it. I am brushing up on my mantis kung fu today, inspired by the above picture I found on the web.
from dictionary.com
Mantis is from the Greek word mantis, meaning "prophet, seer." The Greeks, who made the connection between the upraised front legs of a mantis waiting for its prey and the hands of a prophet in prayer, used the name mantis to mean "the praying mantis." This word and sense were picked up in Modern Latin and from there came into English, being first recorded in 1658. Once we know the origin of the term mantis, we realize that the species names praying mantis and Mantis religiosa are a bit redundant.
I think it is very interesting that the Chinese have used the natural world in so much of their inspiration and thinking in the martial arts. I will admit I am not thrilled about a lot of kung fu training. Two styles really stick out to me though, Wing Chun and Mantis.
In the first video we see some of the very direct, Wing Chun like striking strategies. While I personally don't do strike training anymore, if I did I hope it would look like this.
The second video shows more of the techniques, throws and take downs of the system. There is some neat stuff in there!
Grandmaster Eric say! "Bug always wrong in arguement with chicken!"
That first video is a good example of what happens when you name a boy Sue ;-)
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